Boston mayoral rivals say they would have handled Dennis White situation differently

Boston mayoral candidates called for the next mayor to make a permanent appointment to fill the police commissioner spot adding they would have handled the situation differently than Acting Mayor Kim Janey did.

Multiple candidates — state Rep. Jon Santiago and City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Michelle Wu — said they want an acting commissioner like Superintendent Greg Long to remain in place and for the next mayor to be able to make a permanent appointment.

Campbell, who criticized Janey’s administration last week for allowing the situation to devolve into a messy and public legal fight, said there should be a search that would allow the next mayor to replace Dennis White.

“Bostonians deserve transparency,” she told the Herald.

Campbell and Wu both said they believe White can’t remain police commissioner in the long term.

The new mayor should launch a comprehensive, national search to fill this post upon taking office in November,” Wu said in a statement.

Santiago told the Herald, “What needs to happen right now is that we need to empower Superintendent Long to do his job, and wait for the appointment of the next commissioner when after the election’s over. We need to depoliticize the issue right now.”

Candidate John Barros, the city’s former economic development chief, said of White that it has “become too complicated for him to effectively lead the department,” but, “the acting mayor owes Dennis an audience — a hearing about his side of this … she mishandled it.”

Candidate and City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George said in a statement, “When selecting someone to appoint into a leadership position, I will conduct rigorous vetting and thorough background checks.”

Janey attempted to fire the suspended White last Friday as she released the results of an independent report about decades-old abuse claims against the top cop. But after Janey told White that she’d hold a hearing later that day to remove him, White hired lawyers and filed suit, putting the move into a continuing holding pattern.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3f31c3k