Longtime Office of Neighborhood Services (ONS) liaison Sam Chambers announced this week that he is leaving City government, heading to a private sector public relations firm in downtown Boston.
Chambers was one of the initial members of Mayor Martin Walsh’s campaign team in 2013, acting as a press aide for the campaign. Once Mayor Walsh took office, he was on the Mayor’s Advance Team and then went to the ONS in 2015. He was well known as the popular mayoral liaison for the South End, Bay Village and LGBTQ community, but in recent years has served as the public information officer at ONS. In the neighborhoods, he was known as a go-to person to solve issues, or to find the right person to solve those issues.
That will come to an end on Friday, Jan. 31, when he leaves to become a senior account executive with Solomon McCown & Cence Public Relations. He will handle real estate and public affairs accounts.
“I love working for the City and for Mayor Walsh, but I wanted to learn some new skills and I wanted to experience the private sector,” he said. “I’ve always worked for the public and with the public, and I wanted to experience the other side of things. It doesn’t mean I won’t be helpful to the mayor. I will still be knocking on doors and volunteering for him. I just wanted a little more free time and experience something new.”
A fan of the South End since moving to Boston, as well as being the go-to in the South End for the mayor during a number of years, Chambers said he hopes that his change of jobs will lead to him becoming a resident of that neighborhood.
“Hopefully, this will help me accomplish my number one goal of moving to the South End,” he said. “Everyone thought I lived in the South End since I was the liaison, but I always lived in South Boston. I’ve always loved working with Southenders and hope to become an official neighbor there soon. I’ve been in love with the South End since I moved to Boston. I’ve made really good friends with community leaders and people there are really trying to make the neighborhood a special place.”
In particular, he said he would miss working with all the neighborhood liaisons.
“Being a liaison, you get yelled at and screamed at and people sometimes don’t treat you well or like the human being you are,” he said. “But every day, I see them get up for early morning meetings and stay late for meetings. Sometimes they have three or four meetings in one night…I like to consider them all my siblings. It is one big family, even though that sounds cliché, but I will miss that.”
Coming from California, Chambers said he hopes residents of Boston understand what an amazing city they live in – one that is changing and growing in a very positive direction.
“We are living in a City that is changing,” he said. “I want people to get involved and work with the City and appreciate what an amazing place we live in.”
Boston Massachusetts Newspaper
