Ed Flynn (politician)

Edward M. Flynn is an American politician currently serving on the Boston City Council, representing the city's 2nd district. He has held his seat since January 2017. From January 2022 until January 2024, he served as president of the Boston City Council. He is the son of former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn.

Flynn is a veteran of the United States Navy, having previously spent 25 years in the military branch. While active duty, he served two deployments to the Persian Gulf. He also spent time serving abroad while in the Naval Reserves. He served as a legislative affairs specialist at the United States Department of Labor for five years during the Clinton administration, working on matters related to expanding access to affordable healthcare and efforts to increase federal minimum wage. He also served as a transpiration logistical specialist with the United States Department of Defense's Joint Task Force-Armed Forces Inaugural Committee for the 2005 United States presidential inauguration. He has also previously worked as a probation officer in the Suffolk Superior Court, a state public safety official, and a substitute teacher.

In 2005, Flynn unsuccessfully ran for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council, placing eighth in the general election for four seats. In 2007, Flynn unsuccessfully ran in a special election for the 2nd district seat on the Boston City Council, placing third in the nonpartisan primary. In 2017, Flynn succeeded in his third campaign for city council, narrowly winning an open election for the 2nd district seat. Flynn has since been reelected three times without opposition (in 2019, 2021, and 2023). After joining the council, Flynn was a strong advocate for the passage of city regulations on short-term rentals, which were ultimately adopted in 2018. In his third term on the council (2021 and 2022), Flynn served as the council's president. During his term as president, the council carried out the process of adopting a map for its decennial redistricting which proved contentious. Flynn has pushed for the creation of a dedicated "rat czar" position to centralize leadership on pest control in the city.

Early life and career


Flynn was born to Raymond Flynn and Kathy Flynn (Coyne). Flynn's father was mayor of Boston from 1984 through 1993, and was also a ambassador of the United States to the Holy See from 1993 through 1997, a member of the Boston City Council from 1978 through 1984, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1971 through 1978.

Flynn was one of six siblings. Flynn graduated high school at Boston's Don Bosco Technical High School. He graduated college at Salve Regina College, where he studied history and government.

Flynn served in the United States Navy for 25 years, becoming a second-class petty officer. He served active duty in the Persian Gulf on two deployments, and had further service abroad in the United States Naval Reserves. His military service included Operation Enduring Freedom. In the United States Navy Reserves, one of his assignments was assisting in the coordination of disaster relief after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Flynn worked as a probation officer in the Suffolk Superior Court, as a state public safety official, as a legislative affairs specialist at the United States Department of Labor during the Clinton administration, and as a transpiration logistical specialist with the United States Department of Defense's Joint Task Force-Armed Forces Inaugural Committee for the 2005 United States presidential inauguration. At the Department of Labor, where he worked for five years during the Clinton administration, he worked on matters related to expanding access to affordable healthcare and efforts to increase the federal minimum wage.

In 2005, Flynn permanently moved back to Boston from Washington, D.C., settling in South Boston and beginning work as a substitute teacher at Charlestown High School. By the time he was elected to the Boston City Council in 2017, Flynn had held membership in a number of Bostonian civic organizations, including the Cityside Neighborhood Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars Thomas M. Fitzgerald Post, Ward 7 Democratic Committee, and South Boston Citizens' Association.

Unsuccessful 2005 and 2007 Boston City Council campaigns
In April 2005, a month after resettling in Boston, Flynn declared that he had intended to run for an at-large seat in the 2005 Boston City Council election. He cited youth substance abuse as a key issue he intended to focus on, declaring that, "OxyContin and heroin are an epidemic now, in every neighborhood. I would like to try to get the business community involved". Flynn advanced from the nonpartisan primary election to the general election, but was unsuccessful, placing eighth in the race for four at-large seats.

In 2007, Flynn ran in the second district special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death in office of James M. Kelly. He placed third in the nonpartisan primary election behind Susan M. Passoni and Bill Linehan, thus failing to advance to the general election.

2017 election to the Boston City Council
Flynn was elected to the Boston City Council's 2nd district seat in 2017 being vacated by outgoing Councilmember Bill Linehan. Flynn was elected, defeating LGBTQ activist Mike Kelley by over three percentage points in the general election.

During the campaign, Flynn was considered the front-runner. Among those who endorsed his candidacy were Congressman Stephen F. Lynch, retiring City Councilor Bill Linehan, City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty, and State Representative Nick Collins. He was also endorsed by a number of trade unions, as well as the Chinese Progressive Association.

Among the issues that Flynn pledged would be a priority for him if he was elected was addressing the problem of domestic violence. He invoked the work his mother had done as the city's first lady to support survivors of domestic violence, promising to continue her work.

In mid-October 2017, the already-retiring Councilor Bill Linehan announced his early resignation from the City Council and also gave his endorsement of Flynn's candidacy to succeed him. Flynn narrowly won the election, capturing more than 52% of the vote in the general election.

First term (2018 and 2019)
Flynn took office, becoming the third individual to hold the council's 2nd district seat since it was established in 1984. After joining the council, Flynn stopped working as a probation officer at the Suffolk Superior Court.

In December 2018, the Boston City Council unanimously voted to pass an ordinance that Flynn authored with Lydia Edwards that extended the period of repayment for back taxes by low-income elder residents, and forgave interest.

In 2017, Flynn's campaign noted a need for the city to adopt regulations for short-term rentals. In June 2018, Flynn voted for an ordinance which regulated short-term rentals in the city by restricting short-term rentals to owner-occupied housing units, requiring hosts to register with the city, and requiring the city to collect and publish data on short-term rentals The ordinance's adoption was endorsed both by then-City Council President Michelle Wu and then-mayor Marty Walsh. In hearings prior to its 11-2 adoption by the City Council, Flynn vociferously supported the ordinance. He argued that it would preserve the ability for neighborhoods like Chinatown to accommodate working-class immigrants as residents, and highlighted a need to, "defend our communities from commercialization, investor speculation and to protect the fabric of our neighborhoods."

In late-2019, Flynn partnered with Councilwomen Michelle Wu and Lydia Edwards to hold a hearing meant to identify possible loopholes in the enforcement of the short-term rental regulation ordinance adopted the previous year.

Second term (2020 and 2021)


Flynn was reelected in 2019.

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the United States, Flynn introduced a resolution to express the council's support towards the city's Chinese and broader Asian communities. The city's Chinatown neighborhood had suffered more pronounced economic hardship in that stage of the pandemic than other areas of the city, likely due to negative attitudes towards the Chinese due to perceptions related to the pandemic's origins in China.

In 2021, Flynn voted against legislation that was passed by the City Council which restricted the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray by the Boston Police Department. After the legislation was passed in January 2021, it was vetoed by Mayor Walsh. However, after Walsh resigned the office of mayor to become United States secretary of labor and Council President Kim Janey became acting mayor, the resolution was again brought to a vote. Flynn again voted against it, but the resolution was passed by the council and signed into law by Acting Mayor Janey.

Third term and council presidency (2022 and 2023)
Flynn was reelected to his city council seat in 2021.

Election as council president
On the Boston City Council, its president is elected by a vote of its members. The campaign process of those seeking the presidency generally occurs behind closed doors, with the contenders privately lobbying and negotiating with members of the council for their votes. Initially, after the new council had been elected, rumors initially arose that Kenzie Bok had secured the backing of enough City Council members to be elected the City Council's president for its 2022–23 term. It has been reported by the press that sources have said was initially the case, but that Flynn (who had initially pledged to support Bok for president) and two additional councilors decided to withdraw their backing of her candidacy, and partnered with a coalition of newly elected freshman City Council members to support Flynn to serve as the president, giving Flynn sufficient support to win the presidency.



On December 1, 2021, Flynn announced in a press release that he had secured guarantees of support from enough council members that he was confident he would be voted by the city council to serve as its president of the Boston City Council during its 2022–23 term. WGBH-TV reported that numerous sources had informed them that Flynn had indeed received support from enough councilors to win the position. It was reported that the councilors who had rival efforts for the council presidency had been Ricardo Arroyo and Kenzie Bok. It was noted that it was possible that councilors could potentially shift their support before the January vote. However, upon Flynn's apparent success in securing sufficient backing to become council president, Arroyo released a statement that acted as an informal concession of sorts, giving strong praise to Flynn's kindness and work ethic, and declaring that he looked forward, "to seeing how he utilizes those great qualities in this leadership role." Flynn ultimately was elected unanimously to the council presidency in the formal vote.

Political reporter Saraya Wintersmith of WGBH-TV opined that, while the position of City Council president was mostly a symbolic post, it was poised to take more political importance in the Boston City Council's 2022–23 term than had previously been usual, with the council set to receive greater power in the city's budgeting process and poised to play a role in determining new appointees to seats on the Boston School Committee. The Boston City Council was anticipated at the time to play a greater role in city decision making than it previously had.

Council activities


During Flynn's presidency, Michelle Wu was the city's mayor. Wu (who had only recently become mayor) is considered to be significantly more of a political progressive than Flynn, who is regarded as one of the council's most moderate members and has sometimes been described as a critic of Wu. Flynn stated that he had a good working relationship with Wu and saw it as important to collaborate with her mayoral administration. At the end of his council presidency, Flynn responded to a reporter's question on his opinion of Mayor Wu's job performance by saying, "I think she’s done a good job. I’m close with the mayor personally. I like her, I respect her." Despite initial anticipation that the Boston City Council would wield more power than it previously had, during Flynn's' tenure as president, Mayor Wu generally prevailed in instances where she and the City Council were at odds. Emma Platoff of the The Boston Globe credited Wu's ability to frequently prevail on matters where she and the City Council were not aligned to Wu's own "political savvy", the strong legal power afforded to mayors of Boston, divisions on the City Council that give the body a weaker negotiating position, and the inexperience of new council members.



During this council term, Flynn was joined councilors Frank Baker, Michael F. Flaherty, and Erin Murphy in often functioning together as a centrist voting bloc.



As city council president, Flynn treated the homelessness crisis at Mass & Cass as a priority matter. In September 2023, Flynn and councilors Baker, Flaherty, and Murphy signed onto a letter urging that the Boston Public Health Commission hold a vote at their next meeting declaring the situation at Mass & Cass to be a public health emergency. In October 2023, Flynn voted for the mayor's ordinance to prohibit temporary shelters such as tents from the Mass & Cass area. The ordinance passed 9–3.



In early 2022, Flynn publicly endorsed ordinance proposed by Wu which limited the hours during which targeted protests would be permitted outside of private residences, with violations punishable by fine. Wu herself had been the subject of targeted protests outside of her personal residence, and the ordinance generated controversy. The ordinance was approved by the council in a 9–4 vote in March 2022.

As council president, Flynn suspended Councilman Ricardo Arroyo from his committee chairmanships after it was reported in The Boston Globe that Arroyo had been investigated for sexual assault in 2005 and 2007 without being charged for a crime. In July 2023, Flynn published an open letter on Twitter which criticized Councilman Arroyo's sexual assault scandals and Councilwoman Kendra Lara's scandal involving unsafe driving charges as being "ethical and legal lapses" that "draw negative attention" on the council.

In August 2022, ahead of month-long closure of a key segment of the MBTA Orange Line, Flynn and several other city councilors wrote a letter to the MBTA that requested the operation of shuttle bus service to Chinatown during the closure. He expressed worry that the MBTA was not including Chinatown in its plan for alternate transit during the closure.

Flynn was one of four Boston city councilors that voted against the council's redistricting map that was initially approved by the City Council after the 2020 United States Census and which and Mayor Wu passed into law in November 2022. The map made major alterations to the shape of Flynn's district and a neighboring district. Flynn took particular issue with the fact that the map placed two large South Boston public housing developments in different city council districts. Flynn had desired to keep all of South Boston and the South End in the boundaries of his own district, which the new map did not do. The redistricting process was contentious. The map would have shifted three voting precincts that have historically been predominantly Irish American into a ward that is Black-majority. While Yawu Miller of the Bay State Banner described Flynn as having been "civil" in expressing his opposition, he alleged that the four councilor's oppositions were grounded in "white grievance politics". It was noted by Michael Jonas of Commonwealth Magazine that the four city councilors to vote against the map were all White and politically moderate. Before it was adopted, Flynn had fought and attempted to stall the adoption of the new map and proposed to instead have an independent panel draw the new map. The map that Flynn was against was ultimately prohibited by preliminary injunction from being used in the 2023 Boston City Council election after a ruling by Federal Judge Patti Saris. Flynn had given $10,000 of his own money to help fund the litigation that had challenged the map. After the judicial ruling, Flynn tasked Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, head of the Boston City Council's Civil Rights Committee, to oversee the process of drawing a map to be used in the 2023 Boston City Council election instead of Liz Breadon, the head of the Redistricting Committee. The resulting map was adopted by the council in a 10–2 vote and signed into law by Mayor Wu.



Flynn authored an ordinance requiring bars, restaurants, and gyms in the city to display close captioning on their television in order to accommodate those with hearing disabilities. It was signed into law by Mayor Wu in December 2022. In 2023, Flynn stated that he considered the 6% plus CPI cap that Mayor Wu placed in the rent stabilization home rule petition she placed before the City Council to be a "reasonable" compromise. In May 2023, Flynn proposed that the Boston City Council adopt an official no-tolerance policy for bullying by members, their staff, and other council employees. Flynn voiced his desire for Boston to follow New York City's lead and hire a "rat czar" to address steps to decrease the city's rat population. Mayor Wu indicated her willingness to support the creation of such a position. In late November 2023, a proposal by Flynn to establish a committee dedicated to the issue of domestic violence was rejected in a City Council. Opponents of the proposal argued that a dedicated committee was not needed.

In June 2023, Flynn voted against an amended budget that was approved by the City Council 7–5. The vote had largely been along racial lines, with Flynn and the other four city councilors who voted against the budget all being white, and all but one city councilor who voted for the amendment being persons of color. Flynn voiced strong opposition to budget amendments that included a decrease to the city's Department of Veterans Services and the city's police budget. Both of those amendments that Flynn cited specific opposition to were vetoed by Mayor Wu.

In December 2023, Flynn criticized other councilors for voting against a bill that would have allowed the city to accept a federal grant for counterterrorism measures. The bill had failed to pass in a 6–6 vote that month.

Flynn voted against a home rule petition that would seek state approval for Boston to extend voting participation in municipal elections to non-citizen residents with legal status.

Fourth term (2024–present)


Flynn was reelected in the 2023 Boston City Council election.

At the January 2024 inaugural session of the new city council term, Flynn nominated Julia Mejia to serve as the council's president. Mejia declined to be a candidate, and Ruthzee Louijeune was unanimously elected as the council president.

In January 2024, Flynn revived his proposal from the previous year of creating a dedicated "rat czar" position to lead the city's pest control. Flynn introduced a resolution that would create an Office of Pest Control headed by a "director of pest control". This would centralize leadership on pest control, responsibility for which is currently shared between the Department of Public Works, the city's inspectional services, and the city's water and sewer commission. On January 31, the council unanimously adopted Flynn's ordinance, placing it on the mayor's desk.

In January 2024, Flynn traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel to attend a conference on the subject of Israel-Hamas War and other middle east concerns. His trip was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), an organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Flynn was part of an American delegation had been invited to attend. Flynn described his participation as a "fact-finding mission".

In January, 2024, Flynn pushed for the city council to allow the city to accept a Federal counter-terrorism grant, pointing to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing to highlight terrorism concerns. A December 2023 measure to authorize the acceptance of the grant had failed in December 2023. On January 31, 2024, a measure put forward by Flynn to accept the grant was passed by the city council.

In early 2024, Flynn revived his efforts to establish a committee dedicated to domestic violence issues. Council President Ruthzee Louijeuene, who had opposed his efforts to do so in the previous council term, again took issue with the necessity for a separate committee to handle matters of domestic violence, arguing that the council's existing Strong Women, Families and Communities Committee had been created with the stated intention of handling such issues.

In February 2024, Flynn celebrated when American Family Care withdrew from consideration by the Zoning Board of Appeal their application to construct and operate a for-profit urgent care clinic near the location of the existing nonprofit South Boston Community Health Center. Flynn argued that the for-profit urgent care clinic would not have filled any void in the community in regards to access to care, and would have harmed the feasibility for the longterm operation of the exiting nonprofit healthcare center. Flynn lambasted the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) for having previously given a positive recommendation on the proposed for-profit clinic.

In February 2024, Flynn and Councilor Murphy introduced a resolution urging for the city to expand eligibility for Mayor Wu's pilot program that provides free admission to museums for Boston Public Schools students and their families. The resolution proposed opening up to students who do not attend the city's public schools. Councilor Sharon Durkan had the resolution sent to committee for further consideration, rather than put to an immediate vote, noting that the existing program was still in a pilot phase and arguing that further discussion should be had before voting on the resolution.



In March 2024, Flynn complained of public drunkenness, property damage, and fights by attendees of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade. He proposed as a possible crowd control solution the prospect of having Massachusetts National Guardsmen patrol MBTA stations on the day of the parade. He also floated the possibility that the parade might need to be moved out of the South Boston neighborhood and into Downtown Boston. He remarked, "I don't necessarily want to see the parade move, but I don't want to see this behavior continue, either." The parade has been held in South Boston ever since 1901, when it was moved from Downtown Boston into the neighborhood.

Flynn's political views and political analysis about Flynn


Flynn is a member of the Democratic Party. He is regarded to be one of the more politically moderate members of the Boston City Council. He has sometimes been regarded as a critic of Mayor Wu, although he has also spoken in praise of her.

In March 2022, in advance of the vote for president of the City Council, reporter Danny McDonald wrote a profile on Flynn for The Boston Globe. In the profile, he opined that, "you’d have a hard time crafting a figure more emblematic of Boston’s old power structure" than Flynn, noting that Flynn was white, middle aged, Irish Catholic, a Boston native, and a political scion. McDonald noted that these were attributes that had, for a long time, been characteristics of a large share of past Boston City Council members. He opined that this posed an interesting contrast with the reality that the Boston City Council had seen its membership rapidly diversify over the past several elections. McDoanld also opined that Flynn's representation of the city's "old power structure" contrasted with the "new power structure" that he believed that Boston had embraced, which he argued had been emblemized by the 2021 election of, "an unabashedly progressive mayor, Michelle Wu, and a historically diverse council that continues to tack to the left." McDonald also characterized Flynn as an individual that generally sought to avoid media attention, preferring that the media instead focus their attention on his City Council colleagues.

In April 2023, Michael Jonas of Commonwealth magazine wrote, "Ed Flynn has cut a profile much like the one his father had after becoming mayor, a loyal son of Southie who has gone to great lengths to promote racial harmony and heal divisions, not inflame them."

Potential pursuit of higher office
In September 2023, when questioned on future pursuit of higher office, Flynn expressed an openness to later running for state or federal office, but expressed a reluctance towards the prospect of running for mayor. Flynn said that a mayoral run would be "very unlikely," remarking that he was, "happy being a city councilor," and quipping, "I think there’s one Mayor Flynn in the family, and that was my dad." In May 2024, he reiterated that he does not plan to run for mayor. In late 2023, Flynn also remarked, "I would like to at some point to work at the Veterans Administration."

Personal life
Flynn and his wife Kristen have two children. He is Irish Catholic. He lives in South Boston. He has sometimes been known as "Eddie" Flynn.

Electoral history
† write-in votes

† write-in votes