Mayor had free suite at new hotel

With a stunning view overlooking the city, the suite offers the hotel's premier guests a full living room, dining room, and small kitchen. Its marble bath has heated towel racks; the king-sized bed is swathed in fluffy down. It's the Presidential Suite at the new Jurys Hotel, and it's $1,150 a night.

But not for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. He got to stay there free, for a week.

During the Democratic National Convention, Menino and his wife, Angela, were given the posh penthouse suite for nothing, as a complimentary room. The mayor stayed at the hotel at the same time the staff of Boston's convention host committee did; they spent about $50,000 on the accommodations, according to the host committee's financial disclosure report this week.

''Mayor Menino was there in his official capacity," said Menino's spokesman Seth Gitell. ''He was the principal executive in charge of putting on the convention. The host committee plan required Mayor Menino to have a continuous downtown presence during this international event of global scope and scale."

But state ethics rules prohibit public officials from accepting anything worth $50 or more from anyone with whom they have official dealings. Public officials, according to the law, must also avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and cannot use their positions to obtain an ''unwarranted privilege."

City and host committee officials said Menino's stay did not violate ethics rules because the hotel didn't offer the suite to Menino directly. Rather, the mayor's rooms were part of a block of rooms booked by the host committee, said Julie Burns, executive director of Boston 2004 Inc. The hotel offered the presidential suite for free as a reward for the high volume of business, she said.

It is an industry standard to offer complimentary rooms for guests who book a certain number of rooms, Burns said.

Julie Dennehy, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said only that the hotel operators were thrilled to host the mayor and Boston 2004 staffers. ''We were very accommodating to both the mayor and his staff and Boston 2004 and its staff," she said.

But Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan, who is contemplating a run against Menino next year, said she would not accept a free room from anyone.

''It's perfectly understandable that Mayor Menino and first lady Angela Menino would want to be an integral part of all the wonderful activities at the Democratic National Convention, and no one would fault them for staying in a hotel during that week," she said. ''But Mayor Menino knows as well as anyone in government that taking perks is against [state ethics] laws.

''It also sends a bad message to average people, who when they take part in a special event or happening have to pay for lodging," she said. ''I would think, particularly given that he has campaign funds that clearly could afford the cost, he would have done that."

Or, Hennigan said, he could have stayed at the Parkman House, an official mayoral residence. City officials declined to say why Menino didn't spend convention week at the Beacon Hill town house operated by the city.

Menino's security team, two Boston police officers, also stayed in the hotel, located on East Berkeley Street at the site of the former Boston Police headquarters. Their rooms were paid for by the Boston Police Department, according to police spokeswoman Beverly Ford.

The two police officers stayed with Menino in the hotel ''as part of a multitiered security plan for the mayor in light of the potential threats surrounding the DNC.

''We felt the mayor needed to be at a location that would give him quick access to areas throughout the city," she said.