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One hour and a half into its first meeting of the year, Boston City Council elected District 9 City Councilor Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Breadon as its president.

“It is the honor of my life to work for the people of Boston,” wrote Breadon in a statement. “As City Council President, I am committed to working with every Councilor to strengthen this institution. The Council works best when it works together.”

In her new role, Breadon will preside over city council meetings, which are held on Wednesdays at noon, and step in as the acting Mayor of Boston when the current mayor steps down or is absent. Breadon will also be responsible for assigning the 13 councilors to 20 different committees. Each councilor president serves two years per term with a two-term limit.

Breadon, who was most recently elected to her fourth term as District 9 City Councilor, will become the first city councilor from Allston-Brighton to serve as city council president. She defeated Brian Worrell from District 4 by just one vote. 

Breadon’s candidacy came at the last-minute after District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata dropped from the city council presidency race twenty four hours earlier. Two months earlier, Coletta Zapata had announced that she had secured the seven-vote majority needed to clinch the position.

The sudden shuffle became a source of criticism about the backroom politicking to receive votes for the process. Speaking out against the “shenanigans” over the race, councilor Julia Mejia said that the current process has created “a dynamic in which a small body of folks determined for an entire body who is going to oversee the body, and that continues to erode trust in our ability to have good working relationships.” 

Breadon was nominated by District 3 Councilor Sharon Durkan and District 6 Benjamin Weber, who previously spoke alongside Breadon in November at a vigil against ICE raids at the Allston Car Wash. Along with Durkan and Weber, city councilors Enrique Pepén, Henry Santana, Coletta Zapata, and outgoing City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune cast their votes for Breadon. 

On the other side, city councilors Mejia, Erin Murphy, Ed Flynn, John FitzGerald and Miniard Culpepper cast their votes for Brian Worrell. Both nominees also voted for themselves.

In her bid for the presidency, Breadon took a defiant stand against the Trump administration, saying that “they will do anything to take us off the rails and demean us and devalue us, and we are not going to stand for that.” 

The councilor emphasized the gravity of the situation, acknowledging that she will lead the City Council through passing a city budget at a time of economic uncertainty. The federal government recently cut 3.7 billion dollars from Massachusetts, and Mayor Michelle Wu recently ordered each department to cut two percent of its budget for the next year. 

Breadon urged her colleagues to be united. “We are headed into difficult economic times,” she says. “Political difference is very profound at times, but we cannot let political differences and ideology get in the way of doing the work for the people of Boston.”

It is a message that Breadon reiterated when she stood at the helm of the chambers minutes after she won the presidency. Breadon also emphasized the underinvestment in Allston-Brighton, saying that the neighborhood is “so often treated as an afterthought when decisions are made downtown.”

“As the president of this body, I intend to change that. Not just for Allston-Brighton but for every neighborhood that is found overlooked and undervalued. Because city-wide leadership does not mean flattening our differences,” says Breadon. “It means recognizing them, respecting them and ensuring that every neighborhood has a real voice in shaping Boston’s future.” ■

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