E-Mail This Article to a Friend The year of living dangerously (continued)

TODAY, WHEN HE’S asked to identify his signature achievements during four years in office, Flaherty ticks off several: updating the linkage requirements for developers operating in Boston; pressuring Tufts Health Plan to reinstate coverage of non-sedating antihistamines; implementing a competitive bidding structure for busing services in the Boston schools that saved the city $10 million this year; helping to push new corporate arrival Manulife Financial Corp. to cough up $403,000 in back linkage payments. The list hints at Flaherty’s vision of the council as a results-oriented body, one focused more on fine-tuning policy and improving the city’s bottom line than on grand gestures.

Flaherty also takes credit for another, less tangible achievement — namely, helping to alter the council’s ethos. "I believe we’ve changed the tone of the council as a more deliberative and professional body," he said last week. "We’re working well with one another, paying attention to the business of the city.... I’ve gotten compliments from that all across Boston. Gone are the days of pettiness, of backstabbing, of ashtray throwing. That’s because there’s been more of an effort here to move forward, and to get away from going back to the divisive politics of the past."

As demonstrated at the council’s November 19 meeting — which was marked by intense debates over affirmative action and same-sex marriage — conversations among council members can still be pretty heated. And critics might note that by publicly opposing Yancey and labeling him a "fraud" in an interview with the Globe’s Adrian Walker, Flaherty exacerbated existing tensions. Still, this onward-and-upward refrain has become something of a mantra for the council president.

Two days after Election Day 2003, sitting in his City Hall office, Flaherty painted a similar picture of himself as a leader who unifies and heals. "I have every confidence in the world of every individual on this council to be professional and to kind of rise above, you know, the political rhetoric and the politics of the past," he said. "It’s now kind of a time for healing and kind of to bring everyone together, and I feel as though I’m in the best position to do that. I went to great lengths yesterday to make sure I welcomed and congratulated Councilor Yancey. Councilor [Chuck] Turner and I have had a fairly decent dialogue going. Councilor Arroyo, I was fortunate enough to be able to help and support kind of after the preliminary — him and I are fine. I’m going to continue just to reach out to all my colleagues. I think that after the election, now kind of everyone is going to be able to simmer."

But then, in the midst of his ode to harmony, Flaherty took what seemed like an obvious swipe at Turner, Yancey, Arroyo, and Hennigan, all of whom believe the council’s proper role includes aggressive advocacy on national and international issues. "Quite frankly, we’re here to do a job," Flaherty said. "We’re here to represent the people in the city of Boston; we’re here to make decisions on things that impact and affect their quality of life, their neighborhoods, and their families. And if we’re not paying attention to the job we’re elected to do, then maybe we need to find another line of occupation." A moment later, Flaherty the Conciliator had returned. "So I think that once we come in here and once we get a couple legislative sessions under our belt, we’ll be right back in the swing of things."

Pressed to discuss his relationship with Yancey further, Flaherty — again — was conciliatory but not apologetic. "I stated to Councilor Yancey that I’d want an opportunity to get together with him — let’s clear the air, the campaign’s over," Flaherty said. "I understand to some degree there was some political rhetoric and there was some grandstanding. And some of that turmoil may actually have benefited him to some degree. But I expect, you know, that he’ll meet me halfway. That’s what we need to have happen — everyone has to kind of meet halfway.... I’ll do my part to try to foster better relations with a couple of council adversaries. But with me, it’s never personal." (Yancey did not return phone calls for this article.)

This semi-apologetic stance may not be enough to convince Flaherty’s numerous opponents. On election night, Yancey said Flaherty didn’t deserve to return as president. The next day, Turner sent out a letter detailing the election results and crediting various individuals and groups for a role in Arroyo’s victory; at no point did he mention Flaherty. Again, given the return of every council incumbent, any ill will Yancey and Turner may harbor for Flaherty is unlikely to cost him the council presidency. But what will matter down the road — especially if Flaherty does seek the mayor’s office — is how he’s perceived among black Bostonians. This is where Flaherty’s endorsement of Ezedi (who also received backing from Menino, Consalvo, and Feeney), public panning of Yancey, and much-discussed use of Rule 19 may have done lasting damage.

For his part, Turner says Flaherty needs to do three things in order to heal the wounds created by the past campaign: treat Yancey better; reappoint Turner as chairman of the council’s committee on education; and help change Rule 19. And if he refuses to back a change to Rule 19, then he must recognize that national and international issues are fair game for the council.

It seems that Flaherty would be wise to heed Turner’s advice on Rule 19, however difficult that may be for him. In September, Turner, Yancey, and Arroyo held a press conference on Flaherty’s handling of Rule 19, at which Turner charged Flaherty with "institutional racism" — a charge Turner later backed away from, and with which Arroyo completely disavowed any involvement. After that press conference, Ferriabough recalls, "People who had the Flaherty sign up in Roxbury ... I saw the same people taking the signs down. And I have to tell you that on my husband’s side" — Ferriabough is married to former city councilor Bruce Bolling, who’s African-American — "the Bollings have always been very strong supporters and friends with the Flahertys from the time Senator Bolling [Royal Bolling Sr., Bruce Bolling’s father] was a state rep and Mike’s father and he shared an office. They’ve always been very good friends, and some of the Bolling women have worked for Michael Flaherty Jr.’s campaign. That didn’t happen this year. They were really taken aback, more than anything, by the vitriolic way that Michael characterized Yancey, calling him a fraud. That was totally uncalled for." Hard data support Ferriabough’s anecdotal evidence that Flaherty lost support in the black community during the last election. For example, in Ward 12 (East Roxbury), Flaherty pulled in 12.4 percent of the vote in 1999 and 15.3 percent in 2001; in 2003, he dropped to 9.2 percent. In Ward Nine (Central Roxbury), Flaherty went from 15.1 percent in 1999 and 15.6 percent in 2001 to 12.2 percent in 2003.

There’s also the problem of Flaherty’s late endorsement of Arroyo. Coming on the heels of Arroyo’s disappointing fifth-place preliminary finish — and considering the momentum that Patricia White, the daughter of former Boston mayor Kevin White, had apparently built up by finishing third — the endorsement seemed at first like a savvy bit of kingmaking that would vault Arroyo over Hennigan, a reliable critic of both Menino and Flaherty, for the fourth-place slot. Had things played out that way, Flaherty — who helped White with scheduling and issues preparation throughout the campaign — would have swapped Hennigan for an ally and protégé and helped Boston’s first Latino councilor save his job in one fell swoop. (Flaherty linked his endorsement to two factors: gratitude to Arroyo for defending Flaherty from charges of racism during the Rule 19 brouhaha, and conviction that Boston should have a Latino councilor.)

That’s not what happened. Instead of eking out a narrow victory, Arroyo finished second, trailing Flaherty by a mere 1705 votes; meanwhile, Hennigan finished third, and White dropped to fifth. Arroyo’s unexpectedly strong performance prompted Hennigan to discuss Arroyo as a possible council president. It also prompted former mayoral candidate Mel King to suggest that Arroyo consider running for mayor. Ray Flynn — who defeated King in the 1983 mayoral election, and later hired Arroyo as his director of personnel — agrees that the time has come to take Arroyo seriously: "He’s a rising star in this city, and it’s just a matter of time — when the Hispanic community becomes politically organized, Felix Arroyo will be a significant player on the city scene," Flynn says.

Arroyo, for his part, says discussion of both scenarios is premature. But he also makes it clear that while he was grateful for Flaherty’s endorsement, he doesn’t believe it was a major factor in his victory. "There were over 18 different elected officers that endorsed me, many of them very much at the beginning," Arroyo notes. "Every endorsement is helpful, but the areas of South Boston and West Roxbury" — both Flaherty bastions — "did not come out in a strong way for me.... Flaherty is the first one to tell you that the vote was done by our efforts. I appreciate his support. But I don’t know that the impact was to the same level as the news of it."

Whatever its actual impact, some observers still believe Flaherty’s endorsement of Arroyo was a smart move. Because of it, Ferriabough predicts, Arroyo won’t run against Flaherty for president; instead, she thinks he’ll serve as a "healing salve," working to ease post-election tensions between Flaherty and the council’s "Young Turks" on the one hand and the minority-progressive faction — including Yancey, Turner, and Hennigan — on the other. Former city councilor John Nucci also thinks Flaherty helped himself. "He wasn’t the only candidate in that race endorsing Arroyo — he just did it at a very opportune time and got a lot of exposure on it," Nucci says, adding, "I don’t think it was pandering."

Others are less convinced. Former councilor Michael McCormack warns that Flaherty, by endorsing Arroyo, turned Maura Hennigan into a "lifelong enemy," and that it may have alienated the well-connected friends of former mayor Kevin White as well. "I know that with people who were involved in the Patricia White campaign because of their relationship with her father, there is some resentment toward Flaherty for getting involved where you historically don’t get involved," he says. "Down the road, Flaherty could be going to these folks saying he’s running for mayor. It’s a small town, and people involved in municipal races and politics in general have long memories. I wouldn’t say they’re going to blame Flaherty for White’s loss, but a lot of folks are going to take the position that he shouldn’t have gotten involved in the race."

The question of whether Flaherty deserves even partial blame for White’s loss is tough to answer. Angelique Pirozzi, a White campaign consultant, points out that White still received twice as many votes as Arroyo in Flaherty’s South Boston stronghold. "The story just doesn’t bear out that Flaherty screwed Patricia," Pirozzi claims. On the other hand, White trailed fourth-place finisher Stephen Murphy by only 861 votes — and there’s no way of knowing how many Bostonians voted for Arroyo instead of White because they heeded Flaherty’s call, or, conversely, voted for Hennigan instead of White because they didn’t like Flaherty’s strong-arm tactics. Either way, comments by George Regan — who was Kevin White’s press secretary and whose PR firm, Regan Communications, handled publicity for Patricia White’s campaign — suggest that McCormack’s analysis is on target. "Michael Flaherty was being cute," Regan says of the Arroyo endorsement. "Obviously, he was telling Patricia he was with her. Then he waited until the end to placate the Globe editorial board to look like this liberal reformer. I wouldn’t give him all the credit, but I would say it’s right up there."

IT’S TOO EARLY to say whether the 2003 council campaign will be remembered as Michael Flaherty’s Waterloo. Re-election as council president in January would be an indication to the contrary, but the true test might not come until Menino decides he’s done being mayor — and while there’s been plenty of speculation that Menino might step down in 2005, he could be in office through 2009 or even later. For the time being, Flaherty remains on the list — along with big names like Congressman Stephen Lynch and House Speaker Thomas Finneran — of possible Menino successors. "I use the phrase of being ‘papabili’ — on the short list to be pope," former council president and mayoral candidate Larry DiCara says. "I think Michael’s on the short list to be mayor. But just because you’re on the short list doesn’t mean you’re going to make it."

Asked where he sees himself in 10 years, Flaherty says family considerations might affect his decision-making. (Flaherty has four children — Patrick, 15, Michael, five, and two-year-old twins Ella and Jack; his wife Laurene — whom Flaherty has known since he was a child in South Boston — is a stay-at-home mom.) "I don’t know, with four children, three of them very young," he says. "I’d obviously want to get an opportunity to watch them grow up and teach them how to skate and play ball and all those great things. But in politics, you learn that those that try to plot and plan never get to where they’re going.... I would obviously like an opportunity to look and maybe run for higher office. I just don’t know what that office is and when it’s going to happen."

It’s clear, however, that the mayor’s job is on Flaherty’s radar screen. "There’s a lot of speculation about that," he acknowledges. "The only thing I can say to that is, who would not want to be the mayor of Boston? I think it’s a great job and a great opportunity, but I’m not focusing on that right now. I’m focused on getting the council back on track. It’s time to heal some of the wounds that were created as a result of the political campaigns, and again stay focused on the agenda we have, which is making lives a little bit easier and better in the city of Boston."

If Flaherty really wants to heal, and if he wants to keep his mayoral ambitions alive, a touch of contrition could do wonders. But his reference to "wounds that were created" — a phrase that lacks an active agent — is telling. Flaherty wants the council to leave the 2003 campaign behind, but he seems unwilling or unable to acknowledge that he may bear some responsibility for making the campaign more acrimonious than it needed to be. He came close during an October 27 at-large debate sponsored by WGBH-TV and the Globe, in which he made a point of acknowledging — albeit in the abstract — his own fallibility. But earlier this week, when asked if he regrets any decisions he made during the campaign or 2003, Flaherty said he doesn’t. The only regret he could identify was allowing the council to debate the Patriot Act in 2002. "I was trying to demonstrate a willingness and ability to work with my colleagues. I knew I was going to take some heat from those who wanted me to impose Rule 19," he explained. "However, as a courtesy to a couple of colleagues, I decided to allow that to happen. But as they say, no good deed goes unpunished. As a result of me allowing it, then it was used against me this year" in the Rule 19 debate. Had he acted differently, Flaherty added, "this whole Rule 19 saga probably could have been avoided." It’s apparent, though, that if he wants to clear the air with Yancey and Turner and regain lost support in Boston’s black community, Flaherty will need to concede a lot more.

Joyce Ferriabough has a suggestion worth considering. "If Flaherty is still president [in 2004], he will have to do sort of a retreat with the council, just to kind of erase some of the bad blood," she says. "Particularly with the liberal wing and the minority wing, and that also includes Maura Hennigan. Okay? He has to do some fence-mending. That’s number one."

Adam Reilly can be reached at areilly[a]phx.com