In an anticlimax to a week of outrage, Newton aldermen unanimously voted to take no action on a controversial resolution to welcome a Guantanamo detainee to the city.

At a meeting of the full board Tuesday night, the Programs and Services Committee substituted their original approval of the resolution with the No Action Necessary designation. The switch was greeted with applause from the approximately 80 people in the audience, as was the vote of the full board that killed the proposal without an up or down vote. The matter was disposed of in ten minutes.

But while attendees were happy the resolution was no longer on the table, they were still upset at the aldermen who proposed and approved it.

"It's outrageous to even bring this question before the board ... all of us in Newton are ashamed now," said Mikhail Gershteyn after the meeting. "Every official who brought it should be recalled."

The resolution, docketed by Aldermen Stephen Linsky and Ted Hess-Mahan, called for the city to ask Congress to allow Guantanamo detainees into the country and for the city to specifically welcome Abdul Aziz Naji, a 34-year-old Algerian, to Newton should he be cleared to enter the United States. Two Newton attorneys, Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell, have been working pro bono for Naji while he's been held in Guantanamo...

...Charles Jacobs, a columnist for the Jewish Advocate and the main organizer of the turnout Tuesday night, was not satisfied with the measure merely disappearing from the aldermen's docket.

"We deserve an apology," Jacobs said. "If they do not apologize, we should think very seriously about a recall."

The city charter does not allow ballot initiatives to recall elected officials.