Controversy and support follow Burke

BEVERLY — It was election night in 2007 and John Burke's campaign headquarters was buzzing with the sounds of victory.

Despite a controversy that had led to his censure by his fellow city councilors four months earlier, Burke had just won re-election to a third term in Ward 3.

As the crowd celebrated, Burke sat alone in a corner, hidden behind a curtain at his laptop, checking out his list of supporters that he had spent years accumulating.

It's an image of Burke that his supporters and detractors can both embrace, each in their own way — that of a populist ward councilor with devoted followers and a passion for the inner workings of government, but also a secretive operator armed with information, furtively plotting his next step.

As he seeks to unseat longtime Mayor Bill Scanlon on Nov. 3, voters will have to reconcile those competing views of Burke, who at age 30 has set his sights on the city's highest elected office.

Lyman Street resident Sylvia Trefry, whose family has lived in Ward 3 for more than 100 years, said Burke has strong support in the neighborhoods he represents, "but I don't know about the other wards."

"I'm afraid they're a little colored by the thing with the anonymous letter and all that," said Trefry, referring to the incident that led to Burke's censure. Burke secretly wrote a letter accusing the police of improprieties and was later discovered as the author. "But he is feisty. I think they like that."

Raised in foster families

In his six years on the City Council, and in the last few months on the campaign trail, Burke has touted what he says is his willingness to speak out against the status quo and speak up for people in need.

He traces those instincts to his "modest" upbringing as the son of a gas station attendant and a nurse's aide. He also spent two years living with foster families.

Burke credits his guardians, some of whom were also his teachers at Beverly High, with influencing his decision to attend college and to eventually run for office.

"I look back and appreciate more fully the selflessness and sacrifice of their generosity," he wrote on his campaign Web site.

Not all of his foster family experiences were positive. When Burke was 17, one of his former foster families took out a restraining order against him. According to court records, the parents said Burke "illegally accessed" their daughter's high school locker number and combination with the intention of stealing her keys and breaking into their house.

When Burke was in their care, the father said, he had slapped their son in the face and "made several threatening comments in reference to me and my family." The one-week restraining order was extended twice by a judge, for a total of nearly two years.

Asked about the restraining order, which Scanlon raised in an interview with The Salem News editorial board, Burke at first said, "I'm not going to respond to the desperate attack my opponent wishes to launch."

Burke then said he wants people to know he was a foster child when he was 16 and 17, "and I don't wish that experience on anybody."

"Foster children don't always get along with each other," he said. "That was the case here. It's something that is regrettable but is the truth."

'Stand-up man'

Despite those troubles, Burke was an active high school student. He served as the student representative to the School Committee and hosted shows for the local cable television station, including "Speak Out With the Mayor," a monthly interview show with his future opponent, Scanlon.

Burke graduated from Emerson College with a degree in arts and communication. After serving internships in the offices of Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, Burke landed a job as a legislative aide for Gale Candaras, a state representative from Wilbraham.

Candaras said when she was a newly elected state rep, Burke was the only person on her staff to research bills and handle calls from constituents.

"He did a terrific job," said Candaras, who is now a state senator. "From the first moment he walked through my door at the Statehouse he demonstrated not only a lot of ability but a great deal of interest and passion for legislation and public policy. He was a very hardworking person. He's a stand-up man."

Candaras said Burke deserves credit for overcoming his circumstances as a child.

"He's the kind of person who confronted that at an early age and put that behind him and made his place in the world," she said. "I'm really proud of his candidacy for mayor."

Burke was still working for Candaras when he was elected to the City Council at age 24. He quickly built a reputation as someone who responded to his constituents' needs on such quality-of-life issues as crosswalks, street lights and trash.

Grant Street resident Bill Simpson said Burke is available "24/7" to his constituents. When a woman in the Gloucester Crossing neighborhood had trouble affording heating oil, Simpson said, Burke made sure she got a delivery.

Simpson said Burke also taps into the independent streak that runs through Ward 3, which includes part of the downtown area and some of the poorer neighborhoods in the city. In Scanlon's landslide victory two years ago, the only precinct he failed to win was Ward 3, Precinct 1.

"They love their councilors to be independent and not a rubber stamp for the administration and the other city councilors," Simpson said.

Anonymous letter

The question is how much of Burke's support extends beyond the boundaries of his home ward, especially in light of a controversy involving Burke two years ago. In June of 2007, the City Council censured Burke and stripped him of his committee assignments after he wrote an anonymous letter accusing the Police Department of covering up incidents involving people with connections to the city.

The letter said police covered up an accident involving the wife of police Capt. Mark Ray, whom Scanlon had nominated to become chief, and that Ray had failed to arrest a firefighter for drug possession. It also accused police of destroying evidence in a drunken driving incident involving the wife of City Solicitor Roy Gelineau.

Burke's identity as the letter-writer was discovered when he accidently left behind his computer flash drive at City Hall. It touched off two nights of explosive meetings at City Hall, with his fellow councilors calling his actions "despicable" and "devious" and demanding his resignation.

With supporters in the audience wearing "Friends of John Burke" stickers, Burke defiantly refused to step down, telling councilors to "censure yourselves."

Burke offered no proof of his allegations, which were all denied by police. And he voted in favor of Ray as police chief, despite writing the letter urging councilors to reject Ray.

At the time, Burke defended his failure to sign the letter, calling anonymous letter-writing a form of free speech protected by the Constitution. Now, he says not signing the letter was a mistake.

"I decided to do it the way I did because I believed police officers when they said they're very good at getting even," he said. "Out of that same fear of retribution, I didn't put my name on it. In retrospect, I believe we should always put our names on everything we do."

'Lies' and 'intimidation'

Scanlon said the incident shows that Burke cannot be trusted. In a forum at the Cove Community Center earlier this month, he used prepared remarks to assail Burke's character.

"When my opponent faces pressure he tries to intimidate people, he lies to colleagues, and then when caught he acts like the innocent victim simply trying to work on behalf of the people," Scanlon said. "Don't buy it."

Scanlon also questions Burke's qualifications for the job of mayor. He says Burke has no experience overseeing a budget or construction projects or dealing with unions.

Since 2004, Burke has worked as an administrative assistant at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services in Boston, where he said he supervises 15 people.

Burke said he also has a master's degrees in public administration, "the very degree that city and town managers are asked to hold."

"I hold two master's degrees. He holds one (a master's in business administration from Harvard Business School)," Burke said. "I have more elective experience and education in government than he had before he ran for mayor of Beverly."

If elected, Burke said he would "institute better management practices" and control borrowing and spending so that "core services like education won't be substandard."

He said he would also seek savings and revenue through investments in green energy and the institution of weekly recycling.

After 14 years with Scanlon as mayor, Burke said the city needs to go in a different direction.

"His job performance cries out for change," he said.

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Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by e-mail at pleighton@salemnews.com. Staff writer Julie Manganis contributed to this report.

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