BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press
STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Former Gov. Deval Patrick has decided to pass on a paid consulting job promoting the city’s Olympic bid overseas.
Patrick said yesterday he’s planning to take a full-time position soon and will forgo all outside consulting pay, including the $7,500-per-day fee he was to earn for travel on behalf of the Olympic organizing group Boston 2024.
“Because I think the Olympics could be good for the Commonwealth, I will continue to help as and when I can, but not for a fee,” Patrick said in brief statement.
Hours earlier Mayor Marty Walsh told Boston Herald Radio he didn’t think Patrick should be paid for promoting the Olympic bid. Walsh said he believes former governors should be “ambassadors for Massachusetts.”
“I think it would be a good gesture of representing this commonwealth and taking this commonwealth on the world stage — and I don’t think they should be getting paid at all,” Walsh said.
Walsh, a prominent supporter of the Olympic bid, was asked if he had endorsed Patrick’s fee.
“No. Absolutely not,” Walsh said.
Patrick’s compensation was revealed when Boston 2024, a privately-financed group, disclosed the salaries of its top executives and consultants this month after a request from Walsh.
Six top staffers of the organization earn annual salaries above $100,000, led by chief executive Richard Davey, who served as secretary of transportation under Patrick and is being paid $300,000. Erin Murphy, its chief operating officer and chief bid officer, earns $215,000, while chief administrative officer Joe Rull’s salary is $175,000.
Patrick had not done any travel for the group. The former two-term governor, who left office in January, had said earlier he had been retained as a consultant to help promote Boston and Massachusetts as sites for the games to members of the International Olympic Committee.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney, who led the organizing committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, has provided advice to Boston 2024 without being paid. Walsh and Patrick are Democrats; Romney is a Republican.
The IOC is expected in 2017 to name a host city for the 2024 summer games. Boston has been selected as the American bid city by the U.S. Olympic Committee and likely will compete with several international entrants, including Rome and Hamburg, Germany.
Murphy had defended the decision to compensate Patrick $7,500 a day for travel.
“Governor Patrick has a passionate voice and unbridled enthusiasm for promoting Boston and Massachusetts to the world and believes the Olympic and Paralympic Games can greatly benefit the Commonwealth,” she said when the salaries were disclosed.
Northwind Strategies, a firm run by onetime Patrick political strategist Doug Rubin, is among other consultants listed by Boston 2024 and is being paid $15,000 per month for work on communications, the group said.
Patrick’s statement yesterday did not elaborate on the full-time job he planned to take or when it would begin.
In response to recent polls relative to public support for Boston hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Boston 2024 last night highlighted its grassroots programs and a recent independent economic impact analysis as evidence that public support is set to rise steadily in the months ahead throughout the Commonwealth.
“After one of our worst ever winters, we know that we need to be out across the city and the state over the forthcoming days, weeks and months to build support and make the case that the 2024 Games would leave an extremely positive legacy for generations to come,” said Davey in a statement released last night. “The more one-on-one conversations we have – discussing the benefits and addressing concerns – the more support will grow. That is why Boston 2024 has scheduled 20 public meetings in 20 weeks across Massachusetts in addition to the nine neighborhood meetings Mayor Walsh is hosting in Boston.”
“The Games’ economic impact and job creation opportunities – estimated by independent researchers to be over $9 billion and tens of thousands of jobs – will be transformative,” he said in the statement. “We also believe the Games will spur dramatic infrastructure upgrades, transportation improvements, and affordable housing construction that will leave a tremendous legacy for Boston and the region.”
A report commissioned by The Boston Foundation and conducted by the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute, found that hosting the Games in Boston would create more than 24,000 job-years of construction employment and about $4 billion in economic impact in the six years leading up to the Games. In addition, the report estimated 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in economic impact from the operation of the Games, and over $500 million and 4,300 jobs from increased tourism. A copy of the full report can be found at www.tbf.org/reports.
Boston 2024 recently began a series of 20 community meetings in 20 weeks across Massachusetts. Recent meetings have been held in Roxbury, Cambridge and Lowell with upcoming meetings scheduled for the South Coast, Springfield and Malden in the next two weeks.
Volunteer recruitment meetings, meanwhile, are scheduled for Sandwich and Needham, following up on recent meetings in Newton and Lowell.
A meeting scheduled for the South Coast next week is expected to bring support from local leaders hoping to take part in the Games.
