The Boston City Council voted 7-6 to elect District 9 City Councilor Liz Breadon to the council president position on Monday.

Breadon had not been publicly seeking the seat until this weekend. It appeared that District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata was all set to take over from At-Large City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, but she stepped out of the race last week. Then District 4 City Councilor Brian Worrell appeared poised to take the seat, but the vote came down for Breadon.

“What I have to offer as the next elected city council president, if I am so lucky to be elected, is to be fair,” she said during the council meeting on Monday. “I am deeply committed to the work we do here as a city council. I know that every single one of us is passionate about what we believe in, the people we support, the districts we work in, and just the future of this city. In this very very dangerous moment right now, we are facing incredible challenges.”

Breadon expanded on this, referencing the current presidential administration.

“We have a federal government that is systematically disinvesting in our government in the city and state,” she said. “They make no bones about us being a progressive blue state and a progressive city and a progressive mayor, and they will do anything to take us off the rails, demean us and devalue us, and we’re not going to stand for that.”

Breadon also went through her background as a medical provider, an Irish immigrant and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She said she wants to make sure she serves the people she represents, which was a rarity in her home of Northern Ireland.

“It is very humbling for me to be here today asking for your support to be your next city council president,” she said. “Coming from Northern Ireland, I understand completely how dysfunctional elected bodies can be, just wasting time and not getting anything done for the people. That’s been the case in Northern Ireland for many years, thankful things have gotten better and are moving forward again.”

Breadon said later in a statement that she would bring Allston Brighton issues to the forefront, which, in the past, she said has been lacking, specifically around the Boston Centers for Youth and Family Jackson Mann Community Center, which has needed a replacement building for nearly a decade – https://tinyurl.com/3jad8zbv

“I am honored to be the first openly gay woman to serve as Council President and the first Council President representing Allston-Brighton,” she wrote. “During my time in this position, I will seek to cultivate a culture of mutual respect and debate, and will elevate key issues facing Allston-Brighton.”

Worrell spoke during the council meeting and said regardless of the outcome, he would work for his district.

“Our loyalty is to the people we serve, and nothing else,” he said. “That means using this platform to explain to people plainly, what’s happening, how it affects their lives, and how they can help shape it. Unfortunately, we mistake perception for truth, the truth about our neighborhoods. The truth about our kids, and the truth about what this council can deliver.”

Worrell said he grew up in a neighborhood shaped by the policies of a government that didn’t seem to work for those residents. He said he believes it, because he’s lived it.

“Policies that led to shorter life expectancy, limited access to quality education, and kept families out of housing,” he said. “These policies are still driving measurable negative outcomes across neighborhoods in our city today. We don’t have to pretend everything is fine. The census, the economy, the literacy rates; the numbers tell us the real story of who is being left behind. I know this, because this was my family’s experience. As a young Black boy in Dorchester, I was told that the cards were stacked against me. I heard predictions against my limits, instead of my possibilities. This wasn’t a desire for victimhood, it was a matter-of-fact expectation setting, informed by decades of lived experience. I thought I made peace with that reality, until I became a father.”