Eric, ask not what your town can do for you

If it's really all about giving back -- not taking -- opportunities abound for gubernatorial spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.

Fehrnstrom announced last weekend that he was resigning his appointment by Governor Mitt Romney to a seat on the Brookline Housing Authority after critics derided the move as the very sort of gaming of the state pension system that Romney and his aide have regularly denounced. The five-year term on the Housing Authority, though only a part-time position paying $5,000, would have counted toward Fehrnstrom's pension -- and put him over the 10-year mark needed to qualify for state retirement benefits.

Fehrnstrom vehemently denied that his interest in the position had anything to do with jockeying for pension payments, insisting he was driven only by a wish to contribute to his community. In that case, town leaders say, there are plenty of other ways for him to answer the urge to serve. Among them are two other housing panels -- a Housing Advisory Board, which reports to the Board of Selectmen, and a Housing Opportunities Task Force, which helps town leaders identify potential development sites for affordable housing.

"There a lot of ways to get involved," says David Trietsch , chairman of the Housing Authority.

While Fehrnstrom's short-lived appointment drew lots of raised eyebrows because of the pension dimension, it was met with surprise of a different kind among some locals who say Romney's chief mouthpiece has not cut much of a profile in local life. "I didn't even know he lived in Brookline," said Trietsch, who has been active in town affairs for more than 20 years.

Speaking of gubernatorial appointments, Governor-elect Deval Patrick, who, like Romney, campaigned against the established order on Beacon Hill, has insisted that no one will have a leg up in securing work in his administration because of work on his campaign.

Plenty of people are hoping he rethinks that one, and City Councilor Steve Murphy may be one of them.

The councilor at large, whose support is anchored in the city's more conservative wards, turned a few heads when he threw in early with Patrick, the liberal favorite of the three-way Democratic primary. Murphy worked hard for Patrick, organizing poll coverage for him at more than 50 Boston precincts in Hyde Park, South Boston, and other Murphy strongholds.

Some have speculated that Murphy, who has twice failed in bids to move up to higher office, could be angling for a position in the new administration. "We've had no discussion of anything," insisted Murphy, who says he was drawn to Patrick by the "force of his personality."

Murphy does hope that his endorsement of Patrick could prove valuable if he ends up seeking to retain his council seat next year. "I think he would be helpful to me," he said of Patrick, whose support might bolster Murphy's appeal among minority and liberal voters, whose clout has been increasing in city elections.

If his choice for governor caught many by surprise, Murphy says his instincts were given early encouragement by another unlikely Patrick supporter not usually associated with outsider change agents. More than a year ago, when Patrick was still viewed as a long shot by the state's political establishment, Murphy says former Senate president William Bulger , who donated to Patrick's campaign and had a sit-down session with him at a Southie diner, said to him about the former federal civil rights official: "There's your next governor."

While Boston officials were busy tracking down the owner of a Dorchester house where a raucous three-day party ended last weekend in the shooting of five teens, one fatally, the city's new police commissioner, Ed Davis, who took office on Friday, might want to ask where the police were.

The police response to repeated calls from neighbors seemed to be somewhere between non existent and half-hearted.

Calls about the loud party in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning resulted in no cruiser dispatched to the Milton Avenue house, according to a Globe story last week.

Calls to 911 early Saturday finally drew a police response when they included a report of shots fired , but a police spokeswoman said officers found nothing. Early Sunday morning came the shootings.

Davis is a big supporter of community policing, a problem-solving approach to crime and disorder under which a wild party like last weekend's would be treated as a serious quality-of-life disturbance to neighbors -- and as the potential powder keg portending bigger trouble that it proved to be.

One neighbor told the Globe he was up watching TV because he couldn't sleep with all the noise when the shootings finally ended the party just after 3 a.m. Sunday. No one should have to live that way -- and no one should have died at a scene that, with plenty of warning over several days, had trouble written all over it.

Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.