The Boston Globe - 31.07.2019

B2 Metro The Boston Globe WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019

By Aidan Ryan

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

For nearly three decades, Sally Glora has reigned

over Boston’s finances as its auditor, charged with over-

seeing all of the city’s financial transactions and ac-

counting for its annual budget.

“We look at the auditing department as like the

stronghold of city government,” Glora said. “Every dol-

lar that comes into the city, comes in there, and every

dollar that goes out of the city, goes out of there.”

Glora has worked under three mayors and dozens of

city councilors, as well as with hundreds of employees

since she got the job in 1990. And now, after 49 years working for the city

of Boston, the first woman to serve as city auditor is retiring on Wednes-

day.

She started her career in a place quite different from City Hall: the

now-closed Long Island Hospital, where she worked as a payroll clerk.

“It was a chronic care hospital in the middle of Boston Harbor, so that

was quite a place to be, especially when you were 18,” Glora said.

She worked for the Department of Health and Hospitals from 1970 to

1987 and spent time at Mattapan and Boston City Hospitals.

During the Blizzard of 1978, Glora said, she and other workers raced

to Long Island Hospital to help with anything that needed to be done.

“It was during those days that I perfected the art of making a bed with

hospital corners and also learned how to make a batch of cole slaw that

would feed 500,” said Glora.

She began her work at City Hall in 1987 as an assistant in the auditor’s

office, and she rose to the role of deputy within two years. Within the

year, Mayor Raymond L. Flynn appointed her to be the city auditor.

“Sally was very honest, professional, and very courteous,” Flynn said.

“A hallmark of any good public employee.”

Back then, she recalled, the amount of paper in the office went “from

floor to ceiling.” The office looks completely different today because of

digitizaton.

“It’s at your fingertips. All of this data is available real time and very

quickly,” she said.

In addition to leading the data transition, Glora is proud of her work

in producing the city’s first Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,

which provides information on the financial status of the city every year.

“That doesn’t excite a lot of people, but excited us and [we] have got-

ten awards for over 20 years for that publication,” she said. “I’m very

proud of that.”

Her role as the first female city auditor has never been something she

has thought too much about, but she has tried to be someone young

women could turn to for advice and leadership.

“I do try to be a mentor to people, especially to

young women, and encourage them to continue to seek

out opportunities and kind of stand up for themselves,”

she said. “Even today still, as a woman, I think you

have to take the step and be out there kind of looking

for opportunities yourself and pushing for those

things.”

Emme Handy, the city’s chief financial officer, noted

that Glora became auditor when female leadership in

city departments was rare. She described Glora as a

“very strong, outspoken woman in city government.”

Both Glora and her husband, Ed, have spent their

lives in public sector jobs. Ed has worked nearly 40 years for the Boston

Public Schools, where he is the business services manager.

Glora said she could trace her decision to spend her career with the

city to her upbringing.

“It just probably goes back to my parents, and just focused on public

service and work ethic and dedication to something,” she said.

She is convinced that she was just in the right place at the right time

to become the city auditor — but her most recent boss disagrees.

“She is consistent, steady, dependable, reliable, loving...andanin-

credible public servant,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh in an interview.

Walsh said that when he began his first term as mayor, Glora said she

was considering stepping down.

“We asked her to stay on. And then she did stay on,” Walsh said. “I

think her draw back is to serve the people of Boston, and I’m grateful for

that.”

Glora said she will miss the people she has worked with the most.

“In general, we deserve a lot more credit than is given. You have very

dedicated people here, and a lot of them have taken the opportunity to do

things to better themselves.”

Sam Tyler, the former president of the Boston Municipal Research Bu-

reau who retired this year after 46 years in that position, said Glora’s re-

tirement will be a loss for the city.

“She’s the unsung hero in making sure that the city was in an im-

proved position,” he said.

Glora doesn’t have grandiose plans for her retirement but hopes to

play more golf, visit her house on the Cape, see the Bruins play, and

spend time with her family.

“Sally will tell people anyone can replace her,” said Timothy Smyth, ex-

ecutive director of the Boston Retirement Board. “But that’s just not

true.”

Aidan Ryan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on

Twitter at @AidanRyanNH.

Bottom line in Boston: She’ll be missed

PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

After 29 years as Boston’s auditor, Sally Glora is retiring. She is the only woman to serve the city in that capacity.

AROUND THE REGION

BOSTON

Blackmoonhere:rare,

visuallyunderwhelming

North America will experience a black moon

Wednesday night, a phenomenon that only oc-

curs once every couple of years, said Nick Ferreri,

the planetarium fellow at the Museum of Sci-

ence. A moon is referred to as a black moon

when it is the second new moon of the month.

Sometimes, the lunar cycle does not match up

with the calendar months, causing this occur-

rence, Ferreri said. While it has an intriguing

name, the unique moon will probably disappoint

backyard skygazers. Like other new moons, it

will not be very visible on Earth. “We refer to a

moon as a black moon when you can’t see any of

the moon’s face lit by the sun,” Ferreri said. The

moon goes through phases, starting with a new

moon, which is dark. The moon waxes until it

becomes a full moon, when the moon’s surface is

fully illuminated, then wanes until it becomes a

new moon again.

YARMOUTH

Emergencyfundtoaid

recoveryfromtornadoes

Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday the new

$1 million Cape Cod Small Business Emergency

Loan Fund will provide help for operation and

repair costs. The Cape Cod Chamber of Com-

merce will also receive $100,000 from the state

for a marketing effort presenting ‘‘factual infor-

mation about the safety of Cape Cod as a destina-

tion for tourism.’’ Rental property owners say in-

creased shark sightings and beach closures are

keeping some vacationers away, one year after

the region saw two shark attacks, including Mas-

sachusetts’ first fatal attack in decades. The Na-

tional Weather Service, meanwhile, confirmed

Monday that three tornadoes struck Cape Cod on

July 23. The agency had said two tornados

touched down. (AP)

WORCESTER

Judgewon’tblock

churchdemolition

A Massachusetts judge has denied a preliminary

injunction request from a group seeking to halt

the razing of a 91-year-old Catholic church. The

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Preservation Society

argued in its suit against the Roman Catholic Di-

ocese of Worcester that Massachusetts law re-

quires a state review of alternatives to demolition

to minimize environmental harm. In a decision

issued Friday, a judge ruled that the society

hadn’t met the prerequisites for a preliminary in-

junction, including establishing a substantial

risk of irreparable harm. The diocese’s attorney

contended an environmental review wasn’t

needed and the crumbling building is a public

safety threat. The Mount Carmel parish wasn’t

able to raise the $3.5 million needed for repairs

before it merged with Our Lady of Loreto in

2017. (AP)

LANCASTER, N.H.

Tractortrailerdamages

historiccoveredbridge

A 108-year-old covered bridge that runs from

New Hampshire to Vermont is need of repairs af-

ter a tractor trailer made a wrong turn and

couldn’t clear it. The 266-foot-long Mount Orne

covered bridge spans the Connecticut River

along Route 135 between Lancaster, N.H., and

Lunenburg, Vt. It suffered some cosmetic dam-

age in last week’s crash. The Department of

Transportation confirmed the bridge wasn’t in

danger of collapsing. (AP)

WILMINGTON

Womandrivingwithgas

nozzlechargedwithOUI

Alicia Esquilin, 24, of Hudson, N.H., was charged

with drunken driving after she was pulled over

Friday night with a gas nozzle still hooked up to

her Range Rover, officials said Tuesday. She was

arrested for operating under the influence of li-

quor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and

an open container violation, police said in a

statement. Esquilin was arraigned on Monday on

those charges and released on personal recogni-

zance, according to the Middlesex district attor-

ney’s office. She is expected back in court on Oct.

16. She was unable to stay in her traffic lane, and
    a hose from a gas station nozzle trailed behind
    her car as she drove, authorities said

‘Wetreatedeveryonelike

familyhere.Peoplesay,you

haveabusiness,butit

wasn’tabusinessforus.

Everybodythatcame

throughthatdoorwas

loved.’

KATHERINE PRIFTI,whose father, Artan
“George” Vlladesi, owns the Bagel Bin Deli. The
popular Revere bagel restaurant was gutted by
a fire early Tuesday.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

GET SMART

By Martin Finucane
GLOBE STAFF
A satellite developed by MIT that looks for
dips in brightness as planets cross in front of
stars has found three more worlds, the univer-
sity said.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satel-
lite found the planets orbiting a star 73 light
years away. The planetary system has been
dubbed TOI-270, for the 270th “TESS Object
of Interest.”
The discovery was detailed Monday in the
journal Nature Astronomy.
TESS has found 27 exoplanets, or planets
outside our solar system, and is expected to
eventually find thousands. It has been in op-
eration for a year, NASA says.
“The pace and productivity of TESS in its
first year of operations has far exceeded our
most optimistic hopes for the mission,”
George Ricker, TESS’s principal investigator at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in
a NASA statement.
The three planets in TOI-270 are a small,
rocky super-Earth and two planets that are
about half the size of Neptune.
Scientists were initially excited about the
discovery of the sub-Neptune farthest from
the star because they thought it might be in a
“temperate zone,” where temperatures were
right to support life, but they later determined
that the planet’s atmosphere is probably a
heat trap that would render the planet’s sur-
face too hot for life, MIT said in a statement.
MITsaidthethreeplanetsarerelatively
close in size, in contrast to our own solar sys-
tem, which includes small, rocky worlds, such
as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars; the more
massive Jupiter and Saturn; and the ice giants
of Neptune and Uranus.
The newly discovered sub-Neptunes may
be a “missing link” in planetary formation
that could help researchers figure out whether
small, rocky planets like Earth and massive
icy worlds like Neptune form in the same way
or differently, MIT said.
Maximilian Günther, a postdoctoral re-
searcher in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astro-
physics and Space Research and lead author
of the study, said in the statement there is a
good possibility that the system includes oth-
er planets farther out that could be within a
habitable zone.
The researchers plan further study, includ-
ing with the upcoming James Webb Space
Telescope, to look at the three planets and
search for additional planets in a habitable
zone, MIT said. The host star is well-suited be-
cause it is bright and unusually quiet.
“TOI-270 is a true Disneyland for exoplan-
et science, and one of the prime systems TESS
was set out to discover,” Günther said. “It is an
exceptional laboratory for not one, but many
reasons — it really ticks all the boxes.”
TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mis-
sion led and operated by MIT and managed
by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. Additional partners include
Northrop Grumman, NASA’s Ames Research
Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, and
the Space Telescope Science Institute. Partici-
pants include more than a dozen universities,
research institutes, and observatories world-
wide, NASA said.

From MIT to

worlds away

RENDERING BY CHET BEALS/MIT LINCOLN LAB

The MetroMinute

‘Sheisconsistent,

steady,dependable,

reliable,loving...

andanincredible

publicservant.’

MAYOR MARTIN J. WALSH