The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 12

1 12 THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1993 neighborhood now at center stage Scramble can start for voter signatures 'I I GLOBE STAFF PHOTO PAM BERRY Thomas Menino studies papers yesterday after being sworn in. known quantity, a moderate compromise builder who is unlikely to bring great change or wreak serious harm on the city. 'Tom tends to be careful about undertaking innovation," said David Scondras, a district city councilor. "He tends to want to make sure it will work before he tries to do it. Therefore, you are liable to get decisions that are relatively risk-free.

That is exactly what you want out of a caretaker." Menino disagrees. Though he has run a remarkably low-key campaign, privately angering some of his most ardent supporters, he has consistently vowed to create change in city government and bring a fresh voice in his four months as acting mayor. "The city can't afford to have a caretaker," Menino said. "Over the next several weeks and months, there are a lot of decisions to be made. You have to move the city forward.

You can't be a caretaker for four or five months. We can't let the city float for the next several months." Small-business champion Particularly, he said he is interested in the needs of small businesses, and bridging concerns downtown with those of the neighborhoods. In a political sense, analysts agree the pressure on him is to perform well if he wants to earn the voter's approval and win a four-year term as mayor. A first blush, few would make the argument that Menino cuts an impressive figure. His tongue is often tied, his voice is guttural and hjs attempts at humor sometimes veer to the awkward.

The only apparent benefit of hours of speech lessons is that now, when he talks of zoning ordinances and business incentives, he gesticulates like a Shakespearean actor. "He has a little problem," said Richard Grane, the president of the Hyde Park Savings Bank. "He talks race thus far, suddenly, Menino, partly by design, partly by good fortune, will be thrust onto center stage. "Getting potholes filled and streetlights fixed is fine for a district councilor," said Councilor at Large John Nucci, who dropped out of the mayor's race last week. "But people are looking for vision from a mayor.

Leadership into the next century is going to involve more than taking care of parking tickets and streetlights." Fund-raising success Quietly, Menino has raised considerable sums of money, observers said, though he will not say how much. Much of it has come from large, downtown interests who were recruited to his campaign within days of the realization that he would serve as acting mayor. He wins the job by virtue of his position as City Council president. John White, the architect of Ross Perot's economic plan, was drafted to write Menino's blueprint for the business community while he serves as acting mayor. Already, Menino has said he plans to open up a small-business retention office to keep companies and stores in the city, assign City Hall workers to guide businesses through the bureaucracy as 'they try to locate in Boston, and meet regularly with groups of nessmen to hear their concerns.

He has said he is leery of revealing much more until Mayor Flynn leaves for Rome tomorrow. Wnile the two were fast friends for a decade, in recent months that relationship cooled to the point where they barely spoke. When Menino proposed appointing 100 new police officers when he took over at City Hall, Flynn jumped at the idea and beat him to the effort. Privately, the move infuriated Menino and his advisers. "This is Boston; this isn't one person's empire," said Menino.

fully halted the demolition of an abandoned city building two years ago and helped the group win more than $2 million to renovate it into a neighborhood center. Now it is used as a gym and after-school center by children. Menino last night attended a block party held in his honor in Readville before visiting a Roxbury crime-watch group and a group of supporters in Charlestown. Rita Bonarrigo, the president of the Blake Street Neighborhood Association in Hyde Park, said Menino attends virtually every crime-watch meeting and helped the group win brighter streetlights and wider sidewalks, and block the permitting of a neighborhood liquor store. "You call him on anything and he returns the call," said Bonarrigo.

"He always returns the call." But such are the accomplishments of an ideal city councilor, and whether they can translate to mayor, or even acting mayor, becomes a core question in the political campaign, some analysts and adversaries said. While barely a player in the Flynn parades out of his city on road to Rome i Highlights of Ray Flynn's political career enino, 'a By Brian McGrory GLOBE STAFF In the sun-dappled private club 38 floors above Post Office Square, City Council President Thomas Menino should be playing to the developers and the lawyers who are attending his staid fund-raising breakfast, telling them what they want to hear exactly when they want to hear it. Yet, in his trademark inelegance, as he trundles through his answers on business incentives and school reform, he occasionally crosses swords, pauses, then bluntly says, "Look, I'm not a downtown guy. I'm a neighborhood guy." As he takes the reins for his first full day as acting mayor today and launches perhaps the most important tryout in Boston's political history, Menino's recent proclamation captures the best as well as the worst of this former campaign operative and decade-long city councilor. Success in his temporary stint could reap remarkable dividends, perhaps leading to his election to a four-year term as mayor.

He has spent a career fastidiously tending to the needs of his native Hyde Park and nearby Roslindale, working on behalf of housing development tenants, neighborhood associations and small businesses in need. "Some politicians only show up only before elections," said Dr. Alvin Pierce, president of the local Rotary Club. "He's here all the time." But downtown, it is a slightly different story. Although Menino is well liked by colleagues in a body not known for congeniality, some say his legislative record is relatively undistinguished, his accomplishments -aside from his recent annual proctor-ing of the budget as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee actually quite rare.

In that regard, Menino is believed to be a caretaker, a Emotional II FLYNN Continued from Page 1 Flynn and Menino, longtime friends whose relationship chilled considerably during Flynn's sometimes turbulent farewell period, met for about 15 minutes privately late yesterday afternoon, after which Flynn appeared to endorse the con- cept of Menino being a strong acting mayor. "You have the platform and power to draw attention to the needs of all our neighborhoods," Flynn wrote in a letter made public at a news conference the two held at City Hall late in the day. "Do not let a day go by without fighting for the people you serve." And Flynn had not yet left City Hall when Menino scheduled his first press availability. Today, highlighting what he hopes will become his trademark issue as acting mayor and in his mayoral campaign, Menino will meet with Boston Police Commissioner William J. Bratton and Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph C.

Martin 2d to discuss the city's summer safety plan in the neighborhoods. He begins his day today with a planned 7 a.m. staff meeting and his move across the fifth floor into the spacious mayoral suite. At his news conference with Flynn, Menino continued to defend his plans to be an ambitious and aggressive acting mayor, rather than the caretaker that some city officials and mayoral candidates have said he should be. "My job is to make this city move forward," said Menino.

"Sure, there is a campaign going on. But we have to move the city forward. I'll make decisions that are unpopular." While Flynn's departure could prove a boon or a boondoggle for Menino, it also takes the mayoral campaign to a new, higher profile, observers said. Without Flynn wa- vering on his decision or attracting media coverage with last-minute mayoral decisions, the focus will be brought full force on those who want to lead next. His departure "means the campaign can finally start," said Lawrence DiCara, a former city councilor.

As Menino spoke at the joint City Hall press conference yesterday afternoon, Flynn and his family quietly left the room, took a final tour of his office with its views of Quincy Market, and descended by private elevator to meet the awaiting motorcade. Downstairs, on the street, Flynn merrily waved to supporters and friends, settled into the front passen- By Victoria Benning GLOBE STAFF Now that Ray Flynn has resigned as mayor, Boston's 12 mayoral candidates can at last apply for nominating papers and start the scramble to gather the 3,000 signatures needed to get their names on the Sept 21 preliminary election ballot. Normally, candidates have three weeks to collect the signatures, but because the office technically was not vacant until Flynn resigned yesterday, the collection period has been shortened by a week, which is likely to winnow the field. One Republican candidate, lawyer Diane Moriarty, has already said it is unlikely she will complete the task by the July 27 deadline. Although candidates for the Boston City Council were allowed to pick up their nomination papers July 6, today is the first day candidates for mayor can even apply for their papers, according to Election Commissioner Jovita Fontanez.

The papers must then be printed, and Fontanez said they should be ready by 9 a.m. tomorrow. Only then can mayoral candidates begin chasing the 254,208 registered Boston voters to collect the 3,000 certifiable signatures needed to gain a place on the ballot. Candidates typically must garner about double the required number of signatures to get enough certifiable ones. Under the city charter voters can sign only as many petitions as there are seats open for each office.

That means voters can sign only one mayoral petition, one district council seat petition for each district, and four petitions for the at-large council race. If a voter signs petitions for two mayoral candidates, the signature counts only for the candidate who turns in nomination papers first. The signature on the second set of papers would be disqualified. Illegible signatures also are disqualified. These factors, combined with the "hot weather and midsummer vacations, make the signature-gathering Hask a daunting one, veterans of the process said.

They predicted candidates will need to have experienced well-trained petitioners out all day, every day, until the deadline. "I certainly wish them luck," said Chip Faulkner, associate director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and a veteran of more than a dozen petition campaigns. Faulkner, who helped put Proposition 2xh and 1990's Question 3 on the ballot, said certification rates for Boston are typically lower than in the suburbs, where voter registration rates are higher. "People can promise you all sorts of things, but you really don't know what you've got until deadline day," he said. "When you factor in the time frame, the fact that it's Boston, the time of year and the monstrous heat wave, my guess is that a couple of people won't make it." 1 The truncated collection period hurts political newcomers most, since they do not have large field or-; ganizations in place.

One mayoral candidate, Jamaica Plain activist James Murray, is considering legal Taction to lengthen the collection time and he has the supjwrt of at least 1 three fellow candidates. "This works to the advantage of the so-called major candidates the people already in public office who have large field organizations and political machines," said Murray. "It i certainly works to the supreme dis-j advantage of citizen candidates like me who are running on neighbor-i hood support and the support of friends and family. It protects the in-I cumbents." Moriarty said she and party offi-1 rials had assumed the signature re-j quirement would be cut in half be- cause of Flynn's late departure, and i she may seek emergency legislation to that effect. When asked whether she can collect 3,000 signatures in two weeks, Moriarty said, "To be perfectly honest with you, no." Moriarty's and Murray's pleas are not likely to get much sympathy from election officials.

The secretary I of state's office repeatedly has ruled that two weeks is a sufficient time i period, according to Timothy sert, deputy secretary for elections. kind of strange sometimes. He has a tough time getting his message out sometimes. But what Tom says, is what Tom is. He is a very honest type of gentleman." Even on the council, Menino has parted ways with his more conservative colleagues to back two proposals for clean needle distribution and a condom distribution statute aimed at preventing AIDS.

"He is very re-, sponsive to people's suffering," said Scondras. It is that bigheartedness that has won him so many friends in Hyde Park where they simply call him Tommy and beyond. At 50, he and his wife, Angela, have two children, a 26-year-old daughter and a 24-year-old son. Menino formerly worked as a political operative, a longtime confidant to Joseph Timilty, the politician recently convicted on mail fraud charges, who had always wanted to be Boston's mayor. Helping the neighborhoods Cynthia Johnson, the president of the Archdale tenants' organization in Roslindale, said Menino success-' GLOBE PHOTO EVAN RICHMAN as he boards a plane out of Boston.

It was a day filled with ceremony "ancTlears and the realization of an era ended. No more the mayoral station wagon, the unabashed stops at neighborhood taverns, the oddly located news conferences on weekend afternoons. For hours, friends, supporters and city workers waited some 70 deep in line outsid Flynn's A i -HI 111'! i 1 I i i I i i I I p- 1 if l'- i If i 1970 November Wins election as state representative from South Boston. 1973 Works to prevent implementation of school busing plan. Files suit against state Board of Education.

1974 Files legislation to repeal state law requiring children to attend school. In the 1983 mayoral election, Flynn said this was a mistake. September Is hospitalized for exhaustion. 1975 March Announces candidacy for mayor. June Withdraws from mayor's race after encountering fund-raising difficulties and immediately announces plans to run for City Council.

November Loses bid for City Council seat 1977 November -City Council. Elected to Boston 1978 July State Legislature approves Doyle-Flynn amendment to restrict the use of public funds for abortions. 1979 October With State Sen. Joseph Timilty, rescues a black man from a white mob on Boston Common. 1983 April Announces his candidacy for mayor promising to attack the problems of the city neighborhoods and emphasizing unity.

October In a classic campaign vignette on City Hall plaza, Flynn lashes out at opponent David Fin-negan, who had been saying Flynn was a chameleon, changing positions on some issues. "You called me a lizard!" Flynn complained. October Flynn and State Rep. Mel King surprise the pundits by topping the preliminary vote. November Flynn defeats King in the final office to have their photographs taken and to say goodbye.

"He knows everyone here personally," said Gerry Wyse, a city nurse. "It's a wonderful opportunity for him." By late in the afternoon, he talked and reminisced with a core trrruD of close aides, met ith Men- 1987 November Elected to second term as mayor. 1988 June City reaches an agreement with the federal government on the integration of public housing in South Boston. 1989 October Charles and Carol Stuart are shot in Mission Hill. Following claims by Charles Stuart, police conduct intensive search and arrest William Bennett.

Charles Stuart later kills himself amid allegations that he murdered his wife. Flynn comes under sharp criticism from black leaders. 1990 Considers run for governor. In light of problems with police, minority community and his position against abortion, decides against joining race. 1991 July Wins battle to replace elected School Committee with a board appointed by the mayor.

November Reelected mayor with 75 percent of the vote, defeating Edward Doherty, president of the Boston Teachers Union. 1992 January St. Clair commission criticizes Boston Police Department for mismanagement. Flynn appoints William Bratton as superintendent. February Encourages New York Gov.

Mario Cuomo to enter race for president. Fall Campaigns in more than two dozen states for Democratic nominee Bill Clinton. 1993 March Announces he will step down to become US ambassador to the Vatican. June Reconsiders accepting ambassadorship. Meets with President Clinton and State Department officials to define his responsibilities.

Senate confirms his appointment COMPILED BY MAUREEN GOGGIN ino and attended the joint news conference the transition of power. At the airport, asked of his plans as a diplomat, Flynnowed to become a student of foreign policy. "I'll continue my commitment to social and economic justice," hVsaid. "That is the essence of Rav Ray Flynn looks back at his family ger seat of his car and slid through the hot city streets, lights flashings and sirens wailing on the cruisers and motorcycles ahead. Entering Logan Airport, he drove by an enormous billboard with photos of him smiling at the controls of an airplane, the pope and the words, "Arri-vederci Ambassador Ray Flynn.".