Yoon's recruits ask more for youth programs

The City Council chambers were overflowing yesterday with teenagers wearing jeans, T-shirts, and ball caps, holding homemade signs that said things such as ``Your $$$ or our life" and ``Don't wait 'till we're dead."

They hissed and turned their backs when councilors spoke in favor of ratifying Boston's $2.14 billion budget proposal.

It was a slightly different story when Councilor Sam Yoon took the floor.

As the council debated the mayor's budget proposal yesterday, Yoon sought to play hero to the crowd, and he was partly responsible for getting them there.

Since taking office six months ago, heralded as Boston's first Asian-American councilor, Yoon had previously avoided controversy and stayed out of the limelight, even skipping one council meeting to babysit his children. Now, Yoon appears to want a role as a gadfly and a standard-bearer for underprivileged communities.

On Monday, he fired off an e-mail to several hundred constituents and neighborhood leaders across the city, declaring that he is leading a charge to defeat Mayor Thomas M. Menino's proposed budget, in order to win $5.1 million in additional funding for youth programs.

In the process, Yoon has rallied several councilors to his side and upset a budget process traditionally handled behind closed doors, where controversy and horse-trading with the mayor is kept out of the public view. He has further riled the mayor by taking on an issue that Menino has traditionally claimed as his own. Administration officials and allies on the council have lashed back at Yoon, criticizing his attendance record and lack of experience.

``It's grandstanding," Councilor at Large Stephen J. Murphy, a veteran councilor from Hyde Park, said of Yoon's push. ``This is kind of unheard of for a guy that's been here less than 180 days."

Yoon ultimately lost his fight yesterday, with the budget passing 9 to 4. Detractors said it showed he has no clout, but Yoon said he has no plans to relent.

``This is something I believe is being felt by the entire city of Boston," he said. ``The sentiment is that we are not doing enough. In the area of youth opportunity and the area of crime and violence prevention, we as a city are hurting. . . . It is clear to me the reason we are hurting is the scarcity of resources."

The $2.14 billion spending plan for the 2007 fiscal year, which begins Saturday, is 4.3 percent larger than this year's. The budget does not include money for unsettled union contracts, which has lead the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded financial watchdog, to warn against additional spending.

The mayor's budget adds 478 slots to the youth summer job program and boosts the number of jobs to 3,543. Another 5,800 jobs, 1,000 more than last year, are being made available through private businesses and nonprofit groups. The budget includes 140 more police officers and 24 street workers, five more than this year.

But Yoon and the three other minority city councilors -- Councilor at Large Felix Arroyo Councilors Chuck Turner of Roxbury, and Charles C. Yancey of Dorchester -- said it wasn't enough. They wanted the council to reject the budget and ask Menino to increase funding of the summer jobs program by $1.2 million and bring the number of city jobs back to 2001 levels, when more than 5,000 jobs were available to teenagers. They also wanted $3.9 million for additional street and youth workers and programs to stifle violence in the summer months.

``I understand how politics works; I have an election to face every two years, too," said Councilor Robert Consalvo, who has overseen the budget process as chairman of the council's Ways and Means Committee. ``But you can't say all things to all people. Part of political leadership is being willing to say no."

City officials and other councilors were also confounded that they are being publicly rebuked by a 36-year-old freshman councilor, which had some at City Hall speculating that Yoon is trying to cast himself as an outsider ready to fight the establishment.

``I think the tack he's taken is a poor choice," said Councilor Jerry P. McDermott, whose district includes Brighton and Allston. ``But so be it. That's all part of the learning curve, I guess. I find that you win more bees with honey than vinegar."

Opponents were also quick to point out that Yoon has missed several regular council meetings and has attended only five of 28 hearings on the budget.

Yoon said that he supports ``99 percent of the budget" and decided to attend only meetings on the portions that he had qualms about. Instead, he went to neighborhoods, delivering presentations and asking residents about their budget priorities. The main issue that people cared about was public safety, he said.

That was what led Yoon to send out the e-mail Monday night. The message was later posted on several blogs. In the message, Yoon encouraged people to attend the meeting and demonstrate their support for his plan. United Youth and Youth Workers, a consortium of groups that works with Boston teenagers, also helped organize groups to protest at City Hall.

After 90 minutes of speeches by eight councilors, the teenagers interrupted the meeting by shouting, ``Please vote now! Please vote now!"

The meeting was halted for 10 minutes, and five police officers came to stand guard.

Shortly after the hearing resumed, the group stood and turned their backs on McDermott, who was speaking in favor of the budget. Council president Michael F. Flaherty, citing a rule that prohibits ``demonstration of approval or disapproval" from audience members, asked the police to clear the room.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.