Ruthzee Louijeune ended her tenure as Boston City Council president by congratulating herself on the way out the door.

Louijeune launched into a lengthy speech on the Council floor during her last meeting as president last Wednesday, highlighting what she saw as her legislative achievements and ability to work across the aisle to get important things done.

“I’m so proud of what this body has achieved together and the ways that we’ve grown in service to the people of the city of Boston,” Louijeune said. “Even when we disagree, we have sometimes found ways to walk through differences and advance meaningful legislation that improves the lives of the constituents we serve.”

Louijeune, the first Haitian-American to be elected to the City Council, used her last formal Council action to introduce a resolution denouncing the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants.

The measure was approved by the Council.

Louijeune also highlighted what she considered to be prior accomplishments during her two-year term as Council president, which included improving working conditions for Council staff members and expanding gender-neutral bathrooms “to further affirm our commitment to belonging.”

In a separate press release from her office, Louijeune also touted the Council’s passage of her home rule petition that would change the city’s election process to a ranked-choice voting system, which has not been taken up yet on Beacon Hill and has raised concerns among city election officials about cost and additional work.

As the third Black woman to be elected Council president, Louijeune said she appreciates the impact her tenure as the second-highest ranking elected official in city government has had on young Black girls in the community.

Louijeune, a progressive Democrat, has emerged as a close ally of Mayor Michelle Wu during her term as Council president, and has largely chosen to work collaboratively with, rather than challenge, the Wu administration.

She’s enjoyed support from colleagues that are also aligned with the mayor, but has clashed at times with councilors who are more critical of the Wu administration, particularly her predecessor, Councilor Ed Flynn, who was president last term.

While some of her colleagues, including Gabriela Coletta Zapata, a Wu ally who says she has the votes to succeed her as Council president, could be seen listening with rapt attention to Louijeune’s outgoing speech, others were spotted scrolling on their phones — and like Wu critic Councilor Erin Murphy, notably didn’t clap at the end of her remarks.

Rubber-stamp City Council may axe committee that criticizes Mayor Wu

A Boston City Council full of allies to Mayor Michelle Wu may be looking to eliminate a subcommittee that investigates the Wu administration.

Councilor Ed Flynn said at last week’s City Council meeting that there’s “talk” that the Post-Audit: Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility Committee, chaired by Councilor Julia Mejia, “might be eliminated next year.”

“I do want to acknowledge Councilor Mejia’s role as chair of the transparency committee and accountability committee, ensuring that these voices are heard,” Flynn said. “We actually ask tough questions at her committee.

“That’s one of the reasons I enacted it, because I knew it’s important for residents to have a voice in city government, ensuring that residents can ask tough questions to any administration through their city council, through a particular committee,” Flynn, the Council president last term, added.

Committees are set by the Council president, and Flynn’s remarks indicate that Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, an ally of the mayor who says she has the votes to become president next term, has opted to axe the Wu-hostile committee.

Councilor Sharon Durkan, a close ally of the mayor, raised ethical concerns she has with the work that the committee chose to do this past two-year term, particularly by elevating the voices of a group of residents and conservancy group suing the city over its public-private plan to rehab Franklin Park’s White Stadium for a professional soccer team.

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“I don’t agree with everything this committee has done this year,” Durkan said. “I do think platforming someone suing the city is a violation of the ethical duty that I have to serve the city of Boston.”

Mejia, who was pushing for a measure that demanded an updated cost estimate for the city’s taxpayer-funded half of the $200 million and counting stadium plan, acknowledged that she used her committee to elevate the voices of project critics.

“I worked really hard in this committee, and I am not sure what the future of my status on that committee holds,” Mejia said, “but I will be remiss if I don’t acknowledge the hard work of the public defenders, the NAACP, Emerald Necklace, and the countless advocates who have continued to show up and demand that their voices be heard, and we will continue to do just that.”

Pols & Politics logo (Boston Herald)