In a Thursday morning interview on Boston Herald radio, Boston mayor Marty Walsh voiced a previously unknown opinion in regards to the involvement of former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick with the Boston 2024 Olympic bid.

“I don’t think he should be paid at all,” Walsh told Herald Radio interviewers, explaining specifically that he believes Patrick shouldn’t receive a salary when acting as a global ambassador for Boston 2024. The statement comes as a slightly shocking admission, which the Boston mayor made in a relatively nonchalant manner. This comes only recently following the release of Patrick’s daily rate of pay from Boston 2024, which is set at $7,500.

 

Only a night before, at a Cambridge community Olympic meeting, Boston 2024 executive vice president Erin Murphy defended the move to hire Patrick, who left office earlier in 2015 when his term expired. Murphy said that they had conducted market research to determine a fair rate to pay Patrick, and that she thought it was actually on the lower end of consultant fees for a person of the former Governor’s stature.

Walsh said that he was aware of Patrick’s role in the local Olympic bid, but only of his official role through the media. This echoes a similar reaction from Patrick’s successor, current Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker, who acknowledged that he too learned of the hire from the media.

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