Outgoing Boston City Council President Ed Flynn stated he was pressured to make troublesome choices as a part of his efforts to offer optimistic management throughout a tumultuous two-year interval for a physique tarred by its moral and authorized lapses.
As he prepares handy over the gavel to the physique’s undetermined new chief, Flynn factors to his personal management, which features a robust concentrate on public security and making certain primary metropolis providers for residents, as how he’d like his two-year time period as council president to be remembered.
While Flynn states that he “thoroughly enjoyed the job” as council president, “describing it as a tremendous honor and opportunity” he’s fast to level out that it was not one which was with out its challenges.
“It was a difficult and challenging two-year period and several on the body faced ethical and legal challenges,” Flynn advised the Herald. “During these difficult times, I still tried to provide the best positive leadership I could to the City Council body and to the residents of Boston.”
He added, “Residents of Boston deserve a city government that works for them and that’s what I tried to do, is ensure that city government and basic city services are still our top priority.”
Those moral and authorized lapses have been dedicated by three council members, Ricardo Arroyo, Tania Fernandes Anderson and Kendra Lara. Arroyo and Lara each misplaced their seats on this previous September’s preliminary election.
Flynn, who typically tangled with Arroyo on the Council, stated he did “not have the luxury of picking and choosing” which points to work on amid that anarchy.
He pointed, for instance, to his choice to strip Arroyo of his council vice presidency and two committee chair assignments, after decades-old sexual assault allegations have been revealed final yr, as a transfer that he felt harm him politically.
The transfer infected tensions on the Council, with three Arroyo allies suggesting on the time that it was an instance of councilors of colour being handled in another way than their white counterparts.
“I think it was the right thing to do,” Flynn stated. “I stand by that decision.”
He added, “I do expect colleagues to be respectful of each other. I do expect colleagues to conduct themselves in a professional manner, and it’s been challenging over this period of two years when that didn’t take place and I had to work to address it.”
As the physique’s president, Flynn stated he needed to work to deliver the Council, and metropolis, collectively, which was “challenging at times” because of these moral and authorized lapses. He factors to an anti-bullying coverage he sponsored for councilors and council employees, that was handed by the physique in November, as a part of his efforts to revive civility.
The physique’s lapses have prompted many residents to lose “faith” in metropolis authorities, and confidence within the City Council, Flynn stated, which all 13 councilors should work laborious to revive within the new yr.
“I think we as a body owe the residents of the city our best positive and ethical leadership, and we didn’t rise to that occasion,” he stated, including that he thinks the physique will be capable to “regain the trust and respect of residents.”
“It’s going to take a willingness for City Council colleagues to come into the building every day to work hard, to treat each other with respect, to focus on quality of life issues and neighborhood services, to refrain from personal attacks on each other, and to try to bring the body together and try to bring the city together,” Flynn stated.
Not serving to issues was the Council’s vote to chop hundreds of thousands from primary metropolis providers, together with the police, veterans and hearth departments, as a part of town finances course of this previous June. The cuts, together with practically $31 million from Boston Police, have been vetoed by Mayor Michelle Wu, and subsequently, by no means occurred.
Flynn stated he’s extra involved a couple of vote taken earlier this month to dam $13.3 million in federal counter-terrorism funding for the metro area. That vote reveals the Council is “not serious about public safety,” he stated, and made town “less safe, in my opinion.”
He’s pushing for a fast vote within the new yr, after the mayor refiles the grant when the council turns over with 4 new members.
While Flynn is optimistic that the incoming councilors shall be extra inclined to vote in favor of “public safety and security” points, he does have issues concerning the Council’s place on public issues of safety shifting ahead.
That space is one he felt he was notably robust on throughout his time as council president, pointing to his involvement, as a part of his district’s illustration of South Boston, in serving to the Seaport get its first hearth station. The station has been authorised by a metropolis board, and has the assist of the Wu administration, he stated.
Flynn stated, nevertheless, that town must put extra of an emphasis on hiring law enforcement officials, which includes doing extra to “treat officers with respect,” and would additionally wish to see cops put again in public colleges, to enhance public security.
While he was blissful to tackle the position of council president, Flynn, elected to his fourth time period final month, insists that he has no intention of following in his father Ray Flynn’s footsteps and operating for mayor someday.
Rather, Flynn, a U.S. Navy veteran and married father of two who proudly states that he hasn’t taken a trip for the previous six years, hopes to remain on the Council for the foreseeable future, and says he has a superb relationship with town’s present mayor, Michelle Wu.
“I’m happy with what I’m doing right now,” Flynn stated. “I love the city and I’m just trying to provide the best leadership I can.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”