Boston's new fire commissioner lives in Canton, despite city's residency requirement

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on May 2, 2026

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BOSTON — Boston’s new $318,000 fire commissioner, Rodney Marshall, lives in Canton, but the mayor’s office said he wouldn’t be violating the city’s residency requirement unless he fails to move to the Hub within the next six months.

Marshall made history when he was appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu last month as the city’s first Black fire commissioner, but questions about his residency quickly followed. Those questions intensified as he and the city continued to represent the veteran firefighter as living in Dorchester, despite land records that suggested otherwise.

The Norfolk Registry of Deeds lists Marshall as having owned a four-bedroom home in Canton since 1993.

Still, Marshall represented himself as a Dorchester native and Wu described him as a “lifelong Bostonian” when announcing his appointment. Additionally, he was listed as living at a Dorchester address when his mayoral appointment notice came up for approval by the City Council last Wednesday.

After his Canton residency became public this week, Wu’s office backtracked on the city’s representation of Marshall as a lifelong Boston resident, by admitting that he lives outside of the Hub, but plans to move there in the next six months, to comply with the city’s residency requirement for commissioners.

“The City of Boston’s residency requirement, including the six-month grace period for certain mayoral appointees to establish residency, is set in the municipal code and has been consistently applied across administrations,” a city spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald. “Like his two immediate predecessors before him, incoming Commissioner Marshall will comply with the requirement.”

The Boston Fire Department didn’t address why Marshall has been represented by the city as living in Dorchester, but denied that Marshall described himself as such when speaking with reporters last month after he was announced as commissioner.

“During the media availability following his announcement, the incoming commissioner referred to his strong family and community ties to Grove Hall, where he was born and raised,” a Boston Fire Department spokesperson said in a statement. “He will comply with the residency requirement, just as his two predecessors did.”

Marshall is set to be paid a $318,000 salary as fire commissioner, according to his employment contract. He was sworn into his new role on Friday, and replaces Paul Burke, who retired this year. Burke was paid a $311,382 base salary last year, per city payroll records.

Marshall lives in Canton, but seems to use a Dorchester address for city payroll documents. Land records indicate that address is for a home that was owned by his late father, and is seemingly still in the family, as there was no change of ownership. The address was listed on his appointment notice approved by the Council this week.

His employment contract with the city acknowledges, however, that, “upon appointment, the commissioner shall have six months to reestablish residency within the City of Boston.”

The mayor’s office said the city’s municipal code allows department heads and cabinet positions six months to become residents, but also seemed to contradict land records by stating that Marshall satisfied his 10-year residency requirement before moving out of the city, as allowed for Boston firefighters.

Marshall joined the Boston Fire Department in 1991, two years before he is listed in land records as having purchased a home in Canton.

The mayor’s decision to appoint a Black fire commissioner came after pressure from city and state elected officials of color.

Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell sent a letter to Wu on Feb. 3 calling for her to “promote from the qualified Black and brown firefighters in leadership that are representative of our city’s diversity.”

Marshall was the department’s chief of operations for support services before Wu appointed him as fire commissioner.

He was twice awarded the commissioner’s unit citation — for saving the lives of multiple residents during a six-alarm fire in 1998, and for rescuing several people trapped in a bus with severe roof damage in 2013.