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At-Large City Council forum showcases diverse crowd of candidates by Brandon Simes
Managing EditorWednesday Jun 24, 2009 Connolly, Pressley win Ward 5 endorsements
A June 23 at-large city council candidates’ forum at the Community Church of Boston on Boylston Street gave voters their first opportunity to see the candidates side-by-side and compare and contrast their respective visions for the city of Boston. The event, moderated by Boston Phoenix political reporter David Bernstein, and hosted by the Wards 4 and 5 Democratic Committees, featured 13 of the 15 competitors for the four at-large seats on the council.
The forum reflected the diverse demographics of the city. With more than 100 attendees packed into the church’s small, sweltering community room, faces of varying ages, races, and gender watched as a mostly younger - at least in political terms - group of candidates answered four questions from Bernstein. The questions, chosen by the night’s moderator from a list that had been previously circulated throughout the roster of candidates, focused on what made each candidate unique in the crowded field, balancing the budget, the role of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and whether or not the city needs a master plan for development, and education. The candidates then gave short closing statements.
The 13 candidates present - Robert Fortes and Jean Claude Sanon did not attend -offered a respectful, thoughtful dialogue on the future of the city and their role in its development, but in the end, just two received Ward 5’s endorsement: incumbent John Connolly and newcomer Ayanna Pressley. Ward 4 will hold its endorsement vote later in the summer.
With 25 Ward 5 members present for the vote - including state Rep. Marty Walz - the candidates needed 17 votes to earn the committee’s endorsement. According to Ward 5 chair Rob Whitney, "Only two candidates came close to that."
Connolly, in the midst of his first term as an at-large councilor, impressed with his calm demeanor, and Pressley, a former aide to U.S. Sen. John Kerry, showed uncommon poise for a first-time candidate, drawing praise from many in the room, including 3rd Suffolk state Representative-elect Aaron Michlewitz, who stopped by at the end of the night. Michlewitz said Pressley’s public speaking skills amazed him considering she has not previously run for office. The Dorchester resident is the lone woman in the race and would be the first female minority to ever serve on the Boston City Council. She spoke of bringing her "three As" to the table: accountability, accessibility, and advocacy.
Others stood out as well. Sean Ryan, a classically-trained orchestral conductor and pianist currently working as a hot dog vendor at Fenway Park, who quoted Henry David Thoreau in saying that "government is best which governs least," offered some bold ideas, including erasing the BRA and not replacing it with another bureaucratic agency, providing Boston parents with more educational choice by allowing free market principles to dictate the educational system, and making the City of Boston independent from the state and federal governments. Doug Bennett, a former county commissioner in Nantucket who now lives in the North End, with his twangy accent, said that City Hall needs "fresh blood," and that he would "take City Hall, flip it upside down, and shake the change out," to laughs.
Andrew Kenneally, the former policy director for At-Large Councilor and mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty, told the crowd of his recovery from the removal of a brain tumor just 10 months ago, and said that with his experience he could "hit the ground running," something he and others, like Felix G. Arroyo-the son of former councilor Felix D. Arroyo - insisted would be necessary in tough economic times. The younger Arroyo, who showed up just about 45 minutes into the forum because he had previously scheduled his campaign kickoff party for the same evening, spoke slowly and told the crowd that he believed he was qualified for the job because, like a certain Chicago pol who ascended rapidly to the presidency last fall, he is "an organizer."
Stephen Murphy, the other incumbent seeking re-election, showed off his political skills with an informed, clear approach, referencing his "13 years of experience doing this job," in response to the question of what made each candidate stand out from the crowd. Seated beside Murphy, candidate Hiep Quoc Nguyen, who has a background in accounting, drew laughs when he joked about sitting next to the "most senior councilor." Tito Jackson, the industry director for information technology in Gov. Deval Patrick’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development in the Office of Business Development, also drew a response from the crowd by calling his plan for Boston "Jackson’s 5-point plan," which focuses on job creation, affordable housing, improving education, safe and clean neighborhoods, and civic engagement.
Bill Trabucco, a Dorchester EMT, and Scotland Willis, a senior partner at consulting firm The Lyceum Group, also offered unique perspectives about how they would govern. Trabucco said that anyone who offered ill will toward fellow residents need not ever come in contact with him but those looking to help out fellow citizens could always count on him, while Willis, a single father of three boys, said he had "gone green," ridding himself of his vehicle, and that he hoped to increase the density of the city’s housing in order to maximize green space. Willis also hopes to dismantle the BRA.
Hyde Park resident Tomas Gonzalez earned 10 votes from the Ward 5 members after the debate, a solid total considering many of them voted for fewer than the maximum of four candidates when polled. He told the crowd that he wouldn’t need a road map at City Hall thanks to his experience as chief of staff at the City of Boston’s Elderly Affairs Commission and as the city’s Latino community liaison.
With so many candidates, Ego Ezedi, the director of the Roxbury YMCA, who told the crowd he favors a "holistic approach to education," said after the forum that winning would "come down to whoever works the hardest and connects in a real way." With 13 candidates who impressed on Tuesday night-plus the two who couldn’t make it-voters have an abundance of choice when they cast their ballots in the Sept. 22 preliminary election.
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