Mayor has reason to be fighting mad

30 June 2004

Why is Boston Mayor Thomas Menino putting himself through this agony?

His summer has become a nightmare. Picketing cops hound him wherever he goes. They embarrassed him at the U.S. Conference of Mayors; they plan to do so during the Democratic National Convention as well. His battle with the Boston Police Patrolmen's Union long ago crossed any reasonable line between a politician's public and private life, with the attacks on him and his family ever more vitriolic. It has left the mayor frustrated and angry.

It would have been so easy to make this go away. Compared to an annual city budget of $1.9 billion, the dollars involved seem small: $14 million to $17 million over the four-year life of the contract, according to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. Moreover, it's not as if it's Menino's money. So why not capitulate?

Many of those who follow city politics ask that same question and profess bewilderment at the standoff. Some offer a psychological explanation. The mayor, they say, is prickly and stubborn, quick to take offense and long to hold a grudge. The BPPA's efforts to intimidate have backfired. What was once a simple contract dispute has mutated in his eyes from a discussion of dollars and cents into a personal clash of wills. He won't back down, no matter what.

Others argue that today's sorry situation is the consequence of a series of tactical mistakes. Menino's staff is not what it once was. Many of his best and brightest - such as his first Chief of Staff David Passafaro and his political director Peter Welsh - have left. Those remaining don't enjoy the same trust from Menino and aren't as politically astute. Good negotiators understand that the best way to arrive at an agreement is to create circumstances that allow each side to claim a win. Instead, Menino's staff let the negotiations become stuck in a cycle of ever-escalating public demands that hardened the positions on each side, making it almost impossible to achieve a mutually face-saving result.

Both of these theories have merit. Menino really is thin- skinned. And the mayor's staff is depleted, although those who have left are still close to the mayor and talk to him regularly.

In truth, though, neither theory is right. Both underestimate Menino's political intelligence and fail to understand his real character. Above all, Menino is a pragmatist. His stubbornness is less a personality flaw than it is a tool that he uses to intimidate and get his way. When he needs to, angry or not, Menino knows how to cut a deal.

Menino fights this battle for a different reason: He has to. In a way, it's a kind of purgatory for a mistake he made three years ago. And he understands it's a fight he must win, one with serious long- term implications for the city.

In 2001, in the midst of an election and after a year's worth of harassment (much like that he now endures), the mayor settled with the firefighters' union, giving it exactly what it wanted. It bought him some temporary peace and an easy November win but came at a high price. It also taught every union leader a lesson: Menino was easy to push around. Yell, scream and threaten enough, and eventually the guy will cave.

Menino learned some lessons as well. Paying for salary increases is hard, and usually comes at the expense of basic city services. Each union contract relates to the other; the results of one become the expectations of all. In addition, contracts have short lives. They aren't problems you can slough off to an indeterminate future. Rather, they are constant challenges, each time more costly than the last.

And finally, Menino learned the most important lesson: Giving into intimidation doesn't buy you any friends. It just brands you as an easy mark.

If Menino gave the BPPA what it wants, he would face the same demands from those who have not yet settled, including at least two other police unions and the firefighters (which is yet again up for renewal). Moreover, some already-settled contracts have provisions in them that cause them to re-open if other unions get a better deal. The amounts rapidly add up and over time become overwhelming.

Sure, one can pay for wage increases by firing teachers, trimming the size of the police force or cutting the number of plows on the street. But those are precisely the kinds of things that are critical to the city's vitality. Wipe them out and Boston follows the ignominious path of Detroit, Philadelphia and many other American cities.

So Menino today finds himself paying for a mistake, sacrificing a fun summer and some short-term acclaim, but for the right reason. The BPPA has put him through the worst and, so far, he's hung tough. No longer a patsy, he increasingly bargains from a position of strength.