Michael Kelley, openly gay aide to Menino, steps down from city work

There's something to be said for working a steady "9 to 5."

Sure, office drudgery can be a bore. But at least when quitting time comes, you can rest assured that outstanding tasks can wait until tomorrow. That wasn't always the case for Michael Kelley, South End resident who last week stepped down from a decade's worth of varying roles with the City of Boston and invaluable experience working side by side with Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

In fact, as former GLBT Liaison and South End/Bay Village Neighborhood Coordinator for the City of Boston, it was not unusual for work to quite literally follow him home.

"It was not uncommon for someone to come by my house and ring the bell," recalled Kelley of his three years (1998 to 2001) as local residents' main conduit between neighborhood concerns, GLBT issues, and the powers that be at City Hall. After ending that role, he continued to work alongside Menino as campaign director for the incumbent's 2001 election. Most recently he served as Menino's administrator/director for the city's Rental Housing Resources.

But whether he was working with the mayor to push domestic partnership benefits for municipal employees, or running a fine-tooth comb over neighborhood plans like streetlamp designs and small business operations, he spent more than a decade listening to the kudos, complaints and concerns of his neighbors and constituents.

"You get approached while you're out, at the supermarket," said Kelley of the liaison and coordinator roles. "You hear the good and the bad."

But even when he was working off the clock, Kelley enjoyed the reminders that his fellow community members were involved in the city's processes.

"People feel they can depend on you," says Kelley. "You form great relationships ... and even if you disagree with your neighbors on certain issues, you still feel like you can go to a dinner with them or be together at a community picnic."

Last week, Kelley bid farewell to his work with the city. He's preparing to embark on something new, and while he won't elaborate beyond referring to it as an "internet venture," Kelley says when the time is right to reveal his new professional plans he will start by informing the South End community, where he has lived for 17 years.

"It certainly has changed over the years," said Kelley of the neighborhood. "The neighborhood associations have grown stronger ... the neighborhood on the whole has grown stronger. I think a lot of really great things have happened."

Kelley has contributed to a number of accomplishments himself during his tenure with the city. Reflecting on his time as GLBT liaison, he recalls the Mayor's push for domestic partnership benefits for city employees as one of his best-fought fights. In fact, it was those early struggles for GLBT rights that gave Kelley his initial jolt into the political sphere; just after his college days, he was an active member of a Human Rights Campaign youth group and soon found himself - through a friend of a friend -propositioned for the GLBT liaison role.

"We're in such a good place now [with GLBT rights]," says Kelley of the current political climate in the Bay State. "Back then, it was a very difficult thing to get people to recognize the basic benefits." Kelley credits Menino as an early champion of LGBT concerns, and notes that the Mayor issued an executive order to extend partnership benefits to municipal employees, though that order was struck down by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1999.

Kelley also worked alongside Menino to introduce the Safe Schools Initiative into Boston Public Schools, to foster a safe and supportive environment for LGBT youth.

After helping Menino win re-election in 2001, Kelley joined the city's Rental Housing Resource Center where he remained until last week. In that capacity, Kelley engaged programs that offer mediation between tenants and landlords, and lessen the level of foreclosures even amid the nationally recognized foreclosure crisis of recent years.

But amid his work with the greater city, Kelley has remained a familiar neighborhood fixture. His own local notoriety is equaled by that of his husband, Ricardo Rodriguez, a broker with Coldwell Banker and the Boston area representative for My House is Worth What?, an HGTV reality show.

In fact, the man who once worked with Menino on domestic partnerships will be celebrating his three-year wedding anniversary next month.

"It was a gorgeous day, a perfect day..." recalls Kelley of the day in 2005 that he and Rodriguez tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at Hayes Park in the South End. In total, they've been together 13 years.

Commitment is a watchword for Kelley, who has a few suggestions for other South Enders interested in forging their own path with community involvement.

"Get to know your neighborhood coordinator," offers Kelley. "Join a local business association ... get involved in community activities."

"Get a dog and hang out at a dog park," he said. "People may not learn your name, but at least they'll learn your dog's."