MBTA's Phil Eng won't attend Friday's Blue Hill Avenue hearing despite the council's summons

MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng will not appear at Friday's City Council hearing on Blue Hill Avenue, even though the council voted to summon him, the Boston Globe reported Thursday. A T spokesperson told the Globe that Eng has a previously planned family vacation, and that the T has offered more community meetings and direct meetings with councilors instead.

The hearing is still on. The Committee on Civil Rights, Racial Equity, and Immigrant Advancement meets Friday, Nov. 6, at 10 a.m. in the Iannella Chamber, and the public can testify, according to the city's notice. The notice had no cancellation as of Thursday.

For people who ride the bus, drive or run a business on Blue Hill Avenue, the dispute is about a $164 million redesign through Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury that would add center-running bus lanes, the Globe reported. It is the first major investment in the corridor in decades. City Councilors Miniard Culpepper and Brian Worrell want an Orange Line extension studied instead.

What the T and the councilors said

• Culpepper, who chairs the committee and filed the summons, told the Globe, "we're not withdrawing the subpoena," and said he is prepared to go to court.
• Culpepper also asked the city's interim chief of streets, Chris Osgood, to attend Friday. The Globe reported it was unclear whether he would.
• Mayor Michelle Wu's office repeated that it does not see subpoenas as a constructive way to work with partners in government, according to the Globe.
• Eng spoke at two community meetings on the project in September and met privately with Culpepper and Worrell in June, the Globe reported. He is also Gov. Maura Healey's interim transportation secretary.

Can the council make him come?

Lawyers told the Globe that enforcing the summons would be complicated. The council would need its own legal counsel and a court order, and experts questioned whether the council can compel a state official at all. A former prosecutor called the effort "fraught with political and legal peril." Our Oct. 30 story covered the enforcement questions in more detail, including the council's 2014 summons of Boston University's president, which ended without a court fight.

What our records add

How the council voted. The summons passed Oct. 21 by 8-2, with three members voting present (docket 1968):

• Yes (8): Breadon, Culpepper, Flynn, Louijeune, Mejia, Murphy, Santana and Worrell.
• No (2): Coletta Zapata and Durkan.
• Present (3): FitzGerald, Pepén and Weber.

The floor debate predicted this. Before the vote, City Councilor Sharon Durkan said she did not expect Eng to appear and that state law limits whom the council can summon (watch at 2:07:01). Culpepper answered that state law allows the council to summon some state bodies (2:10:03). City Councilor Ed Flynn said he had voted against an earlier summons of a postal official but supported this one (2:14:22).

The items on Friday's agenda have waited 120 days. Both were filed by Culpepper and Worrell and sent to the committee July 8:

• an order for a hearing on the civil rights effects of unequal rapid transit service (docket 1340), with 11 sponsors;
• a resolution supporting a study of an Orange Line extension along Blue Hill Avenue (docket 1341), with 10 sponsors.

A third item, Culpepper and Worrell's March resolution asking the MBTA and the city to drop the center bus lanes, is still in committee (docket 0483).

What's next

• Friday, 10 a.m.: The hearing goes ahead. It streams at boston.gov/city-council-tv. We will link timestamped remarks once the city posts the recording.
• After Friday: Any attempt to enforce the summons in court would likely need outside lawyers. Under city law, the council can hire its own when its interests appear to conflict with the mayor's, the Globe reported on Oct. 27.
• Nov. 18: The council's next regular meeting, where any new order on the summons could be filed.