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In a conversation with Allstonia on Wednesday, Breadon lays preliminary plans for city council presidency; to announce vice president and committee assignments by Friday.

Updated: January 10, 2026 at 11:37 am

Newly-elected City Council President Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Breadon is charting her path after Monday’s city council presidential election unexpectedly catapulted her to the helm of City Council.

Prior to Sunday, the city councilor from Allston-Brighton had been gearing up for her fourth term as District 9 City Councilor. When Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who had been favored to win the presidency, unexpectedly withdrew from the race a day before the election, Breadon was asked to run as a “compromise candidate.” 

Breadon said after some reflection, her experience on the council where she served since 2020 and her relationships with her fellow council members led her to throw her hat into the race that same day. Councilor Brian Worrell was the other councilor vying for the presidency.

“It was all very spur of the moment, so to speak,” says Breadon in an interview with Allstonia. She did not have a prepared speech when she asked for the nomination, opting to “speak from my heart about how important this job was and how important it was to be a united Council at this moment in time.”

In the end, Breadon prevailed, beating Councilor Worrell by 7-6. 

Breadon calls the past couple of days “a bit of a whirlwind” when she spoke to Allstonia on Wednesday. She was in the process of swapping offices with outgoing City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, who had voted for Breadon, sorting through and throwing away papers that had accumulated from her previous six years in her old district office.

As Breadon looks ahead to her presidency, she describes herself as a “productive progressive” and spoke about the importance of unity and collaboration in her role. She says that she will work in “creative tension” with Mayor Michelle Wu.

“I feel that as someone who hopefully will be able to draw people together and speak as one voice from city council, we can support the mayor from one voice, or if we disagree with the mayor, we will have a strong voice [and] we have an opportunity to offer an alternative vision for any particular policy,” she says. 

Among her first decisions will be to select a vice president and allocate the 13 councilors to committees. During the city council presidential race, the decisions are traditionally shrouded in backroom politicking and quid pro quo where candidates could promise  committee spots to council members in exchange for votes. Breadon’s last-minute entrance into the race meant that she had not cut deals or made plans over committee allocations. 

Breadon plans to meet with each council member to discuss their passions and vision for a committee; councilors will also share their top three committee choices with her. She has also not yet decided on a vice president, though she said she was seeking a “thought partner” to workshop ideas.

Breadon told Allstonia on Wednesday that she would announce committee allocations, including her vice president pick, by Friday. As of Saturday morning, she has not yet made a public announcement about either. Breadon did not immediately respond to a request for update.

“I really want to be a bridge builder and that everyone feels that they have an important part to play, that nobody seems left on the sidelines of the committee,” she says. “I’m really hoping that I can cultivate a very collaborative relationship with all of our colleagues, and not this sort of ‘us and them’ sort of mentally that was developed in the past few years.”

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At the same time, Breadon’s ascension to the city council presidency is historic as the first city council president from Allston-Brighton. In her first speech following her election as City Council President, Breadon said that Allston-Brighton was a neighborhood that “helps Boston economy and culture life yet so often treated as an afterthought when it comes to decisions made downtown.” 

Calling herself a “hands-on councilor” in providing services to her constituents, Breadon says she hopes to use her gavel to elevate Allston-Brighton issues to City Hall.

“I feel it really is my job as the city council president to educate, bring people out to the neighborhood, have events in the neighborhood, have community forums and things that people from other parts of the city can come and learn more about who we are,” says Breadon. “Given this new job, I’d be given a platform to be a more effective ambassador for Allston-Brighton.”

While on the campaign trail, Breadon told Allstonia that her top three priorities as city councilor were affordable housing, better schools and a community center that was fully functioning. She says that those priorities have largely stayed the same in her new role.

She previously set 2030 as an ambitious goal to receive funding and planning for the Jackson Mann community center reconstruction, which is going through a financial feasibility study. In her next term, the council president says she is “very focused on making sure that we keep moving this project forward.” 

Allston-Brighton is the only neighborhood in Boston without a fully functioning Boston Centers for Youth and Family community center.

Alongside the community center, Breadon will preside over the city council as the whole city and her own district is reckoning with zoning reform through the Article 80 Modernization Act and Allston-Brighton Community Plan. She has supported adding density by building more middle-income, family-sized housing from triple deckers and small lots in Allston-Brighton.

“If we want businesses to thrive in other parts of the neighborhood, we have to make sure that we’re maintaining or expanding the opportunities for people to live there and have local amenities that don’t require getting in a car and driving a distance for your weekly groceries,” she says.

Breadon will be responsible for leading the city council through approving the capital budget amid cuts to federal funding and the municipal budget. While she says she supports Mayor Wu’s two-percent budget reduction for each department, she cautions against major cuts to municipal services, like libraries and schools.

“It’s important to make sure that we don’t curtail their effectiveness because we make misguided cuts,” she says. “We’re going to have to weigh the pros and cons of every financial decision that the city’s making.”

In her district councilor re-election campaign, she had advocated for identifying alternative streams of revenue. In her new term, Breadon says she will also push for higher contributions from nonprofits, like colleges and hospitals, through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT ) program, on which she had previously served as Chair. 

Breadon still has a few weeks to settle into her role before she presides over her first full Boston City Council meeting at the end of January. For now, between setting up her new office and allocating committee assignments, she still needs to pick a paint color for her new office.

She’s going for a color that is calming and reassuring. Probably pastel. Maybe pink or violet. ■