Scapicchio set to leave council

City Councilor Paul Scapicchio (East Boston, Charlestown) announced that he will resign from his council position of eight years on April 30 to join a private lobbying firm, according to a Mar. 1 article in The Boston Globe.

A special election will be held in the summer to determine who will fill Scapicchio’s vacant position.

Scapicchio will assume the position of senior vice president at ML Strategies, a lobbying firm affiliated with Boston-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, according to the Globe article.

Scapicchio’s established relationship with political power players such as Mayor Thomas Menino, Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-Boston) and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi (D-Boston), as well as his experience in city government, will be an asset to his career at ML Strategies, according to the article.

The State Ethics Commission provides for several restrictions on what responsibilities a public employee may assume when he enters the private sector. A former public employee may never represent clients with whom he worked during his tenure in public office, and he is not allowed to personally appear in front of his former agency for one year.

Scapicchio became councilor for District One in 1998 when he was 31-years-old, beating out the incumbent candidate.

According to a Jan. 22, 2004 article in The Daily Free Press, Scapicchio suggested, along with Councilor John Tobin (Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury), that City Hall should be moved from its present location because of its unattractiveness and high heating costs. Scapicchio has also sought solutions for the problem of skyrocketing housing costs in Boston.

A lifelong resident of Boston, Paul Scapicchio attended the Boston Latin School, Tufts University, Northeastern School of Law and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.