Two Boston city councilors have penned a letter to the mayor to formally express their “deep disappointment and concern” over being excluded from a speaking portion of a community event that included other elected officials and a candidate.
Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy wrote to Mayor Michelle Wu Monday, saying that while they had always been “welcome” as longstanding attendees of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year Tet in Boston celebration, “this year, a clear departure from that tradition occurred.”
Flynn and Murphy further assert that their exclusion was “deliberate.” Last week’s celebration at Flynn Cruiseport was organized by two city employees but was not a City of Boston-sponsored event, they wrote.
“We were informed multiple times by the event’s emcees that we had been deliberately left off the speaking list and there was ‘no time’ for us to speak,” the councilors wrote. “Given the longstanding tradition of all attending elected officials being invited up together for brief remarks, this reasoning does not hold up.
“Following the event, multiple attendees — both city employees and community members — expressed their own discomfort, describing the situation as awkward and disrespectful.”
According to Flynn and Murphy’s letter, state Rep. Tram Nguyen and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune were the only elected officials invited to the stage to speak, “while we remained seated in the front row, waiting to be acknowledged — an acknowledgement that never came.”
Flynn and Murphy say they were only asked to come to the stage after everyone had spoken, to take part in a group photo.
The mayor, who gave birth to her third child last month, wasn’t present at the event. Her chief of staff, Tiffany Chu, spoke along with high-ranking members of the Boston Police Department — but it was the inclusion of a city employee running for a councilor-at-large seat, Alexandra Valdez of the Office of Neighborhood Services, that stuck out, the councilors said.
“Notably Ms. Valdez, a declared candidate for Boston City Council at-large, was permitted to not only speak but also distribute community awards, something unprecedented for someone in her current role,” the letter states. “It is deeply concerning that city employees, in positions of public trust, would engage in such exclusionary conduct at a cultural celebration, seemingly for political purposes.”
Murphy is an at-large city councilor who, along with fellow moderate Flynn, is often at odds with the progressive mayor.
The councilors are seeking a formal response from the administration that addresses their concerns and outlines the steps “that will be taken to ensure fairness and respect for all elected officials at future community events.”
The mayor’s office disputed the councilors’ version of events, saying they spoke at the celebration.
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