Tom and Bob

The mayor and the developer talk about their complicated relationship

by Yvonne Abraham

Robert Walsh and Tom Menino have been friends for 25 years. Their kids went to school together. They like each other. There's just one complication: Walsh is in the property-development business, and Menino is in the mayor business, and they both do business in the same town.

And it's a town -- and a political climate -- where the slightest blurring of the lines, the least appearance of impropriety, can set off loud alarms. Where Bob Walsh and Tom Menino are concerned, those alarms have been sounding for years.

Walsh, a former Boston Redevelopment Authority director who also headed the Walsh Commission to revise the city's development guidelines, is now president of the R.F. Walsh Company, a construction- and property-management firm. R.F. Walsh just finished the new school of public health at Boston University. It's currently working on the rehab of the East Boston Community Health Center, and on the Biosquare Project, a $300 million office complex on what was formerly city land in the South End. Walsh says his company has had only one real city contract -- a joint project with two other firms to restore the McKim building of the Boston Public Library, in Copley Square.

Walsh and his employees have contributed a total of $1655 to the Menino Committee since January 1, 1996. His company also donated $2500 to Menino's campaign to retain the elected school committee.

"I contribute to Tom Menino, and I always have," Walsh says. "He's my friend. I started supporting him financially when he ran for council. I collected signatures for him when he ran for Congress [in 1992]. I support what he does." (Walsh also contributes to the campaign funds of Paul Cellucci and Joe Moakley.)

When Tom Menino appointed Walsh to head the Trust for City Hall Plaza, which was set up to evaluate development projects for the vast expanse of brick around City Hall, columnists were outraged. Not only was Menino appointing a developer to advise him on a project that looked like a tank job from the get-go, but this developer was Menino's friend and his adviser and a campaign contributor.

Critics have wondered how Walsh can advise the mayor on what's best for the city when what's best for him as a developer might be something completely different. How can he advise Menino on a new Red Sox stadium when he also wants to be involved in its construction, Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld asked under the headline MENINO GIVES DEVELOPERS KEYS TO THE CITY.

"Bob Walsh is one of the best developers in the city, and a professional individual," says Menino. The mayor insists Walsh gets no special treatment, and he defends his decision to seek advice from his friend. "Who do you draw your strength from?" he asks. "You draw your strength from old friends and the people you've met over the years. Who are we gonna do business with? Our enemies? Who do you raise money from? You have to raise it from the people who like you."

Indeed, far from getting special treatment, Menino says Walsh "takes a lot of criticism. Because he's my friend, he takes a lot."

Walsh agrees. "I'm held to a different standard because of my relationship with the mayor," he says. "There's a closer scrutiny of me." He says his company must avoid even the tiniest building code violations, or city officials would throw the book at him to demonstrate their lack of favoritism. "The people who work for Tom Menino want to protect Tom Menino," Walsh says. "Therefore, they want to protect him from his friends."

Walsh's firm is competing for another city contract right now, to do work in some of Boston's public schools. If he gets the job, folks will surely say he got it because he was peddling his influence with Menino.

"If I was peddling my influence with Menino, you'd see my name pop up on projects all over the city," says Walsh. It hasn't. "I get a bit frustrated because the performance of the R.F. Walsh Company, which is more than my personality, gets judged by my personality."

Menino concedes that the lines which would satisfy his critics are hard to draw: "I've been living in this city all my life. You get to know people. Bob Walsh and myself, our kids went to school together. We've known each other for 25 years. How do you separate that? It's ridiculous."

Back to hey, big spender - On to city haul

Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yabraham[a]phx.com.

Kate Cunningham provided research assistance on this article.