South Boston Betterment Trust Will Get its Day in Court

BOSTON-Superior Court Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey did not dismiss the case brought by the South Boston Betterment Trust and Councillor James Kelley against the Boston Redevelopment Authority over Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s dissolution of the trust’s linkage deal with local developers. The BRA had reportedly hoped to get the case dismissed by stating that Kelly had a conflict of interest in negotiating a deal with the city on South Boston’s behalf. A source inside the mayor’s office tells GlobeSt.com that “there was no motion to dismiss so the case will proceed to the next step.”

The linkage deal was signed three years ago by Kelly who was council president at the time and former BRA director Thomas O’Brien, who wanted to get South Boston’s support for the proposed convention center that would be built in that district. The South Boston Betterment Trust, a nonprofit group was established to collect linkage funds, which are payments that developers are required to give to the city here to benefit the community to compensate for the disruption caused by their development.