District 3 Councillor Frank Baker, who developed a reputation over six terms for delivering constituent services and sometimes clashing with mayors and his colleagues on the City Council, isn’t running for reelection.

“The privilege and responsibility of serving as a city councilor requires my round-the-clock dedication,” Baker said in a statement last Thursday (April 20). “I cannot fulfill my obligation in any other way than 100 percent committed to the duty of this role. For an assortment of reasons, now is the right time for me to move on to the next chapter of my life, with my family.”

Dorchester state Rep. Dan Hunt praised Baker for his service, saying he followed in the footsteps of two predecessors, Maureen Feeney and James Byrne, and “sacrificed his family time for the neighborhood and Dorchester.”

Voters first sent Baker to City Hall in 2011, after a rough-and-tumble race that became a proxy battle between Mayor Thomas Menino and then-state Rep. Marty Walsh. People aligned with Menino, who shut down the city printing department where Baker had worked, supported Cedar Grove’s John O’Toole, while Walsh backed Baker, his friend from childhood.

Steve Bickerton Jr., the head of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, said the exiting councillor performed “countless acts of help, advocacy, and service” in the district. “He knows if a family goes through a tough time, if he can be helpful, and he was always there to share good news as well, like if a project was moving forward,” he said.

Baker also emerged as a critic of Mayor Michelle Wu and aligned himself with three other councillors (at-large members Erin Murphy of Dorchester and Michael Flaherty of South Boston and council President Ed Flynn of South Boston) as the 13-member body has split along political, racial, and generational lines.

The clashes over the redrawing of political boundaries were particularly bitter. As part of the process known as redistricting, councillors voted 9 to 4 for a map that primarily shifted the boundaries of South Boston-based District 2 and Dorchester’s District 3 as several precincts moved from District 3 to District 4, resulting in the fracturing of Adams Village, and for Baker, the loss of strongholds of conservative-leaning voters.

In a letter published in today’s Reporter, Councillor Baker says he “did not come to this decision against running again lightly, but it is the right time for my family and I to begin the next chapter. ” Photo courtesy of Frank Baker

The changes enraged Baker, who took to the Council floor to orally attack Liz Breadon, the redistricting chair and Allston-Brighton councillor. Wearing a Celtic cross pin on his lapel, Baker said he had spoken with a priest who said that Breadon was a Protestant making an “all-out assault on Catholic life.” Breadon fired back, asserting that what Baker said was an “insult” and an “absolute disgrace.”

Ed Cook, chair of the Ward 15 Democratic Committee, said he was once an enthusiastic Baker supporter, but he expressed disappointment in Baker’s behavior and added that he was mystified by the councillor’s intense focus on redistricting.

A federal judge is now weighing a challenge to the map, a move partly funded by Baker, who has put $10,000 from his campaign account into the court fight.