Transparency Update: Still a failing grade for our elected officials

As I have been reporting, I have asked some simple questions and made public records requests from our Mayor, Mayoral hopefuls Flaherty and Yoon, and as a bonus this week, District Attorney Conley. Another week has passed and no response.


1) a: Request of the Mayor through his chief budget person Lisa Signori to tell us what amount of money we owe and what interest rate we pay on that money: NO RESPONSE, WHATSOEVER.

b: Request of the Mayor through his chief budget person Lisa Signori to tell us what amount of money we have that we are collecting interest on and what interest rate we get on that money: NO RESPONSE, WHATSOEVER.

2) Exact same Public Records request to Councilors Flaherty and Yoon asking for payroll records. They have responded by passing the buck to the City Clerks office.
Well past the 10 days required by Law for a response and I have received no information from either of them yet.

3) Exact same request to Councilors Flaherty and Yoon asking why they voted to suspend the rules to change City Laws to give Paul Walkowski a $20,000 raise to write a report about how the City Council could get around the Open Meeting Law.

Exact same response from both Councilors: NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER

It seems to me that if something is so important to get done that they vote to suspend the rules, that they would be eager to talk about how important it was to get this done for the good of the citizens. They are elected to represent the citizens aren't they?

4) After the Dianne Wilkerson indictment came down, I wrote a letter to the District Attorney (who is responsible for enforcing the Open Meeting Law in Suffolk County) asking them to investigate possible violations of the Law at the Boston Licensing Board. This was reported in the Herald. I put a call in a couple of weeks ago to the attorney who handles these matters, as it has been three months since the request. No response to date.

We need an open, honest, transparent government to represent all of our citizens, not an elite who doesn't answer to the public, protects themselves and special interests, while the rest of us pay the price. Taxes and the City Budget keep going up and up and up, and they won't even tell us where the money is, never mind what they are spending it on.