Toner, Facing Calls to Resign Over Brothel Charges, Is Quietly Stripped of Committee Chairships

Cambridge City Councilor Paul F. Toner has been removed from his position as the co-chair of five Council committees — the most of any councilor — after being charged last week as a client of a brothel network, Mayor E. Denise Simmons announced in a Wednesday letter to councilors obtained by The Crimson.

Simmons made the decision to reassign committee chairmanships “after conferring with Councilor Toner,” she wrote in the letter, adding that the decision was made to “help the Council carry out its important work more effectively.” The Council’s website listing committee assignments was also updated to reflect the change as of Saturday morning.

Simmons and Toner did not respond to requests for comment on the decision.

The letter, which has not been previously reported, poses a sharp shift in Toner’s role on the Council. Toner has strongly resisted calls to resign, and, just two days before Simmons’ letter, defended his “obligations to the voters who elected me” in a statement before the City Council.

Simmons’ decision to remove Toner’s committee chairships is an about-face for the mayor.

As other councilors issued sharply worded statements admonishing Toner — and one, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, called for his resignation outright — Simmons remained tight-lipped. Publicly, she has only released a brief statement on social media that praised Toner as a “strong legislative partner” and called for the “presumption of innocence as the legal proceedings unfold.”

Toner was charged with sexual conduct for a fee, a misdemeanor, after Cambridge police named him as a frequent client of a high-end network of brothels that operated out of Cambridge and Watertown. Toner, like others named at probable cause hearings in March, waged a nearly year-long legal battle to keep the charges out of the public eye. He will be arraigned on May 16.

Toner was quickly condemned in the wake of his criminal charge as outcry from activists, constituents, and colleagues mounted.

In a joint statement issued hours after Toner’s hearing, Councilors Burhan Azeem, Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Sobrinho-Wheeler called on him to “consider the impact of this situation on the City Council and his role as a leader in the community.”

Sobrinho-Wheeler, in addition to calling for Toner’s resignation, asked Simmons to strip Toner of his chairmanships in an individual statement.

“Given that Councillor Toner is a chair of the majority of the Council’s committees, I also ask that Mayor Simmons re-assign Councillor Toner’s six committee chair positions to ensure that the Council’s work is not obstructed,” he wrote.

Until her Wednesday letter, Simmons had given no indication that she intended to heed Sobrinho-Wheeler’s call.

Toner previously co-chaired half of the Council’s committees, almost all of which will now be run by a single councilor.

The Finance Committee will now be chaired by Nolan, according to Simmons’ letter, while Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson will chair committees governing public safety and economic development. Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern will chair the Ordinance and Government Operations Committees.

Toner will, however, continue to serve as co-chair of the Charter Review Committee — a group of 15 residents set to reassess the city’s form of government — with Siddiqui.

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.