Ex-rivals to help Walsh transition; Menino headed to BU

Mayor-elect Marty Walsh has unveiled the beginnings of a transition team that includes three of his electoral rivals, one-time state Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie, who finished third in the Sept. 24 preliminary; City Councillor At-Large Felix Arroyo; and former School Committee member John Barros.

The other individuals who were named last Friday inside the transition office at 100 Franklin Street provided by outgoing Mayor Thomas Menino’s office are Joyce Linehan, who chairs the Ward 17 Democratic Committee and owns a public relations firm in Dorchester; Katherine Craven, executive director of the UMass Building Authority; and Sam Tyler of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Additional names, from the city’s medical sector and academia, are expected to be released once the mayor-elect returns from a vacation with his longtime girlfriend, Lorrie Higgins.

Golar Richie, Barros, and Arroyo backed Walsh in the final where he faced off against City Councillor At-Large John Connolly. Linehan, a key political operative for Elizabeth Warren in the 2012 US Senate race and in Gov. Deval Patrick’s State House runs, is a top adviser to Walsh.

The mauyor-elect’s camp has also set up a transition website for people to submit comments and resumes: Boston14.org.

Walsh said he won’t be surrounding himself with “yes men,” adding that he is looking for the most qualified people for administration jobs. His administration will have locals and outsiders, he said.

When a reporter asked about the absence of a business person among the co-chairs, Golar Richie noted that she has an MBA and Linehan said she owns a small business.

Earlier this week, Menino announced his own transition, a move from politics to academia. He will be heading to Boston University in February as a professor at the university where he will co-direct an institute focused on cities. They are “the focal point of what’s happening in our world today,” said Menino, who earned the nickname “Urban Mechanic” during his 20-year mayoral tenure, in an interview with New England Cable News’s Jim Braude on Tuesday night. The mayor said he will be bringing in other mayors and experts in an effort to educate people on “what cities are all about.”

Earlier on Tuesday, reporters asked Menino if he had turned down a position at Harvard University. “No comment,” he said, according to NECN, quickly adding, “I don’t wear bowties.”


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