Saddened and “shocked” to learn that his tourism chief had been indicted for extortion Thursday morning, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh praised the top city official, who he said would remain on paid leave.
“I think when you go out and ask people, anybody, they’ll say great things about the man, about his job performance, and he’s a workaholic, and again this is a very sad situation and an unfortunate situation,” Walsh told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Federal prosecutors indicted Kenneth Brissette, Boston’s director of tourism, sports and entertainment, on an extortion charge, alleging he told a music festival production company it would need to hire union labor for a September 2014 event – identified by Walsh likely as Boston Calling, which is set to return to City Hall Plaza later this month.
Brissette and “at least one other City Hall employee” repeatedly told the production company to hire union workers, the indictment states. After the company agreed three days before the festival to employ eight International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 11 laborers and one foreman, Boston “issued the necessary permits,” according to the indictment.
“I don’t condone any of this type of behavior, or anything like this alleged. In my administration, I tell everyone to be honest and upfront and very open,” Walsh told reporters. Walsh also said he continues to have confidence in Brissette, and he plans to “wait and see what happens” in the criminal proceedings against him.
Saying he learned of Brissette’s arrest via Twitter, Walsh continued with his previously scheduled event – a groundbreaking in East Boston with Gov. Charlie Baker.
Walsh said the city would work cooperatively with federal prosecutors to “get to the bottom of this investigation,” denied any wrongdoing on his part and said he had “no idea” whether additional federal indictments were forthcoming.
The mayor, who plans to run for a second term next year, said he had put together a committee to look at the procedures of the tourism office and denied that the indictment besmirched City Hall.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it an embarrassment. I’m certainly not happy about it. I think that it’s something that if this pans out where there’s wrongdoings here, there’s a problem,” Walsh said in the dirt drive leading to the site of a $71 million residential project on the East Boston waterfront. He said, “I take the integrity of this office very seriously.”
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office convicted former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and three former top probation department officials in past years, has loomed large on Beacon Hill in recent months, raiding the law offices of Milton Democrat Sen. Brian Joyce and, according to a Wednesday Boston Globe report, subpoenaing Senate documents.
“I know I’ve done nothing wrong in any of my doings as mayor of the city of Boston. I’m very confident of that,” Walsh told reporters.
The indictment also delves into allegations that Brissette pressured a company working on a reality television program, previously identified as Top Chef, to hire union labor – a charge that attorney Brian Kelly previously investigated for the city, finding no city employees committed crimes.
Walsh said he doesn’t think Kelly “missed anything.”
Brissette allegedly told a filming location scout not to release permits to a production company, and allegedly told a producer the permits wouldn’t be released until the company came to agreement with a local union seeking driving jobs on the production, according to the indictment dated Tuesday and released Thursday.
Brissette “relented” because the company agreed to meet with the union, but Brissette also contacted two of the planned filming locations in Boston, resulting in those entities informing the film company they could no longer shoot there, according to the indictment.
