Wu, a longtime climate champion, lays off city’s director of green infrastructure, eliminates office

Mayor Michelle Wu, who once championed her “Green New Deal” for Boston, on Tuesday laid off the city’s head of green infrastructure and eliminated the office he was leading, according to the now-former director.

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Max Rome said he was told Tuesday that his position and the Office of Green Infrastructure were being eliminated. Two employees that report to him are being retained, but it was unclear in what roles, he said.

The move immediately raised questions among some city workers and environmental advocates about whether Wu, who created the office and position in 2022 shortly after being elected mayor, remains committed to the climate priorities she pushed in her first term.

When asked by the Globe about the decision to lay off Rome afteran unrelated event Wednesday, Wu said she was unfamiliar with the details, and that the city doesn’t share information about personnel matters.

A spokesperson for Wu did not answer further questions from the Globe on Wednesday.

Wu’s green infrastructure director was responsible for working across city departments and with the Boston Water and Sewer Commission on projects to mitigate flooding, remove pollutants from stormwater, and minimize urban heat across the city.

The term “green infrastructure” is mentioned dozens of times in Wu’s 2030 Climate Action plan the city released last month, with some initiatives, including more quickly deploying green infrastructure in public spaces, marked as driven or led by the Office of Green Infrastructure.

Rome took the job as director of green infrastructure for Boston City Hall in November, and held it for six months before the administration laid him off Tuesday, he said. He was hired by the city’s then-chief of streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, who left the administration after Wu won a second term in November.

Rome has a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from Northeastern University, and previously worked as a senior stormwater program manager for the Charles River Watershed Association.

In an interview with the Globe onWednesday, Rome described the administration’s decision to end his employment as “very sudden.” He said the city’s interim Chief of Streets Nick Gove, to whom Rome reported, and a city human resources official called him into a meeting Tuesday to say that while the city would continue doing green infrastructure work, his job and the office would no longer exist. It was his first time he had been invited to meet one-on-one with Gove, Rome said.

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“The conversation was over before it began,” Rome said. “It was just very straightforward: ‘This is the end of the road.’”

He said he was allowed a few brief goodbyes with colleagues before being escorted out of the building.

Rome called the role his “dream job,” and said he was eager to help drive how Boston tackles stormwater management in the era of climate change.

“Stormwater is one of the No. 1 sources of pollution in New England and in an urban context,” Rome said. ”Every project is an opportunity to address, correct, mitigate, and heal the changes that we’ve made to the way water moves through the environment and building out our city.”

Hessann Farooqi, the executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network, called the news of Rome’s forced departure “shocking.” Rome’s office and BCAN had been working together on a community flood mapping project, he said.

Rome “has been a really excellent leader and has done a lot to ensure that our rivers and our harbor are clean and that our residents are protected from flooding” and extreme heat, Farooqi said. “I am worried, as I think many are, when you hear news like this, what it means for the administration’s broader commitment to these things.”

As director of the Office of Green Infrastructure, Rome reported directly to Gove in the city’s Streets Department.

The Globe has reported in March that Wu effectively implemented a ground stop on nearly all streets projects involving design changes by requiring her personal approval to move forward.

Several top officialsleft the department, and transit advocates said they were frustrated with what they called a lack of communication on the status and progress of many major and minor streets projects.

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