Hey, there! Log in / Register

Feeneyan raid

Gin Dumcius tweets that state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is filing legislation that would bar city and town clerks from making any money from performing marriages either during work time or in their offices even after hours.

Gee, what did a former city councilor expected to become Boston city clerk tomorrow do to annoy Walz so much that she not only files legislation but issues a press release that ends like this?

The Boston City Council is expected to select a new City Clerk on Wednesday, December 21. "I am announcing this legislation today so the new clerk knows that the days of using the Clerk's office as a private for-profit wedding chapel are numbered," Rep. Walz concluded.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Gee, what did a former city councilor expected to become Boston city clerk tomorrow due to annoy Walz so much ...

Oh Adam....

up
Voting closed 0

Annoyed his constituents too.

Good for him, and hopefully something comes of it. This sort of shady back patting and unaccountability is why people are so jaded with politicians.

up
Voting closed 0

Consult this handy guide to the difference between the Back Bay's Marty Walz and Dorchester's Marty Walsh:

Walz and Walsh

Walz, who is filing the legislation, is on the left, Walsh on the right.

up
Voting closed 0

Arrggh! No no! I mean Jingle bells, you know "deck them halls" and all that stuff....

due != do

do do that doo doo, that you are due, so well.

up
Voting closed 0

I'm afraid I can't blame this on auto-correct.

up
Voting closed 0

to allow the city clerk to keep marrying people but charge a small fee that the City keeps, rather than ban the practice outright?

up
Voting closed 0

I'm a bit rusty on this, but...

The clerk has the capacity to preside over a wedding based on being a Justice of the Peace, with the precedent that every City or Town Clerk holds this capacity, and a limited number of other holders.

Granting that capacity, I believe, is the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and it is not done by individual cities and towns.

(The MA Town Clerks' Association should be a good resource on explaining this, but I've not seem them cited in any story on the subject...)

The fee for the issuing of the marriage license goes to the city or town that issues it. If you are married in a church or by a rabbi or by another authorized officiant, you're not paying the City or Town Clerk to officiate the wedding.

Any officiant may decline to accept a fee (and don't be surprised if many clerks often do this)

Seems like yet another "hack-o-rama" Herald story has created the idea that the city is being cheated out of money it never had a right to... or that the normal fees being charged for the license are being obsconded... neither of which is the case.

Does this not mean that the salary of the City Clerk could be re-evaluated based on the fact they receive income as Justice of the
Peace? A question of their boss...

Does this mean that the legislature is right in banning a practice that seems to be a non-issue in 350 other cities and towns to make political hay about it, I'd say no...

up
Voting closed 0

This has been mostly theirs.

up
Voting closed 0

You'd think this is tailor made for the Herald, which loves nothing more than a hatchet job on Boston politicians with Irish names (anybody remember the columns Carr did this year on the Flahertys and the Connollys). Yet they've been strangely mute on this one.

up
Voting closed 0

I think what people object to is the Clerk collecting a private fee and doing private work while simultaneously on the City's dime and the City's hours.

up
Voting closed 0

It seems Rep. Walz should extend her movement beyond the unique situation of the Boston City Clerk (and the unfounded and uncontested assumption that all clerks statewide are rolling in loot as Justices of the Peace) to include:

Any government worker, from making any income related to any licensure or certification they hold, no matter the reason they hold it, on or off the job, to include folks such as:

1. Notaries Public
2. CPAs
3. Civil Engineers/Building Inspectors
4. Attorneys
5. Educators

And of course, it goes without saying it should apply to any member of the Legislature.

I do hope Rep. Walz and her peers don't have any issues with losing any income- if the idea is that no one should profit off their government office while collecting a government salary, and that policy can be in place 24 hours a day, it seems it should be a universal policy.

up
Voting closed 0

the unique situation of the Boston City Clerk (and the unfounded and uncontested assumption

Boston is not unique, and if you disagree with what you call 'the assumption,' its your job to contest it.

Other than that, you're doin' fine.

up
Voting closed 0

Are you seriously pretending not to see the distinction between, on the one hand, having a second job that you do outside of normal working hours, and, on the other hand, having a second job for which you get paid while you're on the clock at your first job?

up
Voting closed 0

I'd be more outraged by this if I didn't know for a fact that at least half of the people with desk jobs around here are doing side gigs while waiting for actual work to show up.

up
Voting closed 0

Is this lady working on solving real problems? No, she's trying to screw some lady out of a second job.

Elect her again, you idiots.

up
Voting closed 0

Is this one of those Turing tests? I vote computer.

up
Voting closed 0

On your own time and your own dime.

up
Voting closed 0

Just divided by zero. Is he sticking up for a hack government position?

up
Voting closed 0

What does a City Clerk do exactly and why are they paid so much? And why are they getting extra money to perform weddings? Why isn't that money going towards something that is needed in this state? Instead a bunch of things were cut because we have greedy and corrupt politicians and stupid workers in the state house and city hall. I just love this state.

up
Voting closed 0

[How does a city get the best City Clerk?...]
http://www.dotnews.com/files/cityclerk1220.pdf

[Boston City Seal]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_city_seal.png

SICUT PATRIBUS SIT DEUS NOBIS.
God Be with Us as He Was with Our Fathers.

BOSTONIA. CONDITA A.D. 1630.
Boston, Founded in the Year of Our Lord 1630.

CIVITATIS REGIMINE DONATA A.D. 1822.
City Status Granted by the Authority of the State in the Year of Our Lord 1822.

Boston City Council
http://cityofboston.gov/citycouncil
[email protected]

One City Hall Square 5th Floor
Boston MA 02201
tel 617 635-3040
fax 617 635-4203

December 21, 2011

Dear Councilors:

As there is no formal docket before the Council regarding the City Clerk, I am writing to outline for you the process for filling the position of City Clerk.[Why not formal?]

Posting of the Position
The position was posted on the City of Boston Career Center website for seven days, beginning on November 25, 2011. At the end of the posting period, there were 26 applicants.[Why only 7 days?]

Rationale for Qualifications Identified in Job Description
the components identified in the job description tie into the day-to-day responsibilities of the Clerk generally within the Office of the Clerk as well as the specific responsibilities of the Clerk in relation to the working relationship with the City Council.

.
Government/Legislative Experience: Experience in a public agency, particularly in the legislative environment, ties directly to the responsibilities of the Clerk in relation to Council activities.

.
Leading an Agency, including Budget and Personnel: In FY2012, the Clerk's Office has a general fund budget of $1M, with nearly 30 percent focused on Council related services, and a National Archive grant of $90,000. The budget has a staff of 14, including several located outside of City Hall at the Archives in West Roxbury.

.
City Charter, Public Records and Open Meeting Law: The Clerk is responsible for implementing the Open Meeting Law process for Council meetings and hearings, particularly posting and executive sessions. As for Public Records Laws, the City Clerk's Office, as the keeper of the City's records, is one of the primary departments responsible for all documents, including the legislation offered and approved by the City Council and Mayor.[Why are full transcripts of public meetings removed from City Hall?][Why aren't full transcripts of public meetings available?]

.
Robert's Rules: One of the primary functions of the City Clerk is to serve as the Parliamentarian to the City Council at its weekly meetings.[Why not a more independent parliamentarian?]

Review of Applicants for Qualification
Lorraine Schettino and Ann Braga reviewed the resumes of the 26 applicants against the criteria set forth in the job description. Each staff member reviewed the applicants' resumes independently and determined the three highest qualified candidates. The criteria were: Bachelor's Degree, 10 years government experience, with legislative experience preferred; 2 years planning, organizing and directing a public agency, including formulation, implementation and oversight of agency funding; experience with personnel management; working knowledge of the City Charter, Public Records and Open Meeting Laws and Robert's Rules. Based on a review of the applicants' resumes, thirteen were eliminated due to lack of a Bachelor's degree. Of the remaining applicants, seven had government experience and only three had ten or more years combined in government experience and leadership/personnel experience. Only Maureen Feeney met all of the requirements. The three top candidates were invited to participate in the interviews and two accepted. Those were: Natalie Carithers and Maureen Feeney.

Interviews
On December 12, 2011, the Committee on Rules and Administration held a publicly noticed meeting to interview the two finalists -- Maureen Feeney and Natalie Carithers. This was the first time that Councillors interacted with the finalists.[Not so.] Members of the press and members of the public were present. All six members of the Committee and two additional Councillors were present and asked similar questions of both candidates. Both applicants did a good job in responding to the questions.

Issue of Possible Conflict of Interest
In his December 13th article on the selection process for the City Clerk position, Andrew Ryan alleges that the interview of Maureen Feeney may have violated to[sic.] ethics rules. I find it frustrating that rather than focusing on the Council's efforts to hold public interviews of the City Clerk for the first time in the history of that position or highlighting the Council's continued efforts to comply with the Open Meeting Law, instead Mr. Ryan took the efforts by staff to ensure compliance with the Open Meeting Law as a basis to raise an unfounded allegation about violations of the ethics rules.

The 30-day "cooling-off period" [should be longer] is in place in order to ensure that the most qualified applicants can apply for the position of City Clerk. Nothing prohibits the posting of the job at an earlier time, and nothing prohibits a former City Councilor from applying at an earlier time. All that is required is that the City Council cannot take any action until the 30 days has run its course. The Council did not interview former City Councilor[Councilor, Councillor spelled both ways in same public document] Maureen Feeney until the 30-day cooling off period had run. All logistics of receiving and screening applications was[were] conducted by staff. Staff alone weeded out the unqualified candidates and selected the three qualified for interviews. As I noted to Mr. Ryan, one of the selected applicants informed staff that she did not want to go through the public interview process and thus pulled her application.

It is important to note that the interview process was public not only in the interest of transparency, but also to comply with the Open Meeting Law. The Open Meeting Law requires 48 hours notice in advance of a public meeting, excluding weekends. We were under a tight timeline to have a new City Clerk in place for 2012,[There's an Assistant City Clerk already.] and it was strict compliance with the Open Meeting Law that caused staff to schedule the interviews when they did so that the public could be duly noticed of the meeting at which the interviews were to be conducted.

The City Council, with guidance from Corporation Counsel, worked thoughtfully on the process of selecting a new City Clerk. The Council complied with both the open meeting law and the ethics laws and conducted interviews of the most qualified applicants for the position of City Clerk.

Next Steps
I will ask that as part of the meeting on December 21, 2011, that the Council elect a new Clerk for the City of Boston. Based on the experience identified in the resume and the interview, I will recommend that the Council elect Maureen Feeney as the next City Clerk, as she was the only applicant to meet all of the qualifications in the job description, and she demonstrated the depth and breadth of her knowledge and experience that will best assist the Council as it moves forward.
Sincerely,
Stephen J. Murphy, President
http://www.dotnews.com/files/cityclerk1220.pdf

up
Voting closed 0

Hey, Marty, that was a courageous press release.

I'm waiting for the next one, where you explain your last vote for DiMasi's continued speakership, the standing ovation you gave him, and why you continue to collect your per diem for "travelling" to the State House.

That's right. Ms. Walz gets (and takes with both hands) an annual travel per diem allowed to member of the legislature, for her commute. It's about 1.5 miles a day, and comes out to about $2500/year for her.

People who live in glass houses should get dressed in the basement.

up
Voting closed 0

...please switch maxims....do not need that image....>shudder<...

up
Voting closed 0

Thats a 3 hour round trip commute on the MBTA

/snark

up
Voting closed 0