Michael Flaherty

Born and raised in Boston, Michael developed a passion for public service watching his father serve as a Massachusetts State Representative. He admired how his father built a career in helping people - leading the fight against drug addiction by assisting families with proper treatment and recovery services, helping with housing placement, and putting people back to work. Michael watched his father’s passion for public service and prioritized those same values as he began a career in public service himself. After graduating from BC High, Michael worked his way through Boston College and Boston University School of Law as a Local 25 Teamster.

In the last six years, Michael has had many accomplishments on the City of Boston Council. In 2016, Boston finally adopted the Community Preservation Act, a culmination of years of Michael’s advocacy and leadership on the issue. Michael now chairs the Community Preservation Committee, which oversees the authorization of recommended community preservation funding requests. In this role, he recommended passage of funding for 91 community preservation projects which total approximately $42 million over the past year and a half.

Michael also has served as the Chair of the Committee on Government Operations, on which he has ushered many pieces of important legislation through to passage. These include several ordinances aimed at supporting housing affordability, including changes to the Inclusionary Development Policy and zoning code. Michael was the first Councilor to call for updates to the Linkage formula, which ensures that the boom of development in Boston creates affordable housing for those in need. Michael also worked with community leaders and other stakeholders to pass regulations on short-term rentals, which will help return countless, badly needed units to the housing market for Boston families to access.

Michael also worked on legislation to increase voter access to the polls and registration, strengthening government transparency through lobbying regulations, public safety issues like speed limits and gas leak repairs, the energy efficiency of buildings, and healthy school purchasing standards.

Michael is proud of the work that he and his colleagues have accomplished and looks forward to continuing to work with them on behalf of the people of Boston.