Stealing the show

The cameras were on Mayor Michelle Wu as she took the mayoral oath of office for the second time on Monday.

But the eyes of the crowd inside Symphony Hall, filled with insiders and officials from the state’s political and business sectors, kept glancing over to the group of 13 city councilors seated behind her.

Over the course of Sunday into Monday afternoon, City Hall offered a variant of Henry Kissinger’s quote about university politics being vicious because the stakes are so low. The fight over the City Council presidency – a largely administrative role that comes with a spacious office – happens every couple years with varying levels of political brutality and accompanying twists and turns. The councilors up on the stage were in the throes of just such a battle for a little more power and a bit more money.

“It’s an internal drama 13 people are involved in,” as dozens of ticketholders watch, quipped John Tobin, a former councilor, as he stood a few feet away from the stage after the ceremony. That somewhat underplays the renown of Boston’s council, and the missteps that often spread far outside the metro area whenever someone gets indicted, crashes their car or flames out in a run for higher office. And there is always a chance, however small, that a mayor leaves and whoever sits in the president’s chair gets a decent shot at the top job.

After the ceremonies, the spotlight shifted to the City Council’s chambers, where councilors gathered for their vote. Reporters packed the gallery. Young and old, they knew they were in for a show.

On the floor, Councilor Julia Mejia whined about the backroom wheeling and dealing, which her colleague John FitzGerald dismissed as unhelpful rhetoric. “What do we expect?” he said. “Every two years this is the stuff that happens.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, Gabriela Coletta Zapata’s bid for the job suffered a last-minute collapse over a conference call with several councilors. Brian Worrell, who had persistently courted his colleagues despite her Nov. 10 declaration that she had the votes, appeared ascendant.

But shortly after that conference call, Councilors Sharon Durkan and Enrique Pepen, searching for a Worrell alternative, made a pilgrimage to Liz Breadon’s Brighton home. “They came quite late, and they wanted me to consider being a compromise candidate who would put themselves forward to run for city council president, and I wasn’t exactly jumping with excitement,” Breadon, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, acknowledged to reporters in her soft accent. “But when I thought about it and talked to my partner, we said, ‘Well, you know, give it a go.’”

Just after 1:30 p.m., she was city council president, getting seven votes to Worrell’s six. It happened so quickly that her pick for vice president was “TBD.” As in past scraps, committee chairmanships were offered in exchange for votes. Both camps spoke with Councilor Ben Weber about Ways and Means.

Rightly or wrongly, close observers saw the mayor’s hidden hand in the machinations – Pepen and Durkan are both viewed as Wu allies – and why not? The mayor’s predecessors have made such moves before. (The same observers also fed rumors of state lawmakers getting involved in the behind-the-scenes scramble.)

At Symphony Hall, reporters tried to press the mayor on her involvement. Wu, who as a councilor took part in multiple scrums for the presidency, didn’t bite. “It’s a process where anything can happen,” she said.

Does this make it into the top 10 scraps for the Boston City Council presidency? At least one wag told me yesterday that it didn’t, though it was before the vote. Let me know what you think: gin@massterlist.com.

HAPPENING TODAY

10:30 | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu convenes faith leaders, community safety partners and city leadership for a gathering titled, “Morning of Hope: Gathering of Faith and Community” as part of her inauguration week events. | Burns Building, 575 Warren St., Roxbury

12:00 | Massachusetts Commission for the Blind holds a remote meeting. The agenda includes a commissioner report, an update from the deputy commissioner and program updates. | More Info and Zoom

2:00 | U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit hears oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the National Institutes of Health’s termination of research grants on topics and populations disfavored by the Trump administration. Attorneys for the plaintiffs will take questions from the media outside the court house after the hearing. | En Banc Courtroom, Moakley Courthouse, 7th floor, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston | Audio Livestream

6:00 | Charlton Republican Town Committee meets. Gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue is scheduled to attend. The agenda includes discussing the special town meeting, plans for the committee’s 2026 candidate forum, 2026 town elections and working with nearby Republican town committees. | 10 Main St., Charlton | Zoom Access

FROM BEACON HILL

CONVENTION CENTER DRAMA: Emme Handy, chair of the Mass. Convention Center Authority’s board, clashed with Marcel Vernon just before he stepped down as CEO over email as Vernon moved to put its chief information security officer on administrative leave. The clash came amid a state Senate committee investigation. – Boston Business Journal

MONEY FOLLOWS ENDORSEMENT: Weeks after MassGOP officials voted to endorse John Deaton’s U.S. Senate run against Democratic incumbent Ed Markey, Deaton donated more than $346,000 to the party to pay off its debts. – WBUR

FIRED HEALEY AIDE: LaMar Cook, fired as a Healey administration aide after he was hit with trafficking charges, was provided unused vacation pay in error, and the governor’s office is looking to take the money back. – Boston Herald

UP TO ELEVEN: Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office has now certified 11 proposed ballot questions, keeping them on the road to November. If more than 9 make it to the ballot, it will set a new record for the number of ballot questions in one year. – State House News Service

VACCINE ROLLBACK: Gov. Maura Healey blasted the Trump administration for recommending fewer shots for children, saying they are “abandoning longstanding vaccine recommendations that have been proven to safely and effectively protect our children from diseases.” – NBC10 Boston

NEWS NEXT DOOR

SPRINGFIELD ELECTEDS: Springfield’s school committee now has a supermajority of women and people of color, while the city council elected as president Tracye Whitfield, its first Black woman. – MassLive

CAMBRIDGE MAYOR: Sumbul Siddiqui returned as mayor of Cambridge via a vote of her fellow councilors. She previously served two terms as mayor during the pandemic, from 2020 to 2023. – Cambridge Day

NEWTON CEREMONIES: The swearing-in of Newton Mayor Marc Laredo drew Gov. Maura Healey and Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd, who administered the oath of office. – Newton Beacon

IN MEMORIAM: Dr. Stuart Altman, the health economist who was the inaugural chair of the state’s Health Policy Commission, passed away Jan. 1 in North Carolina. He was 88. By his own account, after working for the Federal Reserve and the Defense Department, he stumbled into health care, and went on to serve as a health policy adviser to five U.S. presidential administrations. Gov. Deval Patrick appointed him to the Health Policy Commission in 2012. He was reappointed by Gov. Charlie Baker and served until 2022. – Brandeis University