http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPeHKqIMrKQ&feature=player_embedded#at=90
Mayor Elect Marty Walsh announced the top members of his transition team Friday.
During the mayoral race, Marty Walsh pledged to install a cabinet that is at least half people of color – he began delivering on that promise in putting together his transition team. It includes former mayoral candidates Charlotte Golar Richie, John Barros, and Felix Arroyo, who together on 30 percent of the preliminary election vote in September.
Their endorsements not only helped deliver minority votes to Walsh, but also fueled speculation the three would be hired in a Walsh administration. Golar Richie, Barros and Arroyo said they have not yet been offered a job in the administration.
Walsh said he will not fill his administration with patronage hires.
"I’m looking for the most qualified person for the job," he said. "I certainly am not going to load my administration up with people who held Marty Walsh signs."
Also on the transition team is Sam Tyler – a symbolically potent pick. Tyler is a fiscal watchdog, and has warned against giving unions generous contracts with the city. The choice is perhaps a signal to Walsh’s detractors, who have wondered whether Walsh will give special treatment to the unions, whose members were seen on many street corners holding campaign signs for Walsh, and are credited with getting union votes to the polls last week.
While the transition team press conference was largely for show, the real transition of power happened behind closed doors later in the day. Walsh had a private lunch at the Parkman House on Beacon Street with Mayor Menino and prominent business leaders to talk about the strategy of transition from a Menino Administration to a Walsh one.
