Disgraced Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson resigns

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Jun 12, 2025

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BOSTON — Disgraced Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who was convicted last month on federal corruption charges, said she has officially resigned and that her last day will be on Independence Day.

“Today, I want to share with you that I have officially submitted my letter of resignation,” Fernandes Anderson said Thursday in a statement to her constituents. “My last day serving as your city councilor will be Friday, July 4, 2025.

“It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to serve you, my neighbors, my community, my people. Every policy I wrote, every budget line I fought for, every block I walked was rooted in love and loyalty to you, District 7.”

Fernandes Anderson, 46, was arrested last December and pleaded guilty last month to two federal corruption charges tied to a kickback scheme she carried out at City Hall in the spring of 2023, per a federal indictment.

Four other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal she entered into with federal prosecutors.

The second-term councilor doled out a $13,000 bonus to one of her Council staffers, a relative but not immediate family member, on the condition that $7,000 be kicked back to her. The handoff was coordinated by text and took place in a City Hall bathroom in June 2023, the indictment states.

Councilors can be removed from the body only after sentencing for a felony, rather than conviction, per state law.

Fernandes Anderson is set to be sentenced in federal court on July 29. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley has recommended that the councilor be sentenced to a year and day in prison and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.

The federal judge presiding over the case has warned Fernandes Anderson that she can opt not to take the prosecution’s recommendation and impose a harsher sentence.

Fernandes Anderson represents District 7, which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End. She was the first Muslim American, African immigrant and formerly undocumented person to be elected to the City Council, and first took office in January 2022.

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