The infighting continues to fester on the Boston City Council, with one member suggesting that criticism around how the council president runs meetings and doles out committee assignments has ramped up since a black woman took the reins.

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who is black, took issue with remarks made at this week’s meeting by Councilors Ed Flynn and Julia Mejia, who spoke to the lack of engagement opportunity they were afforded by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune this term, by way of being assigned to chair the least active committees.

Flynn mentioned that Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy, who was absent from that part of the meeting and announced her campaign for clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court of Suffolk County a day prior, was also assigned by Louijeune to chair just one committee, which like those assigned to him and Mejia are “limited in scope.”

“It’s not a criticism of anybody, but is a challenge to maybe engage myself, Councilor Mejia and Councilor Murphy in this discussion because we have something to offer this body,” Flynn said. “It’s hard work, it’s integrity and it’s also our ability to understand these issues.”

The dustup started when Mejia made a pitch for a hearing order seeking a review of the city’s COVID-19 recovery funds to be placed in her committee, Post Audit: Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility, by Louijeune, rather than Boston COVID-19 Recovery, chaired and recommended by the measure’s lead sponsor Sharon Durkan. Flynn backed up Mejia’s request.

Mejia thanked Flynn for advocating on her behalf, but stated that as an at-large councilor in her fourth year on the body, she doesn’t need “permission to lead” or a “committee to move my city forward.”

“I do believe what Councilor Flynn is trying to allude to is that there is a sentiment here that if you’re not part of the cool kids club, or whatever the case is, is that you’re not going to have the opportunity to really be in collaboration with your colleagues,” Mejia said.

“I would hope that as a body we’re going to demonstrate otherwise, and we’re going to show up in ways that are reflecting the city as a whole.”

Fernandes Anderson, who co-sponsored the hearing order with Council Vice President Brian Worrell, emphatically responded to those remarks, saying that “if there are sentiments or cool kids, there’s no such thing.”

“Look, you win some, you lose some,” she said, before directing her remarks to Flynn, the body’s president last term. “You were president. You did what you did. You gave people committees. You negotiated. We know how it works.

“The politics for people watching at home,” Fernandes Anderson said, is that a councilor will negotiate to be president, and as part of securing votes, the person vying for the presidency will ask what a fellow councilor wants in exchange for their supportive vote, such as certain committees to chair, office or parking space.

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Presumably addressing the white Flynn and hispanic Mejia while bringing the council president’s race into the matter, Fernandes Anderson told colleagues to stop with the “petty back and forth” with Louijeune, and to keep conversations around their issues, sentiments and emotions outside of the council chamber.

“Cut it out,” Fernandes Anderson said. “Let’s get back to business and stop coming for her. Stop being petty. I’m a call all y’all out, and I told you before, if you want smoke, I’ll give you smoke.”

“She’s a Black woman, she’s president — all of a sudden, there’s all these issues and rules, blah, blah, blah,” she added.

Louijeune did not respond to the remarks, but took them as an opportunity to close the discussion and refer the hearing order to Durkan’s COVID-19 committee, which she said was also devoid of any hearings this term.

While Louijeune’s decisions on enforcing council rules and doling out committee assignments have been frequently challenged this term, Flynn was subject to similar pushback as well, particularly late in his term. Meetings would often start late, with many councilors not showing up on time for a quorum to be declared.

Flynn, Mejia and Murphy were not among the councilors who committed to selecting Louijeune as council president, when she announced in November that she had secured the seven votes necessary to lead the body.

When it came time for a vote on New Year’s Day, Flynn nominated Mejia, who “respectfully” declined after reportedly being asked not to step forward by former Councilor Tito Jackson. Murphy was planning to second the nomination.

Flynn, Mejia and Murphy ultimately joined the rest of their colleagues in voting for Louijeune — but many of the other councilors had already committed to Louijeune early in the process, and were assigned more important, or multiple committees, as part of the negotiation process.

There’s a sentiment among those three councilors that their lack of active committee assignments is a result of not supporting the current council president prior to the vote taken on her selection, a City Hall source said.

During this week’s meeting, for example, Flynn alluded to Henry Santana chairing both the public safety and education committees, and Durkan chairing planning, development and transportation and COVID-19 recovery.

Louijeune responded by saying that last term, she was among “a number” of councilors who chaired only one committee, but ensured that hers, civil rights, stayed active by filing many orders for it, particularly around housing.

“I do think there are ways to actively engage,” Louijeune said.