Mayor-elect Marty Walsh is moving forward with his promise to assemble an administration that is 50 percent people of color, appointing former mayoral candidates Felix G. Arroyo, John Barros and Charlotte Golar Richie to his transition team.
The trio of former mayoral contenders is part of a team that includes Municipal Research Bureau President Samuel Tyler, Democratic activists and Publicist Joyce Linehan and Katherine Craven who heads the University of Massachusetts Building Authority. In a press conference today, Walsh said he will bring more people onto his transition team soon.
“In the coming days, we’re going to have a larger group that will be a cross-section of the entire city,” he said.
While the three former mayoral candidates endorsed Walsh after the primary, Walsh emphasized that Tyler, whose organization serves as a fiscal watchdog for the city, did not.
“It doesn’t matter whether they supported me or not — we’re going to put the best people in place,” Walsh said. “I’m not surrounding myself with yes men and yes women.”
Thursday, Walsh told the Globe he supports giving the City Council a larger role in city government and today, when asked how his approach to governing would differ from that of outgoing mayor Thomas Menino, he said he would give his department heads more autonomy.
“One thing that will be a little different is the cabinet will be more empowered,” he said.
Walsh also pledged to make his administration transparent and open to suggestions. He said he plans to hold a series of meetings across the city to hear concerns from neighborhood residents, which he described as an extension of the Monday’s with Marty meetings he held on the campaign trail.
“We listened, took a lot of that feedback and incorporated it into our policies,” he said of the meetings.
