A large slate of candidates competing for the four Boston City Council at-large seats had the floor during a virtual meeting last Wednesday night hosted by the Ward 4 and 5 Democratic Committees and moderated by Boston Globe reporter Meghan Irons. 

After the Sept. 14 primary election, 8 of the 17 hopefuls, 13 of whom participated in the forum, will continue campaigning for the seats on the 13-member body being left vacant by Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George, who are running for mayor. The general election is set for Nov. 2.

More than 200 viewers on the Facebook livestream tuned in to hear from two incumbent at-large Councillors seeking re-election, Michael Flaherty and Julia Mejia, who won her seat in 2019 by a single vote, and newcomers Said Abdikarim of the South End; Kelly Bates of Hyde Park; James “Reggie” Colimon of Roslindale, Domingos DaRosa of Hyde Park; Alex Gray of Jamaica Plain; David Halbert of Dorchester; Ruthzee Louijeune of Hyde Park; Carla Monteiro of Dorchester; Bridget Nee-Walsh of South Boston; Jon Spillane of Beacon Hill; and Nick Vance of Hyde Park.

Erin Murphy of Dorchester, a Boston schoolteacher, was attending another event and unable to make the program.

Asked why she’s running, Bates, a nonprofit executive, called herself a “bridge builder” of Black and Irish descent who believes in equity when it comes to the economic repair of the city. 

South Boston’s Flaherty told viewers he should be re-elected because of his long record of public service, adding that he’s “excited about helping introduce colleagues to City Hall” and calling himself a “mentor” and “problem solver.” 

Gray, 36, hopes to become Boston’s first blind elected official. A former adviser to Gov. Deval Patrick, Gray said that the city “needs listeners in positions of leadership” and hopes “to be a voice on the council for people with disabilities.”

Louijeune, a 34-year-old lawyer, is hoping to become the first Haitian-American woman elected to the council. She said she believes in the “power of community organizing and meeting people where they are.” 

Montiero, a Boston native and social worker of Cape Verdean descent, said she experienced housing and food insecurities as a young single mother. If elected, she said, she will focus on “filling gaps in city services” and “connecting people to vital resources.” 

Nee-Walsh called herself a “different candidate,” citing 15 years of experience as a union ironworker who “worked tirelessly to recruit more female ironworkers. She added that she’s particularly concerned with senior issues and small business support.

Vance, a Hyde Park resident who grew up in Dorchester and Mattapan,, served as the former political action co-chair for the Boston NAACP. He pointed to his experience working on youth workforce development on the Mayor’s Youth Council as the Youth Arts and Culture Director. He said he would focus on mental health recovery from the pandemic. 

Abdikarim, who immigrated to Boston with his family as an African refugee, set his focus on “bridging disparities.” 

Colimon, a Haitian American who served as a City Council liaison for former Mayor Martin Walsh, said he wants to breakg down language barriers and systemic inequities. 

DaRosa, who unsuccessfully ran for an at-large seat in 2017 and 2019, said the city is dealing with the “same disparity issues” as when he made his first bid. He has worked as a Boston Centers for Youth & Families (BCYF) employee for 23 years. 

Halbert, a former legislative aide to former Gov. Patrick who ran for an at-large seat in 2019, currently sits on the boards of the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council, East Boston Main Streets, and the East Boston Project Advisory Committee (PierPAC).

After spending 15 years in public service, he said, he knows how to craft public policy and address the issues facing Boston. 

Mejia, an Afro-Latina from Dorchester who was so narrowly elected in 2019, said she has “unfinished business” on the council, where she’s “working to make a seat at the table for everyone” and “holding city government accountable.” 

Spillane, a former employee of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development and a recent graduate of Suffolk University Law School, worked most recently as a staffer for District 8 Councillor Kenzie Bok, who represents Back Bay, Mission Hill and Fenway, among other neighborhoods.

Two groups of candidates answered several questions on an array of different topics and faced “yes” or “no” questions in  lightning-rounds.
When asked if they would support abolishing the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) and creating a new planning department, a proposal put forth by Wu in 2019, the field was split. Voting “no” were Nee-Walsh, Flaherty, Gray, Vance, Colimon, Spillane, and Abdikarim. Voting “yes” were Halbert, Mejia, DaRosa, Bates, Louijeune, and Montiero. 

Asked whether or not they’d support removing police officers from the Boston schools, a hot-button issue amid police reform efforts, ten replied “yes,” except for Spillane, Flaherty, and Nee-Walsh, who answered “no.” 

All of the candidates said they would support increasing the city’s Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP), which requires that market-rate housing developments with ten or more units set aside a portion (currently 13 percent) of those units for income-restricted housing or pay into a city fund to subsidy housing projects. 

According to Boston Elections Department records, former at-large Councillor Althea Garrison, of Dorchester; Donnie Palmer Jr., of Dorchester; and Roy Owens Sr. of Roxbury have also been qualified as official at-large candidates. They did not attend the forum. 

Garrison, 80, was elevated to an at-large council seat briefly in 2019 after Ayanna Pressley was elected to Congress, as she placed fifth in the 2017 election. She failed to retain her seat in the November 2019 election, finishing seventh in an eight-person run-off.

Palmer is a professional heavyweight boxer who survived a shooting in 2015. Owens has worked as a BPS teacher and social worker for the Department of Public Welfare.