Wedding ordinance proposed for clerk post

Would limit outside income from nuptials

The Boston City Council, facing heat for trying to place one of its former colleagues in the city clerk’s post, plans to take up a proposed ordinance today that could limit how much outside money the clerk would make from performing weddings.

The current clerk, Rosario Salerno, rakes in an estimated $70,000 a year as a justice of the peace performing weddings at City Hall. She is paid $60 per wedding. The wedding money is in addition to the $102,000 she makes as clerk.

Under the proposed ordinance filed by Council President Stephen Murphy and Councilor Michael Ross, the wedding fees would go into the city’s general fund if the clerk marries people during normal business hours. But if the marriage knot is tied before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m., or during the lunch hour, she could keep all the money even though the marriage is being done on city property.

The State Ethics Commission says it’s legal for city clerks who are justices of the peace to marry people and keep all the money. At the same time, the commission notes: “It is reasonable for municipalities to control the allocation of municipal clerks’ time during the normal work schedule to ensure that the solemnization of marriages, in their capacities as justices of the peace, does not interfere with the performance of their duties as municipal clerks.”

Shirley Kressel, a Back Bay resident and harsh critic of the City Council, says the proposed ordinance doesn’t go far enough. “The council finally addresses the clerk's abuse of power and unjust enrichment, but still misses the principle of the matter,” she says. “She's a public employee providing a government service. At whatever time she performs the marriage function, all fees should go to the city, as they do for all other city services. The petty parsing of ‘on hours’ and ‘off hours’ invites manipulation and gaming of the system.”

The ordinance is being proposed as the council considers a replacement for Salerno, who plans to retire early next year. It is commonly accepted that the council plans to appoint Maureen Feeney, who stepped down from the council recently without telling her constituents so she could seek the post.