Sullivan Wins In Quick Vote For City Mayor

Michael A. Sullivan, a member of one of the city’s oldest political families, unseated Anthony D. Galluccio on Monday to become the new mayor of Cambridge in the first vote of the 2002-2003 City Council.

Sullivan gained the support of five of the nine councillors prior to the meeting.

In his remarks after winning the mayor’s seat, Sullivan outlined his priorities for the upcoming two years, concluding with the statement that the council should form a new committee to deal with the city’s universities.

“There needs to be a long-range plan [for university growth] that we are aware of,” Sullivan said.

“There needs to be an appropriate in lieu of tax payment,” he added, referring to the annual payment that the universities give to the city annually instead of taxes—always a matter of contention.

In an interview last night, Sullivan said he thinks the odds that Harvard will be more receptive to working with the city are greater under new Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone than under his predecessor, Paul S. Grogan.

“We went from a government group that was bent toward Boston with minimum attention to Cambridge [to a new administration],” Sullivan said. “I think there may be some reluctance to meet with the council, but I think it would behoove them to do it.”

The mayoral election capped the council’s tradition-filled inaugural meeting, which included formal wear, red carpets, a harpist and floral arrangements. More than 300 people packed into a festive City Hall.

The meeting was the first for members E. Denise Simmons and Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87, who were elected to the council in November.

Sullivan is a five-term councillor known for his experience as the chair of the council’s finance committee, as well as for being the latest politician in Cambridge’s Sullivan family, once dubbed the “Kennedys of Cambridge.”

Sullivan’s uncle, Edward Sullivan, a former mayor and current Middlesex County clerk of courts, swore in the new mayor in the city council’s Sullivan chamber, underneath a portrait of legendary councillor Michael “Mickey the Dude” Sullivan.

“Michael, I’m sure that that fellow in the middle looks down and nudges Grandma, and he says, ‘That’s our grandson,’” Edward Sullivan told his nephew, looking at the portrait above the mayor’s seat.

Sullivan’s years as the city’s finance committee chair will be particularly handy this year, since the School Committee—which Sullivan will chair as mayor—will have to make do with a smaller budget this year, given the decreases in tax revenue, Councillor Henrietta Davis said.

Sullivan’s win came through building a coalition with the three councillors affiliated with the city’s traditional progressive party, the Cambridge Civic Association (CCA).

Davis, the longest-service CCA member on the council, was elected vice mayor, although initially she had intended to make a run for mayor herself.

“I assessed my chances with my colleagues, and it didn’t look like it was coming to me,” Davis said in an interview yesterday.

Davis said that she thought it was important that the council elect a leader on the first day. In the past several mayoral elections, the council has spent months in deadlock over the selection, with contentious, divisive battles marking the process. In 2000, Galluccio was only elected early in the morning on Feb. 15, six weeks after the council’s voting for mayor began.

In the voting for mayor on Monday, Galluccio—who was the leading vote-getter in November’s city election—was only able to garner two of five council votes necessary to win in his bid for a second term. Marjorie C. Decker also sought the post, winning two votes.

The four who voted against Sullivan later changed their votes to make the election unanimous.

“I’d like to proudly be recorded in favor of my friend Michael A. Sullivan for mayor,” Galluccio said.

Galluccio will be remembered for his consensus-building and, in chairing the School Committee, working to pass the recent plan to integrate Cambridge schools on the basis of families’ economic status, his colleagues said.

“He’s a very inclusive person and he worked hard to further the cause of equity in the schools and I think he did a tremendous amount as mayor,” said former councillor Kathleen L. Born, who worked with Galluccio last term.

But Born said she was excited to see Sullivan at the helm.

“I think Michael was a great choice, and I think that he’s a very practical person, he’s a great listener,” Born said.

Only three times in Cambridge history has the same mayor served two consecutive terms, largely due to the council’s tradition of councillors taking turns serving as mayor.

Sullivan said he spent his first full day as mayor dealing with temporary staffing issues to fill an empty mayor’s office, until he can hire a staff of his own. Galluccio’s five-person mayoral staff lost their city-paid jobs as a result of the change in power.

—Andrew S. Holbrook and Stephanie M. Skier contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.