Sharon Durkin

Kenzie Bok

Last month, an energy company with a former Boston City Councilor among its top executives joined hub officials on a tour of heat pump facilities in Denmark, a facility similar to one the company is constructing in Boston.

While the officials, including a sitting City Councilor and top aides to Mayor Michelle Wu, paid their own way, the junket with a company doing business in the city raises the image of one hand washing the other, especially if company Vicinity Energy gets more business in Boston, a political expert said.

"The optics on this are not great. On the other hand, there's nothing unusual about this," said Ken Cosgrove, a professor of political science at Suffolk University.

“It's what journalist Brooks Jackson used to call 'honest graft,' it's not illegal and not immoral but it does make you wonder. Could you not get this off a Zoom feed or PowerPoint? Why did you have to go to Denmark?"

District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan, former District 8 Councilor and current Boston Housing Authority head Kenzie Bok, and Mayor Wu’s Chief of Policy and Planning Mike Firestone were among those who went on the jaunt with Vicinity Energy, a Boston-based company that provides energy to numerous large Boston and Cambridge buildings and is working to electrify its steam production.

In 2022, Vicinity hired former District 6 City Councilor Matt O'Malley as its Chief Sustainability Officer, and O'Malley went on the tour as well.

Vicinity routinely applies to the city's Public Facilities Commission for construction permits, and executives have worked with the Boston Planning and Redevelopment Authority's technical advisory group on renewable energy procurement, with one report identifying Vicinity as a potential "anchor investor" in power purchase agreements.

Governor Maura Healey recently appointed O'Malley to the BPDA Board, which Cosgrove said also deserved scrutiny.

"How is that legal? That would seem like the fox is now guarding the chickens," Cosgrove said.

"The idea I imagine is that he'd recuse himself on things he has an interest in. I'd want a public declaration on how deliberations with any employer of his are handled."

Spokespeople for Wu and Durkan did not respond to request for comment. Vicinity spokesperson Sara DeMille said the trip was an educational opportunity for officials, not a potential conflict of interest.

"Everyone paid their own way on this educational trip and learned a great deal," DeMille wrote. "There are no conflicts of interest with Matt being on the board of BPDA. Vicinity has actively participated in discussions about the best path to decarbonization in the city. These conversations are part of an ongoing public-private effort to transition to a sustainable energy future and have included many stakeholders. Vicinity’s advancements in clean energy technologies have contributed significantly to both the dialogue and the results for the city as we work together to lower our carbon emissions."

Durkan paid for the trip including a $556.60 plane ticket and $619.89 hotel stay out of her campaign finance funds, records show, and in a press release she said she submitted an ethics form about the trip to the Boston City Clerk. In the press release, she said the tour included a visit to a heat pump in Esbjerg, a meeting on offshore wind and a talk on decarbonization strategy.

“I got to learn how heat pumps harness renewable energy to provide heating and cooling solutions for communities, and how the district model is applicable for Boston,” Durkan said in the press release.”

“This trip presented me with an incredible opportunity to delve into the heart of sustainable energy innovation. As a coastal town with a population similar to that of Boston, the leadership of Copenhagen and Denmark on critical green energy innovations provided me with an optimistic outlook on what is possible in our city.”

Cosgrove said such trips don't cross ethical boundaries. But they do suggest an inside track for the company traveling with people who may approve projects to their benefit, he said. "I'd just be interested in what other entities get to pitch [officials] after this, if people who don't have these resources get that chance. There's big money in this. It's socially virtuous, but they're playing the same game they've always played," Cosgrove said, adding it was incumbent on officials to justify the junket.

"What officials should do with their constituents is explain exactly what they got out of this, how what they learned here can help as they consider other options."

"Transparency is the best antiseptic for corruption, highlighting connections and who gets in and who doesn't because of those connections," Cosgrove said, although he noted he wasn't surprised by the trip.

"As usual with the Boston city government, they don't seem that optics-aware," Cosgrove said.