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Tonight's mayoral debate
By adamg on Thu, 10/01/2009 - 7:02pm
Notes from the debate at Channel 5:
Is City Hall too white?
Menino: Several my black people taken by Patrick. But look at service in minority neighorhoods. "I don't see color out there in the neighborhoods." We have diversity in neighborhoods, no racial tension like 16 years ago. Look at the services we provide in the neighborhoods. We're already working on hiring more minorities, but our boards and commissions are 50% minority.
Flaherty: I intend to make sure supervisors represent the face of the city. Only two people of color currently in cabinet-level positions. That will change.
Flaherty, what about your slob father with the unkempt property?
Menino: I love my dad. Everyone would be so grateful to have a dad like him. But he's not running for mayor. One of the people you interviewed was a drug dealer. He bought the property 30 years ago, not a giveaway, kept up like all other private lots.
Menino: We clean up vacant lots on a monthly basis. I'm not getting into family issues, that's Michael's issue.
Isn't Yoon just an act of political expediency?
Flaherty: No. He will be working on dismantling BRA. His background is in planning. The mayor has somebody else.
Menino: Yoon thing is just an attempt to get votes. Dismantling the BRA? BRA done a good job over the last few years. Setting up new departments will cost money. Neither Yoon nor Flaherty showed up at critical budget hearings.
Flaherty: It's a little mean spirited to accuse Sam of that. Transformational leadership. Invitation is transparent. It's open, there are no secrets.
Menino: I will not promise anybody new jobs before I'm elected. You cannot assume anything. I'm not promising jobs. I'm not going to get involved in actions like that.
Flaherty: Then get rid of the naughty list.
Menino: There's no naughty list, Michael.
What do the e-mails say about you?"
We always thought e-mail was backed up. We bought a new program, $1 million to ensure this never happens again. I'm not autocratic.
Flaherty: I won't have a naughty list.
Menino: I don't have a naughty list.
Flaherty: Yoon. Will add value, smart kid.
Menino: We get 10 million e-mails a year in city government. Question how long we have to keep them. I want to ensure transparency there. Put the e-mail online. I want continue work with people who live in the neighborhoods.
Can you categorically say noone has ever deleted mail to hide something?
I can categorically say that and no one has ever accused us of that, except certain political people.
Flaherty, what are you proud of as a councilor?
Flaherty: Law to remove loophole that let people keep illegal guns at home.
Also: let city workers take time off to donate an organ. Also: SAT prep program for Boston Public Schools.
Menino: I signed both of these pieces of legislation. Also, I worked with Bloomberg, nationally, to close gun loopholes. Gun issue not just a Massachusetts issue. Can't just deal with it in Boston. Have to deal with it national. Illegal guns a real problem.
Boston firefighters union
Give us drug and alcohol testing. Stop clouding the issue with hazmat pay. They want 20% pay increase. We're there, at the table, trying to negotiate with them.
Flaherty: Need mandatory random testing. Menino's yet to negotiate that. There will be under a Flaherty administration for police, EMS, firefighters and anybody who operates heavy machinery.
Flaherty: What are you going to give them in return for their endorsement?
Flaherty: I will give them post-9/11 training. Trucks that work. No political brownouts of neighborhood stations. Just because he can't negotiate with the firefighters doesn't mean nobody can. We need a fresh set of eyes.
Menino: I've been able to negotiate 42 of 42 contracts with other unions. It's just this union wants more. We can't get to yes on it, because they want to continue to add things to the discussion. You can't spend money you don't have.
True, we don't have a hazmat unit, like the union says?
Menino: We have five hazmat units, but they want more money for it.
Flaherty: We are home to over 5,000 labs in the city of Boston and LNG tankers. We don't have a dedicated hazmat. No urban search and rescue. Boston was launching pad for 9/11. Nearest search and rescue is in Beverly.
What does failure to get contract say about your ability to manage?
Menino: Nothing. It takes two to agree. Who in today's economy is getting 14%? Nobody.
Hazmat was number 1 issue we got e-mail about.
Menino: Firefighters were at T stops handing out fliers about it. They want just one unit sit there wait for a hazmat call, take them out of fire stations. We've had many reviews said we're prepared to deal with these issues. Biolab gone through more reviews than any other facility in the country.
Flaherty: We should have dedicated hazmat: You never know when somebody hellbent on wreaking havoc. Let's not forget firefighter who lost life because brakes on his truck failed.
Menino: Firefighters fixed those trucks. We went out and got civ. professionals to fix them.
Crime
Flaherty: Decentralize police. E-policing. We need to start putting people back to work. Lot of crime is repeat offenders who can't find jobs.
But crime is down 40%!
Flaherty: Those numbers don't tell the whole story. Number of shootings don't result in death, thanks to our great trauma centers. If these shootings took place in East Boston, our murder rate would almost double. Plus, unreported crime. Currently, we react to crime, don't plan for it.
Menino: Crime is down in the city. Those are real numbers. We have 68 crime watches. Work with community groups. We have community centers with night problems. But also, CORI is an issue. Kids can't get jobs. I keep filing legislation to help those kids get a job. Dropout rates been cut 1/3 since I've been in office. Start in first three years of life, even. 65 street workers. High-crime neighborhoods: We have door-to-door violence-prevention programs. 10,000 kids put to work this summer. Captains have monthly meetings to discuss what they need.
Emerson ranked most dangerous campus in America. How can you assure parents their kids are safe?
Menino: I'd want to look at how they came up with those numbers. We are working with youth to reduce violence.
Flaherty: Youth violence is on rise at time when number of youths are down. A lot of people don't feel safe in their communities.
Menino: ShotSpotter helped improve response to gunshots.
Flaherty: Once again we're reacting to the shots. Let's be proactive. Let's not forget drugs: Substance-abuse epidemic. We need treatment on demand.
Menino: We have program at Boston Medical Center, methadone clinics, education in schools and boys and girls clubs.
Public schools. Better student/teacher ratios?
Menino: We're doing the best we can with the finances we have. We've made a lot of progress: 75% kids go onto college. Program to help kids once they're in college. Full-day kindergarten, now K1 and K2. Best urban school system in America. We take in every kids, we don't discriminate.
Flaherty: My wife and I talk about this all the time: student/teacher ratio. My goal is to reduce the ratio. Eliminate wasteful spending at bloated bureaucracy at Court Street. Overpaid consultants, bloated transportation costs. Most of those 75% drop out after the first year. We're not preparing our children to attend those fine institutions (colleges in Boston area). Create more autonomy for principals and headmasters, school-site budgeting.
Menino: 10% more kids apply for BPS this year than last year. Five colleges put $10 million in to work with underperforming schools. In-district charter schools.
8,000 kids waitlisted for charter schools. What does it say about BPS?
Menino: I'm not talking about charter schools.
Flaherty: It says it's an embarrassment. Very successful charter schools. More families have left our city in search of quality education. That waiting list is unacceptable. We need to bring families back to Boston.
But would all those charter schools essentially suck all money out of public school system?
Flaherty: No one size fits all. Hold charter schools accountable. No leadership in Boston for 16 years on charter issue. We're not in a position to receive Obama Rise to the Top money. We should be giving families options to stay in the city.
Menino: I want flexibility in my schools. We want merit pay for our teachers in the schedule. We're not out of the contest yet. We don't need more schools. We just need better schools. Why do we give more to charter schools per student than public schools? We need to even it out.
Jobs
Flaherty: I will enforce Boston jobs policy: 50% of construction to go to people who live in Boston, 25% to minorities. That will change, no more workers from RI. Green economy. Creative economy, bright, talented artists are going to Rhode Island.
Menino: I set a real high standard for ourselves. Do pretty well on public projects It's private construction jobs where we haven't done as well. Two new companies coming to Boston. Job training programs. Brigham and Women's radiology training.
Flaherty: Construction project, only 2% of jobs at Charlestown High went to city residents. Time has come for mayor to put pressure on his developer friends.
When are they going to clean up the streets, get rid of the bums and winos at bus stops?
Menino: 5,900 homeless in the city. Different reasons: Mental illness, CORI. We have programs. Some of these people just will not go into programs. We have job-training program, farm, laundry business on Long Island. There are mental health issues. Some people lost their jobs, their homes. We can't force them into a shelter. Annual December survey.
Flaherty: Streets of Boston are filthy. Take our old parking meters, use them to collect money for the homeless, for services and training.
Free tagging:
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Comments
Not ready to accept "kinda".
Menino says his goal is to “make lives just a little bit better”. But just a little bit isn’t enough for the 24,000 kids who’ve dropped out of school in the past 16 years. It isn’t enough for the 8,000 parents on a waitlist to get their kids into a charter school. It isn’t enough for the 1,000 murdered and the countless assaulted. We need more than a little bit better. For a mayor seeking a 5th term against two progressive candidates pushing for change, “just a little bit” falls woefully short. It’s the same story when talking about the Hazmat units--Menino is “almost positive” and “pretty confident” that we don’t need a specialized, dedicated unit. Why would we accept “almost” and “pretty” when it comes to public safety? Crime stats don’t matter to those who feel unsafe in their homes. Once again, Menino is out of touch. “Emerson [just named the most dangerous campus in the country] is a pretty safe place”. Over and over, the Mayor seems to suggest we should be happy with marginal improvements, and passable public services. Who wants a mayor whose talking point is “I guess we’re not doing too bad”?
Tired of Menino taking credit
It's funny. I sat and listened tonight and was just sicken. I am tired of Menino taking credit for things that he had nothing to do with.
Just one example: The MCC gave money for a project within Boston schools and Menino took credit for it.
Another example: Menino says that his precious BRA has created tons of new artists live and live/work spaces. Did he tell you that the BRA allowed for the developer to insert a loop hole that forbids the artist community to own their spaces within 3 years as promised?
Nope. Probably not.
I like where Flaherty stands on many issues. I also know that he brings with him a fresh set of eyes and ideas, which is what this city needs. Which is what our capitol city needs.
D Law, Do you know how many
D Law,
Do you know how many people work at the BRA? Do you know all the great development they've done, all the work they've done for small business technical assistance with programs like Back Streets?
Lots and lots of people who live in boston have worked for the BRA, have been touched in positive ways by the BRA.
The BRA is not the most open organization in the world, but of the people who know what it does, the majority want it to stay intact.
Attacking the BRA is a losing strategy.
Then why does everyone hate them
Mr. Palmieri - I know you want to keep your job, but this is ridiculous. Back Bay, Fort Point, Southie, Allston Brighton, North End - I meet with neighborhood leaders from all over the city and they are fed up with the BRA pushing THEIR ideas on everyone else. If we had some planning (is that post below from you too?) you could go to a neighborhood and say something like, "The city is growing at 0.2% per year. We would like residential in the Back Bay area as mutually defined to grow at 0.5% or 1% - so we have 10,000 units and need to average 100 new units a year for 20 years - where should we build them. What kind of buildings should they be? How tall, architecture etc..." Then you measure progress and revise that plan every 5 years or so.
This BS about organic growth doesn't work for vegetables, much less a complex organism like a city. It's simply a way to extort money from the developer and then sprinkle it around so you can buy votes - that's the way business is done in this city and anybody involved in the process - insider or outsider knows how it works - and it has to stop or we are going to build ourselves into a giant glass and steel city of empty office buildings and underpriced luxury condos. Attacking the BRA gets you votes - and rightly so - in large swaths of the city.
And if the BRA hasn't come for your neighborhood yet, hold on - they will. Speak now or by the time they come for you there may be nobody left to speak for you.
Everyone doesn't
That was my point.
Bloggers hate it, Kevin Mcrea and Sam Yoon does. Flaherty worked at the BRA, which is why his attacks don't sound as authentic as Yoon's did.
Unforunately, your plan for community engaged development is not realistic, pragmatic, whatever.
"where should we build them. What kind of buildings should they be? How tall, architecture etc.." You can't ask these questions because who has the time to go to meetings and answer them? Who can say that they speak for the people in their neighborhood?
American's cities are beautiful places, do you agree? They were built by autocratic capitalistic companies who didn't give a damn making professional community meeting attendees happy.
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about
Who has time to go to these meetings? Are you kidding? Have you ever been to one - hundreds of people often care enough to go depending on the meeting depending on the issue. They are not elected representatives - but if others don't care enough to go their voices aren't heard. And if you knew what you were talking about you would know that the "professional community meeting attendees" often make a huge positive difference. They may not kill a project (that's actually almost never the objective anyway) - but there is a tremendous track record of making projects in a better scale for neighborhoods - yes usually smaller, improving the architecture, requiring better environmental mitigation and a host of other improvements.
The difference is that the BRA can do whatever they damn well please and the mayor can lay off the blame on an "independent agency" (at least he could until McCrea and the Globe exposed the sham of this) - simply taking these same functions and rolling them into city hall forces greater transparencey and makes them more accountable to the voters.
Hey anon, do you or did you
Hey anon, do you or did you at any time work for the BRA? Just curious.
Prove it
Point to documentation of one community commitment that the BRA held a developer to completing.
What? You can't? Because over a MILLION dollars over FIVE YEARS has been spent in salary for a director (who got the job because she is Menino's buddy and partly responsible for the Columbus Center debacle) and an office *specifically* for community promise compliance that hasn't delivered a SINGLE GODDAMNED THING?
Oh. Well, then, please do carry on with your BRA boot licking.
Menino misses the point
He's not being judged on 1993 vs 2009. It's 2005 vs 2009 and menino's call for incremental change ignores the areas where we have either stopped making progress, such as education and inner city crime, or where we are years behind similar cities in supporting small businesses, sustainable transit, and an organized plan for the future of Boston.
Hokun, You must be
Hokun,
You must be unfamiliar with Menino's Main Streets programs. Boston has the national model for small business development. There are 19 of these in boston and they have remade small business districts since Menino first took office. He started them in Roslindale as a city councilor in Hyde Park and he pushed them hard as mayor.
And Boston doesn't need an organized plan. We're not Chicago. We're not New York. We're an old city that has grown organically and has done remarkably well in this way.
take your masters in Urban Development and take it to Phoenix or Las Vegas or Naples, Florida. Those places need a master plan, Boston's design works as is.
dude i'm all for the boston
dude i'm all for the boston pride, but your panzy ass must not rely on the T or live in a house you can't leave at night if you think "boston's design works as is."
cling to the security of tradition all you want but hokun's line of thinking makes sense.
Boston Pride
is run by the Pride Committee and sponsored by individuals and corporations. The city has very little to do with organizing it.
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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Well Played
eeka, I tip my hat to you.
You want to add more
You want to add more T-lines? Really? To make your commute shorter?
Do you know what kind of construction that would involve?
And do you know who is in charge of public transportation? Ultimately it's Deval Patrick. His latest project in Boston is the 28X and no one in that community even wants it. Because they don't want the disruption that it's construction will entail. And they're talking about a bus line, not a train.
Eyroller
This attitude is made of what covers the cowpaths. Boston's design does NOT work as it is. It is antiquated and lacking in maintenance.
If anything, Boston needs an organized plan because it is a large city trying to function with a seriously dysfunctional infrustructure resulting from haphazard growth. You cannot eliminate the deficiencies in such a maddening muddle unless you are systematic about it. Furthermore, there is no way to incorporate the needs of changing populations without regular review and revision of a systematic plan.
Anybody who has ever lived in an old house will tell you: charming does not maintain or improve itself organically.
Organize plan = waste of time, money
Boston's design works well. Not great, but well. We're an established city. There is only so many ways you can modify a 400 year old city.
Yes, the T sucks, but you can thank Deval. That's not the mayor's problem.
Also, Sam Yoon or Michale Flaherty never said what changing infrastructure would involve. Billions of dollars? Years of construction? Disruption of neighborhoods, traffic, and small business?
Yes, Boston still uses ancient cow paths. What do you propose? Ripping up Dot Ave? building a bridge over Jamaica Pond? Moving all of our US Interstates underground?
The T is not the mayors
The T is not the mayors problem?
Considering that all the subway lines run through Boston, the commuter rail system is based off Boston, and even the ferries call Boston home, I think it is.
Bloomberg has done a lot of work with the MTA to improve service, even though it's "not his problem".
Someone mentioned that "nobody wants 28X". Isnt it great when people pull stuff out of their ass like that?
NYC MTA vs our MBTA
One important difference: the NYC subway system runs entirely within the city limits of New York City.
T sure is the city's problem
Even aside from the sheer number of Bostonians who use it and pay fares, the city pays $70 million a year to the MBTA for service. Is it getting its money's worth?
speaking of cowpaths
In a previous debate, the mayor claimed that the street layout was based upon cowpaths. How could an "urban Mechanic" with so much knowledge of a city recite such a fallacy? The street layout meanders the way it does due to the topography and land reclamation from the various stages of expansion into the tidelands.
Doesn't he know that the streets as they stand were all laid out on paper by engineers at the city?
Main Streets was a national model
in the early days and rightfully so. But in the past decade much has changed, and while the Mayor cuts ribbons over and over again at the same store fronts, the program has lost its credibility. Yes there are some great neighborhood initiatives, but how much cash has the city invested in businesses that have poor plans and shutter their doors within a year or two? Where is the analysis of the sustainability of the program's investment for each new business created?
And how about the lost opportunity of creating better small business/entrepreneurial access through changing zoning along our Main Streets? Many of our neighborhoods are hampered by the necessity of pleading one's case to ISD/ZBA/BRA because we do not have adequate commercial zoning in high traffic areas, which once again allows the Mayor and his crack neighborhood services team to greenlight projects based on personal relationships.
Lastly, if you think planning is an overrated skill, I offer BTD as an example of the paltry respect given to professional acumen in Menino's World. Political hacks get jobs in this department, and an undereducated yet dedicated machine guy runs the division (which any day will become another leg of the BRA). Without folks who understand urban planning, engineering and logistics, we are far behind our neighbors in Brookline and Cambridge (never mind great cities nationally and internationally) in figuring out how to create walkable, bikeable and green mobility.
Yes, the Mayor was once a guy who brought vitality to conversations about city living, and he deserves credit for those early days, but sadly his current comfort zone has diminished opportunities across the board.
For this entire race
Menino has done nothing but say that he's making progress, say that he wants to move Boston forward, but he never says how. He has no substance.
Non-fatal shootings have gone up. 8,500 kids are wait-listed for Charter Schools. The Mayor was not even aware of this number. He thought it was nationwide.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/wakefield/news/lifestyl...
Menino has no substance, he IS substance
Tom Menino said a TON of things tonight that many people didn't pick up on but that resonate with people who vote in boston.
Tom Menino is an expert on everything in this city. He lives Boston. He IS substance. Anytime he speaks, you're listening to substance and you may not even realize it because if you're commenting on blogs, you probably aren't affected by faith based, community based organizations in Boston that help people with addictions, health problems, minorities, etc. Menino supports these groups and he has been the only one to mention them by name in these debates.
Listen to what he said about working with Project R.I.G.H.T., with boys and girls clubs, with the South Boston Coalition, with community development corporations, these are the organizations that make up the fabric of life in Boston's neighborhoods.
I wonder if Flaherty even knows what Project R.I.G.H.T. is? You would think not, because Flaherty never mentioned Boston's community centers, YMCA's, neighborhood coalitions.
It's hard to listen to Tom because he has a speech impediment, but google some of the programs he manages to mumble out. You'll realize where Boston's substance is and realize that from his mumbling mouth, there is substance. You'd also realize that those organizations have made progress, they are forces of change in their communities, and people care that their mayor supports these groups on television and in his budget.
Sam Yoon said that any thinking person would think that Mike won the debate tonight. But unfortunately for Sam, Boston is not made up of college professors who read books and conduct studies. If it were, Sam would've won.
Tom Menino talks substance. He may not talk your language if you went to an ivy league school or to a fancy law school, like Mike and Sam, but he talks the language of people in Boston. And they heard a lot of substance tonight.
Isolation = lack of perspective
I look around Boston and see a city that could be so much more if only the leadership bothered to go look at what works and doesn't in other cities and bring it back. It saves money, time, and a lot of mistakes to use a best practices approach - just look at NYC.
Boston is getting to be like that elderly people apartment that your great aunt had - furniture from 40 years ago, 5 gallon per flush toilets, smoke stained mirrors ... and wall paper that is severly out of date. If you never get out, and only get the influences of people who validate the status quo, you get that apartment for a city.
I mean, seriously: why does the transportation infrastructure of the city depend on what the Mayor decides to take up as a hobby? Very much the problem - the Who becomes much more important than why, what, and how much.
Dorchester has the red line,
Dorchester has the red line, Roxbury, JP has the Orange line. Mattapan has the 28. Hyde Park is happy with the commuter rail. So is West Roxbury. The north end is happy walking to downtown. None of these run on time, but that's because the Commonwealth needs to upgrade the existing track and cars, etc. City of Boston certainly doesn't have the cash to refurbish these lines, nor is it their jurisdiction.
Where exactly do we need another line? What would it connect? You want another Big Dig for I-93 and for Storrow Drive?
Menino has already fought for a indigo line connecting Readville, Mattapan, Codman Sq, and South Station, using the existing tracks of the fairmount commuter rail (he mentioned this project in the last debate with McFloon) but he's powerless without state support.
Give the city a proposal. Maybe we can see where you're coming from.
Yoon and Flaherty never did in 9 months of this campaign season. They won't get my vote.
Good point
and one of the nice things about Boston is that we are one of the wealthiest cities in the country so if we find things in other cities that work and want to implement them - we can afford it as long as we learn to operate a little more efficiently!
Sorry SwirlyGrrl, I like
Sorry SwirlyGrrl,
I like NYC, but I like Boston better. NYC also has 400 times the population we do, a ton more tax revenue from business (well, for a while they did), and a lot of things that work there wouldn't here.
I also don't hear Flaherty calling for that stuff either.
You're right to a
You're right to a degree.
Also, every time Flaherty opens his mouth, I tend to like him less. He's not offering much else besides not Menino, and to me that's not enough.
Grudgingly, Menino my vote this time around.
Emerson question unfair to Emerson
Seriously, Boston Common is the most unsafe site in the country for kids 18-22?
Flaherty didn't stand up for the city of Boston. He accepts the results of a bogus study posted on the daily beast.
Go to Wayne State in Detroit.
Go to Hartford Community College in Hartford, CT.
go to Fordham in the Bronx, NY.
Hell, go to Yale in New Haven, CT.
Show us
some stats about Wayne State, or Hartford Community College if you know better. I want facts.
So a random article
So a random article professing Emerson is the worst is now stats and fact?
Sounds like another BS college ranking puff piece if you ask me.
Why didn't Suffolk make the list too? It's only a few blocks away.
Who at Channel 5 thought to ask about the Emerson thing?
They should be flogged. It was a stupid pop-up window on a Huffington Post wannabe site that even the author of thought unfairly represented Emerson.
But it did it's job, Megan
But it did it's job, Megan bought it!
:)
Like I said, why no love for Suffolk? Maybe an alumni was on the team that made up that bunk?
Anyone know the last time we've heard a police report involving an Emerson student? I can't think of one off the top of my head.
and yes it is too white, and
and yes it is too white, and neither one of these suits are going to do anything about that.
Flaherty Was On
More than in the previous two debates, Flaherty was on tonight. He was sharp and impassioned and had a dominating presence (in a good way).
Menino clearly got sloppy with his stats (75% of BPS students go to college? Really?) and looked tired. Not just fatigued, but he looked like he didn't want to be there. I think the campaign is really wearing on him.
That stat probably just needs to be qualified
The high school I attended (not in Boston) boasted a similar stat.
The parameters for said statistic were that 80-something percent of graduates set foot in a college classroom within five years of high school graduation. This was of course drawn from a sample of the people who kept in touch with their high school so as to answer their survey in five years, so clearly the kinds of people with more positive views of education. My high school had horrible graduation rates, but of course never cited statistics about what percentage of freshman end up at college, and most of the people who "went to college" were people whose employer had them take a vocational class at the local community college (which is by all means a great thing to do, but not what "go to college" suggests to most people).
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Context is King
Yeah, that probably is the case. But a correct number with the wrong qualifier is no better than the right qualifier with the wrong number. It's still wrong.
Flaherty was just negative all night
What happened to "good .. better"?
No new proposals or issues, Menino smoked him with substance.
Flaherty sounded like Jim Brett did 16 years ago, people are leaving the city .. how come population is up? how come crime is down? How come more restaurants and jobs across the city? How come more supermarkets? Not because of Flaherty, come to think of it, what has he done? Didn't say anything tonight.
Sloppy
Menino is getting worse and worse as the campaign progresses. Flaherty was good tonight and showed that we need new leadership. Menino spouted a lot of facts that were incorrect. Not sure if he doesn't know - or just doesn't want us to know.
Serious Mr. Anon?
Now I've heard it all. If only we understood Menino's language we would see that he said all the right things?
Support editorial privilege, critique use of editorial privilege
What happened to an example at city hall of the part of the public debate regarding deleting email and public records?...
It wasn't related to the debate
You posted two items about stenographic records of city council hearings, which didn't come up at all in the debate. As I mentioned the other day, I'm deleting stuff like that.
Bwaahahahaa. Adam, can we
Bwaahahahaa.
Adam, can we start a new term Zak'd? Getting you nonsensical, off topic post pulled.
Also, do we know if Zak is Kaz's split personality yet?
Public records of our cities and towns.
The issue is access to city hall public records regardless of the division of government. The tone of city hall is set by a Mayor. See also, by Rebecca S Murray, Freedom of information and public records law in Massachusetts a discussion of the mechanics of the public records law and the impact of the law's application
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320779256
Hold our public officials to the spirit of FOI freedom of information public records principles and sunshine open public meetings principles of open transparent government. When a Mayor sidesteps providing information it sets a bad example. Both candidates have been doing it.
Please go back to Cambridge
I don't know how they do things across the river, but here in Boston the city council and mayor are separate branches of municipal government.
Or make a point related to the post, as you did in your last sentence.
Re: Public records of our cities and towns.
One candidate is current Mayor responsible for censoring of the public information of his office. One candidate is a City Councilor responsible for censoring of public information of his division of government.
My goodness, you can argue on point!
Thank you, keep it up.
Your original posts, however, had nothing to do with this, or, if they did, were so obscurely referenced they appeared to make no sense.
You may recall, however, that the big public-information issue with Flaherty was not stenographic records of city-council meetings but the fact that, as city council president, he wasted several hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money fighting off a lawsuit (filed by, among others, Kevin McCrea) related to secret City Council meetings on BRA issues. To his credit, he's since apologized, more or less, says he's learned from the experience and won't do it again.
An online stenographic machine record of the last public meeting
A sincere City Councilor would see that the stenographic machine record of the last public meeting is online. It's not at http://cityofboston.gov/government
Now cut that out
Next stenographic reference gets deleted.
My god Adam, it's like
My god Adam, it's like arguing with the computer from Star Trek!
:)
re: substance abuse comment...
You ever try and get someone admitted to treatment thru BMC? absolute joke....this is a huge problem that falls into a category with a number of other crimes: obviously dealing, B&E's, robberies, muggings, car breaks, prostitution, etc, etc... detox is detox, that's all that's need, along with a recovery program....and you can't get that around here. as for methadone clinics - they should be blown up. its a crutch for an active drug addict, you can kick drugs w/o it (yeah it sucks, but its absolutely do-able), you don't have to then try & kick methadone, which can be just as hard to do.....AND PEOPLE DIE FROM METHADONE TOO!!! I just pulled my kid out of BPS, there was never a mention of the dangers of drugs - just not to do them...more along the lines of things like cigarettes are bad, which they are, but nowadays, there is so much more...
SO WHAT ABOUT THAT TOMMY BOY? EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS ON A MORE PERSONAL LEVEL?!?! DOUBT IT, B/C IF YOU DID, YOU WOULDN'T BE TOOTING YOUR OWN HORN (AGAIN) ON THESE ISSUES!!!!