A Night at the Strand!

Had a wonderful evening tonight at the Strand Theater where HBO was premiering its second in a (hopeful) series of films called "The Black List" The event was hosted by the producer, the film maker and by our Governor Deval Patrick who was one of the featured people in the movie. It was announced there were about 1,000 people there including Mayor Menino who gave me a strong, friendly handshake after the movie. Sam Yoon was also there, but no sign of Michael Flaherty. My team and I handed out a few hundred flyers. People are really picking up on my theme of "It's time for a change." It is amazing how many pick up on that phrase, nod their heads and say "yes it is time for a change, long overdue."

Followers of my blog will know that I have been trying to get Sam and Michael to answer the simple question: Why did you give Paul Walkowski a $20,000 raise to write a report on how the City Council could exempt itself from the Open Meeting Law.
Of course the Mayor had to sign off on it as well but does he answer anyone's questions?

I took the opportunity of seeing Sam in person to ask him the question myself, since his office hadn't responded to emails or phone calls.

The conversation went like this:

Kevin: "Sam, Why did you vote to suspend the rules to change City Laws to hire Paul Walkowski and give him a $20,000 raise to write a report on how the City Council could exempt itself from the Open Meeting Law.

(long pause while Sam looked skyward)

Sam: I'm not familiar with that. Have you called my office?

Kevin: "Yes, I've called three times and sent an email."

Sam: "Well call again and set up a meeting, because that is a worthy question which deserves an answer. I'm sorry but I've been really busy, you know how it is."

Kevin: "Great, I'd love five minutes of your time to get an answer."


So, I will call him and get a meeting. I remember the good old days, just 3.5 short years ago when Sam was wearing a "Labor for Menino" sticker on his label and going to community meetings saying "If you have a problem with ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT All, if you have a broken sidewalk, call me and I will help you get it resolved." Now you call him three times, send an email with a formal public records request
and he ignores it, even though he calls it a worthy question.

These are the reasons people call for politicians to resign their seat when they are running for other offices. If you are too busy to do your job, you shouldn't collect a paycheck for it.

Must be nice to completely forget how you voted to give someone a $20,000 raise to boost their pension that the taxpayers will be paying for years. Maybe it happens so often you just can't remember all of them. Either way, I'm not impressed with the fiscal responsibility of any of our elected officials at City Hall.