Mark Ciommo

Yancey: How dare city build new offices for school officials but condemn students to substandard high schools

adamg — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:50:57 +0000

Dorotea Manuela explains why she wants a high school in Mattapan.

City Councilor Charles Yancey (Dorchester, Mattapan) has a new tactic in his long-running battle to get a high school built in Mattapan: Blasting the city's plan - which he voted for - to spend $115 million moving BPS headquarters from Court Street downtown to the old Ferdinand building in Dudley Square, when nearly 4,000 high-school students attend classes in "substandard" buildings originally built for elementary students or as warehouses.

City Council President: Firefighters won't get their contract without 'meaningful concessions'

adamg — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:53:00 +0000

City Council President Mike Ross, joined by councilors Mark Ciommo, Charles Yancey and Chuck Turner, said today they were prepared to vote against a proposed firefighters contract unless firefighters make significant concessions.

City councilors: Cabbies, livery drivers causing problems in residential areas

adamg — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:01:39 +0000

In Jamaica Plain, livery drivers are parking in resident-only spots. In Hyde Park, cab drivers are running their businesses out of their homes. And in Allston/Brighton, cabbies are leaving their personal cars in parking lots, running their businesses 24/7 in residential areas.

City Councilors John Tobin (Jamaica Plain), Rob Consalvo (Hyde Park) and Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) said the city needs to come up with regulations to keep residential areas from being overrun by businesses.

Consalvo, who said "I love tax drivers," said he knows of at least five drivers in Hyde Park who run their operations out of their houses - and is dreading the first "violent act involving a money transfer at 3 in the morning."

Tobin said that while the city has regulations barring commercial vehicles from resident-only spots, they do not apply to livery vehicles. He said the city doesn't even know how many livery licenses there are in the city.

Campaign notes: Debate and endorsement news

adamg — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:20:47 +0000

Menino and Flaherty have at it again in a debate that starts tonight at 7 p.m. on Channel 2, NECN and WBUR.

Over in Brighton, Ciommo and Selvig have at it again in a debate tomorrow in a debate that starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Brighton Elks, 326 Washington St.

At-large council candidate Ayanna Pressley's campaign reports endorsements by City Council President Mike Ross, councilors John Tobin and Charles Yancey, State Senators Steven Tolman and Sonia Chang-Diaz and State Representatives Kevin Honan, Liz Malia and Martin Walsh.

Debate wrap-up, city council notes

adamg — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:58:53 +0000

Basic news accounts: Globe | Herald.

Councilor Ciommo has an e-mail problem

adamg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:37:34 +0000

But unlike Menino chief of staff Michael Kineavy, Mark Ciommo says his problem is he has too much e-mail in his inbox.

Alex Selvig, battling again with Ciommo for the Allston/Brighton district council seat (this time along with Abigail Furey and Ben Narodick) said at a candidate's forum tonight he's made a formal request to Ciommo for all e-mail he's sent to or received from Kineavy. Selvig says he's particularly interested in any communications related to the BRA.

Ciommo said he plans to treat Selvig's request like a formal public-records request and that he will hand over copies of any e-mail. But that will take some time, he said. "I have currently over 8,500 e-mails in my computer. It is an arduous task." He said he's asked his staff to find all the relevant e-mail messages, even though that will take "many hours of staff time, which unfortunately will take my staff away from constituent work."

Selvig then asked if there were any computer engineers in the audience. When a couple of people raised their hands, he asked how long it should take to search 8,500 messages for any mentions of "Kineavy." About 30 seconds, one said.

"I have dozens of folders with files in each folder that need to be reviewed accurately," Ciommo said. "I'm going to be thorough and accurate when responding to a legal question."

Selvig then asked the audience again about how long it should take to search messages in several dozen folders on "Kineavy." About 30 seconds was the reply again.

More notes from the Allston/Brighton candidates' forum.

Notes from an Allston/Brighton city-council forum

adamg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:33:24 +0000

Notes from a forum between the four people running for the Allston/Brighton district city-council seat in Tuesday's preliminary, held tonight at the Brighton Elks. Two of the four will advance to the final election in November. Also see Harry Mattison's livetweeting of the forum.

Opening

Recap of the Allston/Brighton candidates' debate

adamg — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:56:20 +0000

Michael Pahre reports.

Allstonians and Brightonites (Brightonians?) get another shot at the four candidates for the district city council seat on Thursday, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Brighton Elks Lodge, 326 Washington Street. Pahre moderates that one.

Did a city councilor who agreed not to get involved in BC issues get involved in BC issues?

adamg — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:20:04 +0000

Mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea posts a copy of a letter that would seem to indicate Allston/Brighton City Councilor Mark Ciommo managed to convince at-large Councilor (and mayoral candidate) Sam Yoon to "scale back" a proposed hearing order on Boston College's expansion plans. Ciommo had promised to recuse himself from BC deliberations because his son got a scholarship there.

Harry Mattison posts Ciommo's reply:

... I have not contradicted any aspects of my disclosure form.

Councilor Yoon approached me to co-sponsor a late-file Order for a Hearing regarding the BRA process with Boston College's [institutional master plan]. I provided him with my feedback that I supported several components of the Order for a Hearing, but that I thought that some of the language was inaccurate. I also felt that some of the language was politically charged.

My intent was to remove politics from the discussion and focus on the BRA process. I think the end result was a more productive hearing. ...

Four running for Allston/Brighton council seat

adamg — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:19:13 +0000

The Bulletin introduces us to the four people running for the district 9 city-council seat in Allston/Brighton, including incumbent Mark Ciommo.

City-council race in Allston/Brighton

adamg — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:18:14 +0000

Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports two people have pulled papers to run against incumbent district Councilor Mark Ciommo.

Why Brighton's election results turned out like they did

adamg — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:48:40 +0000

Michael Pahre runs the numbers - and shows how the Russian Bloc influenced the race, even without any obvious endorsement from capo Naakh Visoky.