This week, former Alderman and Board of School Committee Member Rich Girard announced that he will be running a write-in campaign for mayor in the final week before the city’s 2025 municipal election.
Rich Girard’s recent defense of Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur presents a false choice: either elected officials are free to hurl insults at city staff without consequence, or the city risks trampling the First Amendment. This framing oversimplifies the issue and ignores a basic truth: accountability and civility in public service are not unconstitutional, they are essential to good government.