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‘I am back’: Former Boston City Councilor Frank Baker announces run for at-large seat

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‘I am back’: Former Boston City Councilor Frank Baker announces run for at-large seat


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“I have heard a steady beat of Bostonians urging me to step back in and get involved. After much deliberation and discussion, I have decided to answer the call and do just that,” Baker said.

Boston City Councilors met at Boston City Hall in 2021. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Frank Baker, a former Boston City Councilor who represented most of Dorchester, is running to return to the body as an at-large city councilor. 

Baker, a lifelong Dorchester resident, represented District 3 for 12 years and was part of the council’s conservative wing. Before his time on the council, he worked for the City of Boston Printing Department and was a union member, according to his city bio.

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Baker announced his candidacy on X Thursday afternoon after the Boston Herald first reported rumblings that he was considering pursuing a reelection bid. 

“Since I stepped back from my role on the City Council, I have heard a steady beat of Bostonians urging me to step back in and get involved. After much deliberation and discussion, I have decided to answer the call and do just that,” Baker wrote on X, promising to be “a strong independent voice for the people of Boston.”

Larry DiCara, a former council president familiar with Boston politics, said Baker spoke to him about considering a run, saying he had been thinking about it “for a long time.” 

“I expect that he believes John FitzGerald is doing a great job, which I think most people do,” DiCara said, referring to the new District 3 representative. “When (Baker) was on the council, he probably asked the toughest questions, and it will probably increase the volume of the council race, and I think it’s good for democracy.”

Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and Councilors Erin Murphy, Julia Mejia, and Henry Santana are the current at-large city councilors. DiCara predicts that Louijeune and Murphy “should be in very good shape.” Santana was first elected in 2023 after Baker declined to run for reelection, while Mejia was first elected in 2019.

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Councilor Ed Flynn, who is running for reelection to his District 2 seat, and Murphy are sometimes a team of dissenters against Mayor Michelle Wu and her many allies on the council, including Louijeune. The pair filed a formal communication in November to voice their concerns about Louijeune’s “conduct in meetings” and “perceived bias.”

When Baker, a registered Democrat, chose to step away from his role as District 3 councilor, Boston.com reported on some of his past votes, including opposing rent control, regulating the short-term rental industry, a tax on luxury real estate deals, and a fare-free MBTA.

FitzGerald, Mejia, Murphy, and Santana didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.





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Boston, MA

First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather

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First Alert: Mix of snow and rain today, then looking ahead to warmer weather


Today is a First Alert weather day. A system to our south is pushing mix of snow and rain into southern New England through this evening and tonight. 

For us here in Greater Boston, expect snow to continue spreading over our area through the afternoon/evening commute. In fact, parts our area could see up to 1 to 2 inches of snow accumulation before the sleet and rain move in.

Much of Greater Boston will likely see snow amounts on the lower end. Higher snow amounts are expected toward southern New Hampshire and along and north of outer Route 2. Also, some ice accumulations are possible, up to a tenth of an inch, creating a thin glaze here and there.

Dozens of schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts have already announced early dismissals as a result of the storm.

While this system won’t cripple our area, conditions could still create a mess on the roads during the evening commute through tonight. Be careful while driving. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for parts of our area through early Wednesday morning. High temperatures will be in the mid to upper 30s today. Overnight lows will drop into the low 30s.

We’ll wake up to patchy fog Wednesday morning before the sun returns. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s. We’ll stay in the 40s on Thursday with increasing clouds. But by late Thursday night into Friday, wet weather returns. Some snow could mix with the rain into Friday morning. Highs will be in the upper 30s Friday.

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Warmer weather is expected this weekend. Highs will be in the 50s Saturday and possibly near 60 on Sunday.



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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe

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Boston police officials dominate the list of highest-paid city workers in 2025 – The Boston Globe


That was more than what every other city department spent on overtime combined, though it was a slight drop from the $103 million the police department spent on overtime in 2024.

High overtime spending inside the police department has long been controversial and a source of frustration for police-reform advocates. Last year’s nine-figure total comes as Mayor Michelle Wu warns of a challenging budget season to come for the city, which is grappling with inflation and the possibility of more federal funding cuts.

In a December letter, Wu told the city council that she instructed city department heads to find ways to cut 2 percent of their budgets in the next fiscal year. She also imposed a delay on new hires. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper has also proposed cutting somewhere between 300 and 400 positions next fiscal year due to budget constraints.

Overall, the city spent about $2.5 billion on employee salaries in 2025, up around 1.5 percent from $2.4 billion in 2024. The city employs roughly 21,000 workers, according to a public dashboard.

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In a statement, Emma Pettit, a spokesperson for Wu’s office, attributed the payroll increase to raises, and in some cases, employees receiving retroactive pay, that were part of contracts the city negotiated with its various labor unions.

“We’re grateful to our city employees for their hard work to hold Boston to the highest standard for delivering city services,” Pettit said.

When Wu won her first mayoral race in November 2021, all of the city’s 44 union contracts had expired. Since then, Wu’s office has negotiated new agreements with all of them, and last year, agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.

But as the city heads back to the bargaining table to negotiate extensions or new contracts with others, city leaders should keep cost at the forefront of those conversations, said Steve Poftak, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-backed budget watchdog group.

“As budgets tighten, I’m hopeful that it increases the scrutiny on these collective bargaining agreements,” Poftak said.

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The top earner on the city’s payroll last year was Boston Police Captain Timothy Connolly. In addition to his $194,000 base salary, Connolly took home nearly $230,000 in overtime, about $26,000 in undefined “other pay,” and roughly $49,000 as part of a higher-education bonus, for a total of $498,145 in compensation.

Skipper, as BPS superintendent, was the 55th-highest earner among city workers, coming behind 54 members of the police department. She made a total of $378,000 in 2025.

Nearly 300 city employees made more than $300,000 last year. In contrast, Wu made $207,000, though her salary increased to $250,000 this year. More than 1,700 city employees made more than the mayor in 2025.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, argued that the high overtime costs in the police department are, in part, a result of understaffing.

The department is short roughly 400 rank-and-file police officers, Calderone said, meaning the department has to pay its staff to work overtime and fill vacant shifts. The average salary for an officer in the BPPA is roughly $195,000, Calderone said.

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With several large events approaching, including a Boston-based fan fest around this summer’s World Cup matches and the return of a fleet of tall ships to Boston Harbor, Calderone said most of the members of his union are likely to be working the maximum allowable 90 hours a week.

“We just don’t have the bodies on the street,” he said.

The Boston Police Department and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation — the union that represents the department’s sergeants, captains, and lieutenants — did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Jamarhl Crawford, an activist and former member of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, said while high spending on overtime is not new for the police department, it’s a pressing problem the city should tackle.

The police and fire departments are “essential components of the city and society in general … [and] folks should be getting a fair wage. But it also has to be within fiscal responsibility,” Crawford said.

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“In another 10 years,” he continued, “with pensions and everything else, this type of thing can bankrupt the city.”


Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold. Yoohyun Jung can be reached at y.jung@globe.com.





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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing

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Red Sox rotation contender strikes out four in dominant outing


FORT MYERS, Fla. — Johan Oviedo’s first outing of the spring last week didn’t go great, as the right-hander walked three over 1 2/3 innings in a performance manager Alex Cora described as “erratic.”

His second outing on Monday went much better.



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