At the task force’s meeting last Thursday, the controversy — and the call for a community vote — continued. Members began discussing zoning options for the area just north of Boylston Street, where the Sox would like to move. The group could have recommended that a ballpark be prohibited in that area, specifically allowed it, allowed it with conditions, or not mentioned it at all. But some task-force members felt that the decision had already been made.

“We went around the table [at the last meeting] and there was a consensus that a ballpark would be an allowed use,” said Edward Burke. “That’s a load of crap,” replied his colleague Dolores Boogdanian. In Burke’s corner was, apparently, Menino, who claimed in a February 28 interview on Neighborhood Network News that the group had, by a 14-2 vote, approved a ballpark as an allowed use. The mayor’s press office had not seen the tape and could not comment. But group member Roscoe Sandlin told the crowd, “I was really chagrined about what the mayor said about the 14-2 vote, because it didn’t happen.”

In the midst of the confusion, a pack of 20 students from the Boston University Youth Alliance for Housing interrupted the meeting with frequent heckling and a loud sing-along version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” with new lyrics such as “Buy me a task force and make it a sham/Give me 10 acres of free private land.” But the jeers came from both sides. When student leader Mark Greenfield addressed the crowd, noting that “the students want to say we’re here to support you,” one audience member called out, “And your parents are supporting you!” Task-force chair Joe Barton observed, “You guys have harassed us at other meetings; now you see what it’s like.” His colleague Timothy Horn took a more direct approach, stepping out from behind his desk and aggressively confronting Greenfield in the front of the auditorium. Barton sternly called him off: “Tim, sit down!”

The meeting closed without a decision on zoning recommendations. But the issue of a community ballot was resurrected at the end of the evening, when the task force formed a committee to study the feasibility of having residents and business owners vote on the zoning plans. Barton was skeptical. “What I’m looking at is a survey with a bunch of little check-off boxes,” he said. “If we do that, why did I waste my time here for the last 15 months?” But in a letter to Barton last month, the Fenway Community Development Corporation was blunt: “This [a vote] is the only way to ensure that the recommendations reflect the interests and vision of the Fenway community. Without the community’s endorsement in this form, the recommendations will lack legitimacy.” And whether or not they ultimately obtain it through a community vote, legitimacy is something the task force — at least according to the singing protesters — still lacks.

The Fenway Planning Task Force meets again on April 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Boston Arts Academy, 174 Ipswich Street, Boston.