City officials and first responders gathered Friday for the groundbreaking of a $16 million “state-of-the-art” ambulance center on the South Boston waterfront.
The project, slated for completion next year, was touted by the mayor’s office as a “major investment in public health infrastructure and emergency response” for the one of the city’s “fastest growing neighborhoods.”
“This groundbreaking marks our continued efforts to protect the health and safety of every Boston resident,” Mayor Michelle Wu said. “As the Seaport and Boston overall continue to grow, this new EMS station ensures we can continue to respond to emergency calls with timely care, as well as providing updated facilities and strong support for our EMTs and paramedics.”
The new ambulance center will be located on Dry Dock Avenue in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park adjacent to Pier 10. City officials anticipate that the addition will enhance emergency response times and expand access to life-saving care.
The station will feature a two-bay ambulance garage, public restrooms, and a second-floor crew space with a lounge, kitchenette, showers and a gym to support EMS personnel.
James Hooley, the city’s EMS chief, described the day’s groundbreaking for the new facility as “a long time coming.”
“Over the past decade, emergency calls in the South Boston waterfront area have doubled,” Hooley said. “This station will strengthen our ability to get the right resources to people at the right time, and improve outcomes when every second truly matters.”
The station will be fully electric, as part of the city’s climate-friendly goals, and built on a site that will also include a newly-paved plaza and a landscaped parklet with trees and greenery enhancing the surrounding public space, officials said.
City Councilor Ed Flynn, who represents the area and whose father, former mayor Ray Flynn, is the namesake of the park where the new station is being built, described the investment as a “lifeline for our community.”
“This has been years in the making,” Flynn said. “It’s a step forward for public safety, access to city services, and the well-being of every person in our neighborhood.”
After a city councilor called for Boston’s Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu to be ousted, mayoral candidate Josh Kraft pressed Mayor Michelle Wu to reveal Idowu’s “role” in the City Hall domestic violence scandal.
Kraft released a statement Monday that his campaign said is “regarding questions surrounding the role of the city’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion in a recent dispute between several subordinates.”
“I share the concerns raised by City Councilor Flynn about the chief of economic opportunity and inclusion,” Kraft said. “While it is disturbing to learn that a domestic dispute involving two City Hall aides turned into an assault on a police officer, the suggestion that a cabinet chief, who is one of Mayor Wu’s most visible advisors, has played a role in this crisis needs to be addressed.
“The public deserves more information,” he added. “Mayor Wu needs to tell the public what she knows about the involvement of the chief of economic opportunity and inclusion in this matter. When it comes to being transparent about bad news — such as with the recent BPS bus tragedy — Mayor Wu has repeatedly failed to be straightforward with the public.”
Kraft, Wu’s principal challenge in the mayoral race, added, “The mayor should follow the protocol in place to handle allegations of improper conduct by any city employee by referring the matter to the Boston Police Department Anti-Corruption office, which has the authority to review such matters.”
Two city employees — Marwa Khudaynazar, 27, chief of staff for the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, and Chulan Huang, 26, neighborhood business manager for the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion — were arrested and charged in an alleged domestic violence incident last week.
Both were charged with assault and battery on a household member, in connection with the alleged incident, which took place at a Chinatown apartment. Khudaynazar, a top official at the police accountability office, was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
The two employees pleaded not guilty to the charges at their arraignments at Boston Municipal Court last Thursday. They were “placed on unpaid leave while the city investigates,” a Wu spokesperson said in a statement last week.
Idowu was not named in the police report.
He has headed the city’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion since January 2022, and did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The mayor’s office released a statement on Monday, following the Herald’s inquiries about Flynn and Kraft’s statements regarding Idowu, but did not mention the economic opportunity and inclusion chief.
“The city takes these allegations seriously,” a Wu spokesperson said. “When we learned of the incident last Thursday, both employees were placed on unpaid leave immediately. We are following the appropriate protocols as an employer and completing an internal review.
Flynn called for both employees charged in the incident to be fired upon their arrests becoming public last week. On Sunday, he called for Idowu’s resignation and termination as well, saying on X that the cabinet chief “failed to provide positive and ethical leadership to its employees, businesses and Boston residents.”
The councilor, who represents Chinatown, did not specify why he was calling for Idowu to be ousted. He did, however, rehash parts of a prior statement he released in response to the alleged domestic violence incident.
Flynn called for an “outside investigation into the hiring practices, workplace culture and environment” at several related city departments, the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, and Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.
Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald, File)
City Councilor Ed Flynn issued a call for the resignation of Boston’s Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu, and is seeking an outside investigation of several city departments.
He made the call Sunday in a statement shared on social media.
“The Chief of Boston’s Economic Opportunity and Inclusion failed to provide positive and ethical leadership to its employees, businesses and Boston residents,” said Flynn in a post on X on Sunday. “Ethical leadership can’t be an afterthought in city government. I’m calling for his immediate resignation or termination.”
The city councilor also called for an “outside investigation into the hiring practices, workplace culture and environment” in several city departments, including the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, and Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.
The Mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.
Flynn did not specify the reason for his calls for Idowu’s termination Sunday.
But his statement follows a police report last week alleging two city employees, one working as a neighborhood business manager for the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion and a second as chief of staff for the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, were involved in a domestic violence incident.
Both city employees, Marwa Khudaynazar, 27, and Chulan Huang, 26, were charged with assault and battery on a household member. Khudaynazar, a head at the police accountability office, was also charged with assault and battery on a police officer. Both pleaded not guilty at their arraignments on Thursday.
Idowu was not named in the police report. The Herald also reached to Idowu for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
The employees were immediately placed on unpaid leave following the incident.
Flynn called for both to be fired following the incident. The city councilor also called for an “independent investigation into workplace culture and environment” of the same three departments following the incident last week.
Idowu has headed the City’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion since January 2022.
The Boston Police Detectives Union has also called for an investigation into the arrests.
“Domestic Violence and Assault and Battery on a Police Officer charges are unacceptable by their very nature,” the union wrote in a social media post after the event Thursday. “However, when the alleged perpetrator of such crimes holds a public office that can drastically impact a police officer’s livelihood, the blatant disrespect towards officers is especially troubling.”
“We can only hope for a bias-free investigation,” the union added, “and that the City uses the same lens of scrutiny in this case that they would use if the allegations were against a sworn police officer.”
A Boston City Council resolution that called for the removal of disgraced Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson in the wake of her conviction on federal corruption charges was blocked for a second straight week.
Councilor Liz Breadon objected Wednesday to a non-binding resolution co-sponsored by Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn, that called for the Council to “formally address the matter of Fernandes Anderson’s continued service.”
Breadon’s objection blocked a vote on the matter and automatically sent the resolution, which is not legally binding and thus symbolic in nature, to a Council committee for a potential hearing.
“We have been talking about this for months,” Breadon said at the day’s meeting. “I share the frustration of many of my constituents that we spend way too much time focused on these issues and that we need to be focused on the needs of our community and our constituents.
“I think the potholes need fixing. We have a lot of work to do. And frankly, the legal process is taking its course and we are not going to change that direction. We’re not going to change that outcome. I feel that at this moment we need to focus on the work that we are sent here to do,” she added.
Murphy argued, however, that constituents are “deeply” concerned about why Fernandes Anderson, who was absent from the day’s meeting, remains in office, after she was convicted on two federal felony charges. Those corruption charges are tied to a $7,000 kickback scheme carried out at City Hall, per the indictment.
Murphy said that while the law is clear on the matter, in terms of councilors being removed from the body only after sentencing, which has not yet occurred and is scheduled for July 29, it was still important for the Council to “take a stand.”
“This proposed resolution doesn’t seek to enforce illegal removal, but to express our collective moral stance,” Murphy said. “By leaning on legal technicalities, the Council risks appearing evasive, avoiding a clear position on an issue that deeply concerns our constituents.
“The resolution I filed with Councilor Flynn isn’t about forcing anyone out — it’s about taking a stand,” she added. “We pass non-binding resolutions on various issues all the time, on international conflicts, national policies, historical acknowledgments. … These actions, while symbolic, reflect our collective values and our commitment to justice. So why hesitate now when the issue is in our chamber?”
Murphy said Fernandes Anderson’s “continued presence undermines public trust and distracts from our work.”
“I think the status quo is no longer an option,” Flynn added. “We need to show the residents of Boston that we understand the significant challenge, ethical challenge this body faces, and we must rise to the occasion and ensure that ethics will always be part of city government, and that we will address issues as they come along, even if they are controversial.
“It’s important for us to collectively come together as a body,” he said, “and provide the leadership that has been lacking for a period of time because of our inaction on this particular matter.”
Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said, however, that the City Council’s stance on the matter was already clear, and has been for months. She said that by calling for Fernandes Anderson’s resignation upon her federal indictment and arrest last December, she was not only speaking for herself, but on behalf of the entire body.
“In December, as the president of the City Council,” Louijeune said, “I stated what I believed was in the best interest of this body, speaking on behalf of this body, believe that because the public interest is so important, because public trust is so important, because making sure that voters and residents believe in us, in our ability to do this work, that I believe that it was in the best interest of the councilor to resign.
“I said that clearly, emphatically, and I repeated that as such, as the leader of this body, who knows that residents want us filling potholes, cleaning streets, doing all that. So, I’m here to make sure that we’re doing the work of the people, that we’re not playing politics, and that we are following the letter of the law,” she said.
Louijeune added that she removed Fernandes Anderson from all Council committees in early April, after her intention to plead guilty and the plea deal she accepted became public in a federal court filing.
Such a move is within the Council’s purview, per a legal opinion Louijeune sought from a city attorney, who also stated that the Council does not have the authority to remove members. Rather, councilors are automatically removed from office after being sentenced to prison on a felony conviction, the city attorney wrote.
The resolution was blocked last week as well, when Murphy and Flynn first sought to introduce it as an “emergency” late file at that Council meeting, which took place two days after Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to two federal corruption charges in Boston federal court.
Last week’s objection was made by Councilor Julia Mejia, an occasional ally of Fernandes Anderson, preventing it from being added to the agenda. Mejia said last week she objected to the late-file measure because Fernandes Anderson was not present for the discussion.
Fernandes Anderson, who represents Roxbury-centric District 7 and is paid a $120,000 salary, was absent from this week’s meeting as well. Like last week, she cited a “family emergency” in an absence letter that was read into the record by the city clerk and mentioned that it was medically-related.
After her conviction last week, Fernandes Anderson told reporters outside the federal courthouse that she plans to officially resign next month after the City Council budget process, which typically wraps up with a vote in late June. She announced she would be resigning in early April, after agreeing to a plea deal.
As part of the plea deal, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley recommended that Fernandes Anderson be sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.
Councilors Louijeune, Flynn, Murphy, Gabriela Coletta Zapata and Sharon Durkan called for Fernandes Anderson’s resignation upon her indictment and arrest last December.
Durkan didn’t speak on the day’s resolution, but Coletta Zapata spoke against it.
“I just don’t agree that this is the correct vehicle to do this,” Coletta Zapata said. “I’ve already gone on record on this issue, and I respectfully say that I just don’t think that this is a good use of our City Council time and resources.”
