In one of his first orders of business as the newly anointed Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh made six new appointments to his staff, some on an interim basis and others more long-lasting. Speaking from his new workplace at Boston City Hall, Walsh’s new administration falls directly in line with a promise for a more diversified municipality.
Mayor Walsh gave the position of Chief of Policy to Joyce Linehan, president of Ashmont Media – a public relations firm that specializes in music, arts, and culture. Linehan was one of the first members to sign on to Mayor Walsh’s transition team, joing new Chief of Health & Human Services Felix Arroyo as two transition co-chairs who have since been named to Mayor Walsh’s staff.
According to Mayor Walsh, Linehan’s primary duties will be to “run policy and help me run policy as well, as a lot of policy issues we spoke about in the campaign” will be on the mayor’s agenda during his first 100 days in office.
Eugene O’Flaherty was named Corporation Counsel after it was speculated that he’d fill some kind of legal role in the new regime. O’Flaherty will bring an abundance of experience to the position, serving as a state Representative alongside Walsh during his time in the chamber and chairing the Joint Committee on the Judiciary for over a decade. As a confidant to Walsh with a slightly more conservative point of view, O’Flaherty’s clout and prowess will help to add more balance to the Walsh camp.
Other significant assignments include Joe Rull who was named Chief of Operations for Mayor Walsh after serving as a political consultant during the mayoral campaign, who will, as noted by the Mayor, “work across the line as we look to reorganize and shuffle some agencies in Boston;” Trinh Nguyen, who worked as chief of staff at the Boston Housing Authority, as interim Director of Jobs and Community Services; Kieth Williams, former aid to the Boston City Council, as interim Director of the Small Office and Business Enterprise; and Alejandra St. Guillen, executive director of Oiste – a grassroots intiative aimed at improving the socioeconomic standing of Latino Community statewide, as interim Director of Office of New Bostonians.
Just prior to his inauguration, Mayor Walsh also named former HuffPost Live General Manager David Koh as his Chief of Staff.
Still ongoing is the search for a Boston Public Schools Superintendent which, Mayor Walsh noted optimistically, “If we can get someone from Boston or Massachusetts, it would be helpful. It’s hard to put a timeline on it, we hope to get it done by the summer.”
He also mentioned that he expects to make more personnel designations in the upcoming weeks.
