Mayor Walsh appoints new Licensing Board members

Today, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the appointments of three new members to the City of Boston’s Licensing Board: Christine A. Pulgini, Lisa S. Maki, and Keeana Serene Saxon. The Licensing Board regulates alcohol, food, hotels/inns, lodging houses, fraternities/dormitories, billiards/pool tables/sippio, bowling alleys, and fortune teller licenses within the City of Boston, pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapters 138 and 140, and the Rules of the Board.

This newly-constituted Licensing Board is the most recent in a series of efforts that the Walsh Administration has made to streamline and improve licensing and permitting operations across City government, to ensure that business owners and entrepreneurs are able to successfully start and grow businesses in Boston. In recent months, Mayor Walsh:

Hosted the City’s first-ever Hubhacks Permitting Challenge, to reinvent the City’s online permitting experience.
Announced the creation of a streamlined Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) process for small businesses and 1-2 family owner-occupied residential applications.
Doubled the hearing capacity for ZBA applications through extended hearing hours, and increased capacity with televised ZBA meetings.
Installed digital kiosks at several agencies across the City to connect constituents with Boston’s business development specialists.

“The changes we’ve made to the City’s Licensing Board and our approach to licensing across the City presents a fresh opportunity to support economic development across our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Walsh. “I’m grateful that Christine, Lisa and Keeana have agreed to serve the residents of Boston in this capacity, and I look forward to seeing their work begin.”

Christine A. Pulgini currently serves as a partner with the Law Offices of Joseph J. Pulgini, P.C., a firm specializing in workers compensation, accidental disability retirement, social security disability, and civil litigation. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. She received her J.D. from New England School of Law, and her B.A. in Communications from Curry College. She currently resides in Hyde Park.

Lisa S. Maki has been an attorney with the City of Boston's Law Department since 2010, representing Boston on legal issues related to employment law, public education, civil rights matters, police misconduct, environmental law, open meeting and public records, state ethics, and labor. Maki previously served as Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Chief Justice Frank J. Williams of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School, where she received her law degree. She is resident of South Boston.

Keeana Serene Saxon has served as Deputy General Counsel to the Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development since 2012. She previously served as Counsel to the Department of Housing & Community Development, and as the Director of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. Saxon is a member and previous Chair of the U.S. Advisory Board for the Rwanda Youth Healing Center, and previously as the Chair of Board of Trustees for Boston Renaissance Charter School. She received her J.D. from Western New England School of Law, and has been admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Saxon is a Roxbury resident.

In the 2014 legislative session, Mayor Walsh successfully advocated for the passage of An Act Promoting Economic Growth Across the Commonwealth (Chapter 287 of the Acts of 2014). In part, this bill gave Boston the ability to appoint its own liquor licensing board for the first time since 1906 – a provision already afforded to every other municipality in the Commonwealth. Previously, Boston’s liquor licensing board appointments were overseen by the Governor. In addition, the City of Boston was also granted 25 additional liquor licenses per year for 3 years, for a total of 75 new liquor licenses. These include:

Five all-alcohol licenses a year (total of 15) that are not geographically restricted within the City and can be transferred by the owner.
Fifteen all-alcohol licenses a year (total of 45) and 5 malt and wine licenses a year (total of 15) that are restricted to Main Street Districts and the neighborhoods of Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, and Roxbury. These are non-transferable.

The members of the new board will begin their 6-year terms effective December 1, 2014.