AN OPPORTUNITY it may be, but Menino nonetheless was out of Boston for parts of 11 days last month: January 18 and 19, 22 through 26, and 27 through 30. With things quiet at City Hall, nobody missed him. During those days, in accordance with the city charter, City Council president Michael Flaherty filled in as acting mayor. Flaherty was presiding in this capacity as Menino traveled back from Washington on the morning of January 19 — the day a winter storm was expected in the city. Flaherty remained in contact with city public-works officials and Menino’s chief aides. The mayor, however, avoided the embarrassment of being out of the city during a snow storm — weather remembered by everyone who watched the Oakland Raiders–New England Patriots game that night. He made it back to the city Saturday morning before the snow began to fall.
That Menino can leave the city in Flaherty’s relatively friendly hands is one of the benefits the mayor achieved by having his aides push for the South Boston native’s elevation to the council presidency (which in itself demonstrates how parochial Boston politics have become). Menino and his advisers undoubtedly recall the mischief Secretary of State William Galvin wreaked in December 1998, when then–acting governor Paul Cellucci left the Commonwealth and Galvin took the opportunity to make a power grab by filing his own health-maintenance-organization legislation. City insiders don’t expect anything like that to happen with Flaherty, with whom Menino, who tangled with previous council presidents James Kelly of South Boston and Charles Yancey of Dorchester, enjoys a friendly relationship. Says Flaherty, who gets to mind the store and obtain a little executive experience when Menino leaves town: "We have a good professional working relationship with each other and are comfortable working together." Adds City Councilor Brian Honan of Brighton: "Michael would not be one to undermine Mayor Menino in any way."
Flaherty and other city insiders hope that the mayor’s new connections can help bring funding and other benefits to Boston. That’s what Menino was trying to do in Washington on a Tuesday night a couple of weeks ago, when he broke bread with Representatives Michael Capuano of Somerville and Barney Frank of Newton at Mama Maria and Enzio’s Homemade Restaurant in Georgetown. The congressmen took the opportunity to strategize with Menino about housing policy, which ranks high on the Mayors’ Conference agenda this year. Through his high-profile position with the conference, Menino can push increased funding for housing on the federal level — something that has failed to receive much national attention in recent years despite the housing crisis in Boston, San Francisco, and other cities. The next day, the mayor moderated a big-shot-laden panel on housing that featured Fannie Mae chair Franklin Raines; Richard Daley, the Democratic mayor of Chicago; Victor Ashe, the Republican mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee; and Edward Sullivan, the head of the AFL-CIO’s building-and-construction-trades department.
Barney Frank says Menino’s status as incoming head of the Mayors’ Conference means the group will play a vital role in the housing coalition. "We’re trying to build the consensus for a big housing program and Menino is critical to that," says Frank, a former White aide who scoffs at talk that the Boston mayor must remain in the city at all times. "The fact is that Boston is very much affected by national housing issues," he adds. "Any mayor of Boston that cared about Boston who is not directly involved in the formation of national housing policy should get docked one day’s pay a week."
National housing advocate and former Ninth District congressional candidate John Taylor notes that Menino’s heightened role in the Mayors’ Conference might help point the mayor back toward his blue-collar background and away from the wishes of downtown developers. "I hope in the process he rediscovers his roots and finds a way to bring affordable housing to Boston," says Taylor. "It’s good for him and good for the city in the sense that he is going to become privy to any innovations and strategies that are happening in other cities that he might be able to bring to Boston."
BEYOND POLICY CONCERNS, Menino is also building his Rolodex, which can be good for the city in and of itself. When Menino meets with Democratic leaders, such as Senate majority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, House minority leader Richard Gephardt, and Republican leaders Housing and Urban Development secretary Mel Martinez and Mayor Victor Ashe of Knoxville, he is making contacts on both sides of the aisle. This may help the mayor bring business to his waterfront convention center, which is at the center of his development agenda. The staunchly Democratic Menino is even building something of a relationship with President Bush. When the mayor was at the White House last week, Bush asked him how his old Yale roommate, failed Red Sox suitor Joseph O’Donnell, was holding up.
All these relationships, in turn, add up to a heightened sense of prestige for Boston. "It helps the city in terms of its stature that our leader is the head of the Conference of Mayors," says Ira Jackson, the director of the center for business and government at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government — a notion seconded by both City Councilor Michael Ross of Beacon Hill and Flaherty. "This could mean conventions and other big-ticket items down the line," says Flaherty.
Most of all, Menino’s new role gives him a glimpse into the world beyond Boston’s city limits. For a politician who has survived bitter sniping at every turn, walking in the more rarified air of national politics may broaden him as a politician. One city insider characterizes the benefit to Menino and the city this way: "It makes him better informed and allows him to listen and learn from others. The last thing Boston needs is more parochialism. It’s part of the education and emergence of Tom Menino."
That will be a valuable experience for the mayor. Let’s just hope he’s not out of town when a blizzard hits.
Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com
