Kevin McCrea for Mayor

City Council on trail tomorrow morning in Suffolk Superior Court

2011-06-19T23:36:00.002-04:00

The hopefully final hearing in the 6 year plus McCrea v. City Council case will be tomorrow morning at Suffolk Superior Court,
room 304.

Expected to testify for the defense is councilor Ross, being called by the plaintiffs is councilor Murphy, councilor Feeney and City clerk Rosaria Salerno.

The council has already plead guilty on all counts, this is a hearing to determine the consequences of their actions.

Final hearing in McCrea et al V. Flaherty and the City Council postponed

2011-05-23T20:55:00.002-04:00

We were supposed to have the final hearing in the McCrea v. City Council case this Wednesday at 9 am in Suffolk Superior court. However, a trial is going on longer than expected and so the case has been postponed until a date we can mutually agree upon.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, I am NOT running for City council this year.

I will try and update the blog once we have a new final hearing date. Councilors Ross, Feeney and Murphy and City Clerk Rosaria Salerno are possibly going to testify about how the City council now acts more transparently.

The End of What we know as America?

2011-03-26T09:06:00.002-04:00

Here is the last column from Bob Herbert of the NY Times. Very powerful. However, the NY Times and writers should look in the mirror when they support people like Barack Obama who clearly are part of this agenda, instead of other credible candidates such as Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich. The Times is part of the problem, and engages in the tax break shananigans
of which he complains.

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.

Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent.

This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences.

A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States — General Electric did not have to pay any U.S. taxes last year.

As The Times’s David Kocieniewski reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”

G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.

•

This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at bobherbert88@gmail.com.

Another great column in the Times about what America Needs---Education

2010-11-24T06:32:00.002-05:00

Education has been on my mind this week. One of my workers who recently spent 3 years in maximum security prison in MA got his G.E.D. after working with me, studying, getting his own place and with help from ABCD. Congratulations! It is a long road, but we need to get ourselves going.

The Boston Public Schools are atrocious, I try and hire kids who attend these schools all the time. We can't sugar coat it, we have to do something about it, but the leadership in our city is not there.

Some food for thought:

For me, the most frightening news in The Times on Sunday was not about North Korea’s stepping up its nuclear program, but an article about how American kids are stepping up their use of digital devices: “Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school and, often, while studying. But this proficiency comes at a cost: She blames multitasking for the three B’s on her recent progress report. “I’ll be reading a book for homework and I’ll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, ‘Oh, I forgot to do my homework.’ ”

Josh Haner/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman
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I don’t want to pick on Miller. I highlight her words only because they’re integral to a much larger point: Our unemployment today is not only because of the financial crisis. There are some deeper problems. If we’re going to get more Americans back to work, we will need more stimulus from the U.S.G. — the U.S. government — from the top down. But we will also need more stimulus from the P.T.A.’s — the Parent Teacher Associations — from the bottom up.

The deeper problems fostering unemployment in America today can be summarized in three paragraphs:

Global competition is stiffer. Just think about two of our most elite colleges. When Harvard and Yale were all male, applicants had to compete only against a pool of white males to get in. But when Harvard and Yale admitted women and more minorities, white males had to step up their game. But when the cold war ended, globalization took hold. As Harvard and Yale started to admit more Chinese, Indians, Singaporeans, Poles and Vietnamese, both American men and women had to step up their games to get in. And as the education systems of China, India, Singapore, Poland and Vietnam continue to improve, and more of their cream rises to the top and more of their young people apply to Ivy League schools, it is only going to get more competitive for American men and women at every school.

Then, just as the world was getting flattened by globalization, technology went on a rampage — destroying more low-end jobs and creating more high-end jobs faster than ever. What computers, hand-held devices, wireless technology and robots do in aggregate is empower better-educated and higher-skilled workers to be more productive — so they can raise their incomes — while eliminating many lower-skilled service and factory jobs altogether. Now the best-educated workers, capable of doing the critical thinking that machines can’t do, get richer while the least-educated get pink slips. (We used to have a receptionist at our office. She was replaced by a micro-chip. We got voice mail.)

Finally, just when globalization and technology were making the value of higher education greater than ever, and the price for lacking it more punishing than ever, America started slipping behind its peers in high school graduation rates, college graduation and global test scores in math and critical thinking.

As Education Secretary Arne Duncan put it to me in an interview, 50 years ago if you dropped out, you could get a job in the stockyards or steel mill and still “own your own home and support your family.” Today, there are no such good jobs for high school dropouts. “They’re gone,” said Duncan. “That’s what we haven’t adjusted to.” When kids drop out today, “they’re condemned to poverty and social failure.” There are barely any jobs left for someone with only a high school diploma, and that’s only valuable today if it has truly prepared you to go on to higher education without remediation — the only ticket to a decent job.

Beyond the recession, this triple whammy is one of the main reasons that middle-class wages have been stagnating. To overcome that, we need to enlist both the U.S.G. and the P.T.A. We need teachers and principals who are paid better for better performance, but also valued for their long hours and dedication to students and learning. We need better parents ready to hold their kids to higher standards of academic achievement. We need better students who come to school ready to learn, not to text. And to support all of this, we need an all-society effort — from the White House to the classroom to the living room — to nurture a culture of achievement and excellence.

If you want to know who’s doing the parenting part right, start with immigrants, who know that learning is the way up. Last week, the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for 2011 were announced — America’s top college grads. Here are half the names on that list: Mark Jia, Aakash Shah, Zujaja Tauqeer, Tracy Yang, William Zeng, Daniel Lage, Ye Jin Kang, Baltazar Zavala, Esther Uduehi, Prerna Nadathur, Priya Sury, Anna Alekeyeva, Fatima Sabar, Renugan Raidoo, Jennifer Lai, Varun Sivaram.

Do you see a pattern?

Great column by Friedman in the NY Times

2010-10-03T08:01:00.001-04:00

A friend in the U.S. military sent me an e-mail last week with a quote from the historian Lewis Mumford’s book, “The Condition of Man,” about the development of civilization. Mumford was describing Rome’s decline: “Everyone aimed at security: no one accepted responsibility. What was plainly lacking, long before the barbarian invasions had done their work, long before economic dislocations became serious, was an inner go. Rome’s life was now an imitation of life: a mere holding on. Security was the watchword — as if life knew any other stability than through constant change, or any form of security except through a constant willingness to take risks.”

It was one of those history passages that echo so loudly in the present that it sends a shiver down my spine — way, way too close for comfort.

I’ve just spent a week in Silicon Valley, talking with technologists from Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, Intel, Cisco and SRI and can definitively report that this region has not lost its “inner go.” But in talks here and elsewhere I continue to be astounded by the level of disgust with Washington, D.C., and our two-party system — so much so that I am ready to hazard a prediction: Barring a transformation of the Democratic and Republican Parties, there is going to be a serious third party candidate in 2012, with a serious political movement behind him or her — one definitely big enough to impact the election’s outcome.

There is a revolution brewing in the country, and it is not just on the right wing but in the radical center. I know of at least two serious groups, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, developing “third parties” to challenge our stagnating two-party duopoly that has been presiding over our nation’s steady incremental decline.

President Obama has not been a do-nothing failure. He has some real accomplishments. He passed a health care expansion, a financial regulation expansion, stabilized the economy, started a national education reform initiative and has conducted a smart and tough war on Al Qaeda.

But there is another angle on the last two years: a president who won a sweeping political mandate, propelled by an energized youth movement and with control of both the House and the Senate — about as much power as any president could ever hope to muster in peacetime — was only able to pass an expansion of health care that is a suboptimal amalgam of tortured compromises that no one is certain will work or that we can afford (and doesn’t deal with the cost or quality problems), a limited stimulus that has not relieved unemployment or fixed our infrastructure, and a financial regulation bill that still needs to be interpreted by regulators because no one could agree on crucial provisions. Plus, Obama had to abandon an energy-climate bill altogether, and if the G.O.P. takes back the House, we may not have an energy bill until 2013.

Obama probably did the best he could do, and that’s the point. The best our current two parties can produce today — in the wake of the worst existential crisis in our economy and environment in a century — is suboptimal, even when one party had a huge majority. Suboptimal is O.K. for ordinary times, but these are not ordinary times. We need to stop waiting for Superman and start building a superconsensus to do the superhard stuff we must do now. Pretty good is not even close to good enough today.

“We basically have two bankrupt parties bankrupting the country,” said the Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond. Indeed, our two-party system is ossified; it lacks integrity and creativity and any sense of courage or high-aspiration in confronting our problems. We simply will not be able to do the things we need to do as a country to move forward “with all the vested interests that have accrued around these two parties,” added Diamond. “They cannot think about the overall public good and the longer term anymore because both parties are trapped in short-term, zero-sum calculations,” where each one’s gains are seen as the other’s losses.

We have to rip open this two-party duopoly and have it challenged by a serious third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street; corporate tax reductions to stimulate jobs, without worrying about offending the far left; energy and climate reform, without worrying about offending the far right and coal-state Democrats; and proper health care reform, without worrying about offending insurers and drug companies.

“If competition is good for our economy,” asks Diamond, “why isn’t it good for our politics?”

We need a third party on the stage of the next presidential debate to look Americans in the eye and say: “These two parties are lying to you. They can’t tell you the truth because they are each trapped in decades of special interests. I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. I am going to tell you what you need to hear if we want to be the world’s leaders, not the new Romans.”

Easter Rebirth-Love to the World

2010-04-06T07:00:00.003-04:00

Love to everyone

Martha Coakley announces new Open Meeting Post

2010-04-02T15:47:00.001-04:00

Your browser may not support display of this image. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Office of the Attorney General

ONE ASHBURTON PLACE

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02108

(617) 727-2200

(617) 727-4765 TTY

www.mass.gov/ago

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT:

March 31, 2009 Emily LaGrassa

(617) 727-2543

ATTORNEY GENERAL MARTHA COAKLEY NAMES ROBERT NASDOR TO LEAD OFFICE’S NEW DIVISION OF OPEN GOVERNMENT

New Division will Focus on Education and Outreach as AG’s Office

Assumes Responsibility for Open Meeting Law Enforcement
BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley has named Robert Nasdor as the Director of her office’s newly-created Division of Open Government. In this role, Nasdor will oversee the Attorney General’s Office’s work to enforce and provide education and training on the state’s Open Meeting Law. On July 1, 2010, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) will assume responsibility for enforcement of the Open Meeting Law (OML) from the state’s District Attorneys, who previously enforced the law as it pertains to municipal bodies.
“The recent changes to the Open Meeting law provide for greater transparency and clarity—both of which are hallmarks of good government,” said Attorney General Martha Coakley. “Our office’s approach to enforcement of the Open Meeting Law will focus on education and training, and it is our hope that if all local government officials understand the law, we will prevent violations. Bob is a seasoned attorney whose career has focused on public interest advocacy and he shares my commitment to open government. I am confident that he will bring top-notch leadership to this new division and will be a great resource for municipal officials.”
Nasdor, a Sudbury resident, is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law. He previously served as the Legal Director at the National Center on Homelessness & Poverty in Washington, DC, where he directed the law and policy agenda for this national homeless legal advocacy organization. From 1997 through 2005, Nasdor served as the Executive Director of the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts, directing a 20-attorney civil legal services program serving 3,500 low-income clients annually.
Under Ethics Reform legislation enacted in 2009 the AGO will assume responsibility for all enforcement of the OML. Previously, the AGO was responsible for enforcement of the OML as it pertains to state boards and committees, while the state’s 11 District Attorney’s were responsible for enforcement of OML as it applied to municipal and county boards and committees. In order to allow for more consistent enforcement and to provide for more training

and education of municipal and county officials, all enforcement was transferred to the AGO, effective July 1, 2010.

Recognizing that most OML violations are the result of a lack of awareness or understanding of the law, the Attorney General’s new Division of Open Government will focus on providing training and educational resources to public officials who are subject to the OML. The Division of Open Government will provide training through two key means:

1. Online: The AGO will develop a comprehensive website that will provide updated OML guidelines, links to the OML and the AGO’s regulations, links to the advisory opinions and hearing decisions that we will be issuing, and other educational materials and resources.
2. In-person: The new division will also conduct in-person, regional trainings. In addition, the AGO will also continue to accept requests to speak from associations representing municipal officials, city managers, city solicitors/town counsel and city/town clerks, and other officials subject to the OML, as well as the news media.

The new division’s goal is to be a recognizable and readily accessible resource for officials, the news media, and the public.

Because the AGO has the authority to issue binding interpretations of the OML—something that the District Attorneys did not have—the AGO will be able to help officials avoid violating the law by providing guidance before action is taken. The AGO will provide both formal and informal guidance to municipalities and other officials. For example:

* Officials and other interested parties can ask for a written opinion from the Division of Open Government, which will apply the OML to a specific set of facts.
* The Division of Open Government will be able to respond to questions and concerns posed by local officials over the phone.

In addition, the AGO plans to issue procedural and substantive regulations that will help to fill in any gaps in the OML and respond to issues that arise.

Mike Ross's Citizen Committee announced

2010-04-02T12:22:00.004-04:00

Mike Ross announced in January that he is putting together a citizens committee on how Boston can be better. His announcement says the committee is full of innovators who have brought fresh energy and ideas to Boston.

I contacted Mike and the chairperson Ed Glaeser expressing my interest in the committee, but I didn't make the cut.

I was interested that in the announcement it noted that committee person Klare Allen is a resident of the Boston Housing Authority, but it doesn't mention where any of the other people live. I wrote the following note to Councilor Ross, I'll let you know what response I get:

Dear Mike,

I was disappointed that you weren't interested in having me on your committee. I had spoken to ChairPerson Glaeser about it and he thought I might be able to add something to it. Anyway, I wish you and the city well with it. I would suggest saving libraries or having a real long term plan and discussion about libraries would be a great way to make a great city.

I have one question. In your announcement it mentions that Klare Allen is a resident of the Boston Housing Authority. I have met Klare and I know she is a poor black woman. I also notice that the announcement doesn't mention where any of the other people live. Is there a particular reason that you only identify where poor black women live? I'd appreciate it if you would update your announcement and
let everyone know where all the appointees live. I know you care about equality and transparency.

I look forward to your response.

Kevin McCrea

Mike Responds:

It was to highlight that she lives in public housing - yes - that is important to me, and I hope to the public, that a member who lives in public housing is on this committee because this isn't just about CEO's and academics - that our city is strong enough to attract talent internationally, but lift up talent who currently lives here. She and I spoke.

Hope to see you at the meeting, and we will produce more complete bios.

Mike

My editorial against closing libraries

2010-04-01T00:16:00.001-04:00

This printed in these weeks edition of the South End News.

Recently it has been reported that there is an emergency fiscal "crisis" with the Boston Public Libraries and that 10 of the 26 branch libraries may have to be shuttered. But, the numbers do not add up, and there is no real emergency. The crisis is one of honest government, proper planning, and responsible investigative journalism.

First the numbers: according to the Boston Globe, the library budget this year is 41.1 million dollars, for which it is reported there is a 3.6 million dollar shortfall, which is about nine percent. The announced response to this is to close 38 percent of the branch libraries? Clearly, more than meets the eye is going on here. Three million, six hundred thousand dollars is less than two tenths of one percent of the 2.4 billion dollar City budget, and hardly rates as a crisis forcing us to board up public institutions without a proper vetting of how important they are to our civic life.

As thoroughly explained in the enlightening book "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, governments and politicians have moved away from being honest with their citizens by creating false "crises" to force "reforms" on people that they could not do democratically. In a debate last year, Mayor Menino trumpeted the fact that he had not closed one library during our national economic meltdown. I pointed out that he had indeed closed the Kirstein library, and he retorted that it just moved to Copley Square. Will he use the same logic for these 10 branch libraries? He certainly didn’t run on a platform of closing 40 percent of our civic institutions. Closing libraries is the modern equivalent of book burning, as Adrian Walker’s bank robber subject John McGrath so aptly put it this week.

I believe the media is most to blame for this state of affairs. Why aren’t they asking these basic financial questions? As I and others such as the Municipal Research Bureau and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation have been pointing out for years, we have an unsustainable financial model, especially when it comes to pensions and health care for government workers. This didn’t just happen in the last month, and it is no excuse to ram the shuttering of all these libraries down our throats without an honest, transparent analysis and discussion of our long-range civic goals and priorities. Last year at this time, City Hall was telling the press that we were facing 900 school layoffs and 200 police layoffs. As I wrote last year, this was again another fake "crisis" and was just being used to scare the populace so that the politicians looked good when they cut far fewer jobs, or none as in the case of policemen. I am saying it here now: the City of Boston is not going to close 10 libraries this year, City Hall is not being honest with the citizens, and if I am wrong I will personally donate $50,000 for books to the library system. I believe for the media to have their own sustainable economic model, they need to start doing their job and asking these questions, instead of asking where Tom and Gisele were last night.

We espouse that we are the Athens of America, but the recent news would suggest otherwise. We are talking about closing schools and closing libraries because of lack of money, but yet when two convenience store clerks are murdered the politicians are quick to come up with funds and proposed rules for requiring security cameras. I feel I am living more in Oceania than in Utopia. Yet the facts again point out the fallacy in their thinking. Surendra Dangol was killed in a convenience store with a security camera; it took 20 days to arrest his alleged killer. Gerardo Serrano was killed in a convenience store without a security camera; it took only four days to arrest his alleged killers. I didn’t hear a single politician ask about the cost of those proposed cameras and rules. It takes real leadership to say to a shocked and grieving public that to make a just and safe society we need to spend more on libraries and schools, and less on security cameras.

What is the solution? First of all, pray for Mother Nature to give us $7.5 million during this Easter season. What do I mean? Well, with help from Councilor Ayanna Pressley’s office I have figured out that we budgeted 15 million dollars for snow removal this year, and thankfully, we have only spent $7.5 million so far. So, if we can somehow make it through to Easter without breaking out the plows we will have a pot of gold that can help us survive the "crisis" for another year while we have a well-thought-out discussion on the future of libraries in Boston.

Mayor Menino has been talking about using eminent domain downtown; he could take back Heyward Place and put the $2 million his friend collects for parking fees tax free back into City coffers. We could ask why we are giving $30 million in tax breaks and grants to Liberty Mutual, or perhaps ask their CEO Ted Kelly to at least make a 3.6 million contribution from his $27 million dollar salary to the libraries in exchange for those credits. Most important of all, perhaps, we should ask how the taxpayers got put on the hook for $800 billion in TARP debt, but we couldn’t get 3.6 million dollars for libraries?

When my mother was working a full-time job and raising her three children on her own, we didn’t have money for a TV, let alone childcare. She had us go to the library after school and wait until she could pick us up. I sat for hours safely reading, learning, and imagining wonderful things. I wouldn’t want any child in Boston to lose out on that same sense of wonder, safety and potential that is enclosed within each and every library because of a dishonest, fake "crisis."

Kevin McCrea is a South Ender and former candidate for Mayor of Boston.

Editorial which could be written for Mass. and Boston

2010-03-28T12:21:00.001-04:00

When the Legislature convened its fiscal session a year ago, Louisianians expected lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal to streamline the state's bloated bureaucracy without crippling our future.

The Times-PicayuneLouisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.What we got instead was a one year fiscal Band-Aid.

So lawmakers begin this year's session Monday facing an even worse fiscal outlook. Despite $248 million in mid-year cuts, they may need to trim as much as $400 million more from this year's budget. Then, they have to slash another $1 billion in expenditures to balance the 2010-2011 budget.

To say that lawmakers will have to make hard choices is an understatement. Yet they must find the vision to look ahead and pass reforms that help stabilize the state's finances for years to come and end the current cycle of jagged cuts that are eviscerating vital services.

To that end, Louisiana has to significantly reduce its number of state employees and slow down the growth of salaries and benefits, which are asphyxiating the state's budget.
Despite significant efforts by the Jindal administration to trim the bureaucracy, Louisiana has more than 100,000 state workers. That's unsustainable. This session, the governor and lawmakers must pass serious measures to cut that number, such as state Treasurer John Kennedy's unsuccessful proposal last year to eliminate 15,000 jobs over three years. That would save hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The state also needs to reform a structure that for years has led to automatic pay raises for most state workers. Last year, 98 percent of classified state workers got a pay hike. The number is down to 61 percent this fiscal year, and that's progress. But giving pay increases to six of every 10 state workers is still jaw dropping in the face of monster deficits and while most Louisianians are seeing their income drop or stagnate.

Legislators shouldn't buy the old argument that state workers deserve special treatment because they earn less than their private counterparts. That's just not true, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The department said private employees nationwide earned $27.42 in salary and benefits per hour worked in December, while employees of state and local governments got $39.60 in salary and benefits per hour worked the same month. The complete report is on the Web site of the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, at www.bls.gov.

Another fallacy is that the public sector needs to pay more to attract or retain employees. But governments are not having trouble filling positions, in great part because people are attracted to the relative stability of public work compared to the private sector.

Lawmakers also need to reform the state's pension program to adjust it to our new fiscal reality and to place it more in line with the benefits most Louisiana workers receive. That means revising provisions that let some state workers retire with almost full benefits at a very young age. Those terms were created decades ago, under more auspicious fiscal conditions and lower life expectancy. It's also unfair to ask taxpayers, many of whom don't have traditional pension programs anymore, to finance much better benefits for state workers, especially in the current economic climate.

Even these reforms would not be enough. Lawmakers also should make it easier to spread the pain of deficits, by expanding the governor's ability to make budget cuts across the board and at higher percentages than now allowed. Legislators and Gov. Jindal also need to have a frank discussion about repealing constitutional restrictions that have left higher education and health care exposed to disproportionate cuts.

Of course, Louisianians expect lawmakers not to make matters worse. Ignoring warnings of fiscal disaster, the Legislature last year passed unaffordable tax breaks, including a repeal of the Stelly tax plan that is helping balloon this year's deficit and will hurt state government for years.

Yet some lawmakers are still in fiscal wonderland. They have filed numerous bills that would exponentially increase deficits for state and local governments, including proposals to raise the already generous homestead exemption. Another ill-conceived measure, by Rep. John Alario of Westwego, would raise the state supplemental pay to most police officers, sheriff deputies and firefighters. Those employees provide important services, but their salaries and benefits seem competitive enough already. And every penny in additional pay has to be cut from other services, mostly education and health care, that have already been severely affected.

Most Louisianians appreciate the gravity of our fiscal situation and the need to publicly evaluate our state's priorities while protecting our future. Some lawmakers do as well, judging by some of their recent statements on the matter. They should not let this session go by without major fiscal reforms.

Some positive thanks!

2010-03-26T17:05:00.002-04:00

I called up Ayanna Pressley's office to get some financial information. They were very polite, and got back to me about a week later with the information I requested. I wrote an editorial for the Boston Globe about what a farce the closing of the libraries is, but they seem to have ignored it.

Anyway, it might seem as if I'm bashing politicians here all the time, so I'd like to say something positive about one who has lived up to her campaign process of "access".
I am still waiting for a call back from Councilor Connolly on why he thinks the Open Meeting Law is restricting his work as he told a group in Brighton. It has only been 3 or 5 months.....

wooohoooo!

2010-03-22T11:05:00.002-04:00

Here I am getting blisters on my palms and trying out my new gppro camera, thanks to raoul and our team usa hovercraft shirt!

morning in Baja

2010-03-22T09:37:00.004-04:00

This trip has been the most physically grueling I've taken. We get up at 6:30, eat and are on the road at 7:30, we ride until just before the sun starts to set, with just a lunch break over the Baja 1000 course. Today will be the 6th and final day of riding. We started out with 6 riders, and by day 4 we were down to just me and the two guides, the others all needed time off, including an ex-police officer about my age, in excellent physical shape. The three amigos rode like the wind down the pacific coast, often at top gear 3/4 throttle through sand, rocks, washboard dirt roads and through rivers. No fun at all.

I picked up a bug somewhere and was fighting that off for the last two days, I feel a bit better this morning after 6 delicious steak tacos. Mexico is muy tranquillo (very calm) and everyone is nice, the kids line up at the side of the roads to give us high fives as we come into the tiny towns along the way.

Looking forward to Cabo tonight, 1000 miles of dirt trails in 6 days deserves a drink!

having no fun at all in baja

2010-03-19T03:26:00.002-04:00

amazing scenery, toughest trails ever, we were supposed to do 210 miles today and ended up doing 67 in 11 hours, leaving five guys stranded in the desert mountains with no water. An almost potentially dangerous situation.

Saw a mexican eagle, a rattlesnake, and some men with bravado fall by the wayside.

viva mexico!

Petition to save the Libraries--please sign up

2010-03-13T09:09:00.001-05:00

There is a petition drive underway to try and stop the
> closing of a number of Boston Public Library branches,
> including locally, the Fields Corner Branch. The Dorchester
> Reporter has a fuller description of the issue.
>
> http://www.dotnews.com/2010/neighbors-stir-support-library-branches
>
> Also, the Globe reported on the public hearing last week.
>
> http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/09/rankings_to_decide_fate_of_libraries/
>
> I am collecting signatures via email for the petition
> drive. If you would like me to add your name, please respond
> to this email and say that you want to added, and give you
> full name and address (for example):
>
> Please add my name to the petition:
>
> John Doe
> 123 Main Street
> Dorchester, MA 02122
>
> I will attach hardcopies of any emails that I receive to
> the petition sheet I submit, so that your source email will
> be confirmation of wanting to be on the petition.
>
Mike Cote

city council hearing on giving liberty mutual 16 million in tax breaks

2010-03-11T08:16:00.002-05:00

shirley kressel has a post at blue mass group:

My comment:

I don't know when people are going to wake up that our business and political priorities are contrary to what is good for the majority of the citizens.

The leaders and executives at Liberty Mutual don't need libraries, they live in communities that value education and libraries, not the inner city neighborhoods of Boston. If they do live in Boston, you can be sure that they are relatively close to Copley which will always be there.

What they do need is even more money for their pockets, and few well placed contributions to candidates is well worth the return on investment. I believe John Keith at Universal Hub did the research and showed that Liberty Mutual executives gave about $16,000 to Mayor Menino last year, what is that rate of return? $16,000 to 16 million?

This tower will be near the corner of Berkeley and Columbus the old Salvation Army building. Blighted? Hardly.

But then again, the Mayor signed off on nearly 6 million in tax breaks a year for 1 Beacon Street because it is in a blighted area. Perhaps being 180 steps away from so many lawmakers at the State House makes an area blighted.

Margery Eagan outlines the facts!

2010-03-07T06:10:00.004-05:00

Margery Eagan in the Herald today finally outlines the facts of a recent study showing how government workers make more than the private sector, especially when health and other benefits are included.

When I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago as a birthday present from my wife, we went to Denny's on Sunday morning because they give you a free breakfast on your birthday. (Yes, I am always trying to save money. If its free it's for me!) Our waitress was clearly exhausted as she was rushing around to a packed house. She looked to be in her 30's with braces. When she got to our table she apologized in advance and told us she was tired, we empathized with her. She said she was a nurse and had done 3 straight night shifts but she had to do this shift at Denny's as well.

I don't know why, but I started to get angry and sad, and literally a tear came to my eye, and I thought of: Steve Murphy. These politicians just don't understand how hard average citizens are working just to try and make ends meet. A women works as a nurse and then works at Denny's on weekends clearly to pay her bills?? Meanwhile, all last year Steve Murphy goes from campaign stop to campaign stop telling everyone how much he loves his job and then 2 months after getting elected he is off running for a statewide office? Amazing.

Update on McCrea v. Flaherty: Don't believe the City Council!!

2010-03-04T07:49:00.003-05:00

Believe it or not, the McCrea v. Flaherty case is still not over, nearly 5 years after it began. We were supposed to go to court in February but the presiding judge was busy.

We asked the City Council if they would allow us to video tape the hearing. You will see councilors such as Mike Ross and John Connolly talking about how they care about transparency and how they are making sure that the BRA boards have to be videotaped.

But, when it comes to their own transparency????? NO, NO, NO. They wrote a letter to the court explaining why it was important that they and their attorneys were not videotaped while they were explaining to the court about how transparent they are!!!!

And, of course, the court decision came back in their favor. So, in a court case about how important transparency is, the City Council and the Courts have acted against such a horrible thing as someone quietly standing to the side and video taping the procedures. I'm so proud of our democracy!

You can't make this stuff up!

Greetings from Nicaragua

2010-02-28T21:52:00.002-05:00

I have had a lovely few days here in Nicaragua. I am thinking of opening a motorcycle dealership here because it is less corrupt than Boston. I cleared some land with a couple of locals and a chainsaw for a friends project, met with his builder and laid out the new buildings, and talked about how we can make it as ecologically friendly as possible, such as solar hot water heaters, recharging rain water, using grey water to irrigate the garden, etc.

I was out surfing with my friend who i was staying with and his girlfriend. we had a perfect quarter mile long beach to ourselves. just at dusk an oliver riddley turtle came ashore and i got into a foot race with a local with a machete to save the turtle. i was able to convince the gentleman that it would bring him good luck to let the 100 pound turtle go, and back into the surf i directed him. i love turtles, and to see one hacked up on a perfect evening would be terrible.

ive been staying in total surf shack. we have a composting toilet out side, one tap of running water for dishes which hadnt been done for eons until i washed them this morning. i havent had a shower since i left the states 5 days ago, just making frequent trips into the ocean to swim, surf, and body surf. played soccer with the local kids on the beach, and bought some souvenirs for friends back home.

it turns out that this weekend was motorcycle weekend, so about 300 bikers and i enjoyed the beach side shacks, the ac-dc coverbands, and the dancing and the drinking and the partying went on well past when i went to bed at 3 am, after helping two american girls get rides on motorcycles with guys who knew how to ride, and werent drunk!

It has been very relaxing, and the people are friendly, and you really get a sense of how much we use and waste in the western world. do we really need a wii, a flatscreen, 3 cars, movie theaters, etc. why not get out for a hike, play some ball with the locals and be exhausted leading to a good nights sleep!

still, cant wait to get home to see Dr. Lora!

many young folks here, very idealistic, very fed up with the futility of governments. they are starting eco tours, trying to save parklands, and trying to educate and enpower locals. very rewarding.

hope everyone is doing well in boston, i watched the usa lose to canada in hockey in a room full of canadians (tons of them here) so i was happy for them.

adios!

Email reply from the Governor's Office

2010-02-23T09:14:00.002-05:00

I got an automated email from the Governor's office:

Dear Mr. mccrea:

Thank you for taking the time to apply for appointment to a state board or commission. All of your information was successfully added to our electronic system, which allows us to search for civic-minded constituents whose interests and expertise match the requirements for any given board.

Governor Patrick deeply appreciates your commitment to serving our communities. We will remain cognizant of your areas of interest as the Governor moves forward with appointments to the over seven hundred state boards and commissions. Should you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like to add additional information to your profile, please reply to this message or call us at 617.725.4055.

Sincerely,
The Appointments Team
Office of Governor Deval L. Patrick

I called the phone number and asked when the decisions would be made by and I was put through to the voice mail of Madelin (sp?) Grant. I left a message asking when the decision would be made, with my phone number.

I will keep you apprised of the situation loyal readers!

What does it take to get good schools?

2010-02-23T09:04:00.003-05:00

There are two articles today which, I believe, approach the same topic. In the Boston Globe there is an article about how the City of Boston has not evaluated teachers in order to get rid of bad ones and improve education for all. In the NY Times there is an article about the head of several successful schools about how the most important thing in a successful school is getting good teachers.

Do I need to explain further?

How much does the Governor care about filling posts?

2010-02-23T08:51:00.003-05:00

These are the positions on the Finance Commission which are appointed by the Governor to oversee the independent Financial Commission which is supposed to be the watchdog agency for the City of Boston. As you can see, 2 positions are open, 2 positions expired and only former Mike Ross worker Reuben Kantor is legitimate. With a hat tip to the Zak, you can apply for this position (unpaid) at:

http://appointments.state.ma.us/BoardDetail.aspx?brdid=160218

Mr. Paul J. Minihane Chairman Chair 10/09/2009
Mr. Reuben Kantor Seat 1 07/17/2013
VACANT Seat 2
VACANT Seat 3
Mr. Robert O'Connell Seat 4 08/09/2007

Kind of hard to believe that the State or City really wants anyone overseeing their finances when no one is appointed to the commission overseeing the finances.

Happy Mardi Gras!

2010-02-16T15:08:00.001-05:00

VEGAS, BABY!!!

2010-02-15T10:07:00.002-05:00

KEVIN WITH HIS GIANT BEADS AT THE VENETIAN !!

Valentine's Day is my birthday, so this year my wife surprised me with a weekend in Vegas. We left friday morning and came back Sunday night and the fun almost never stopped. We had a wonderful suite at the Venetian, we saw Cirque du Soleil "O" at the Bellagio, saw Penn & Teller at the Rio, I played in a Poker tournament at the Mirage and came in second, won money playing craps, saw some other sights, Clara went shopping, and because I miss New Orleans and Mardi Gras so much, I bought the biggest pair of beads I've ever seen. They were quite the topic in the airports flying home!

As usual, on the flight out of Boston the TSA official didn't know what security level we were at and told me that the public is on a 'need to know' basis and then proceeded to give me an overly hard time. Penn & Teller have a very funny bit in their show where they purchased one of the airport metal screening devices for $4800 and they showed how they set it at different levels for different types of passengers (the one at Boston City Hall is set very low, like for first class passengers). They also showed a number of dangerous weapons you can bring through the device such as plastic 'comb/knives'. They also sold the Bill of Rights printed on a metal plate the size of a credit card to carry in your wallet. They are sold for $5 (www.securityedition.com) and I got Penn to sign mine after the show. They are avowed libertarians, and Penn is an atheist. Funny enough a Haitian cab driver the night before the show told us he doesn't like Penn because he has vanity license plates which say "NO GOD" because he is an atheist as well. My hat is off to them for being boldly patriotic and against the erosion of our civil rights during their show, a potentially bad thing for their bottom line. They are also very funny, although I was a bit disappointed they were still doing tricks I saw them do in Boston over a decade ago.

Happy Lundi Gras!

please support sarah wenig!

2010-02-13T11:27:00.000-05:00

I'll never forget being at their candidates forum the very day The Globe broke the story of the deleted emails. The 3 of you each spoke well about the issues at hand, Menino - well, you know. Then he was endorsed by adults old enough to remember Watergate and so smug they didn't even consider their own credibility. It was the scariest thing I ever witnessed in civic life. These people would endorse the slightly veiled second coming of George Wallace if they were told to by the right person. So I'm running for delegate and in that crowd, I need to bring my own votes. PLEASE refer to your lists and encourage friends and supporters to come to the Ward 5 caucus, Saturday 2/20 @ 9:00 am - in the Guatemala Room of the Community Church, 565 Boylston st, 2nd fl, Copley Sq. My # is 617.835.2565. Give it to your friends. Ask them to vote for me, one more independant voice needed in the Back Bay area.

Sarah sent this to Sam Yoon, Michael Flaherty and I!

Don't you wish you had a job like this!:

2010-02-11T09:04:00.002-05:00

The Boston Herald today reports on the huge salaries pulled down by Boston workers including a custodian making more than $100,000 a year.

My favorite quote is from John Tobin:

The extravagant perk drew a sharp rebuke yesterday from a flabbergasted City Councilor John Tobin, who said, “You have to live in a cave not to realize the good old days were good old days.”

The Jamaica Plain councilor said the city’s big-spending ways are hard to justify in the face of school and police cutbacks, library consolidation and other belt-tightening moves.

“It’s just hard to say it’s business as usual in the economy we’re in,” Tobin said.

So, to sum up that it is hard to justify the work that the Mayor and the City Council have done in approving these budgets and signing these contracts and hiring these people. Of course, John Tobin has voted for the budget every single year that I can remember. Remember, the only real role that the City Council has is to review the budget and know the numbers.

The importance of a good health care plan...

2010-02-10T20:54:00.001-05:00

Health Care Plan
> > A wealthy hospital benefactor was being shown around the hospital when
> > during her tour, she passed a room where a male patient was masturbating
> > furiously.
> >
> > "Oh my GOD!!" screamed the woman, "That's disgraceful!!! Why is he doing
> > that??"
> >
> > The doctor who was leading the tour calmly explained, "I'm very sorry
> > that you were exposed to that, but this man has a serious condition
> > where his testicles rapidly fill with semen, and if he doesn't do that
> > at least 5 times a day, he'll be in extreme pain and his testicles could
> > easily rupture".
> >
> > "Oh well, in that case, I guess it's ok." commented the woman.
> >
> > In the very next room, a male patient was lying in bed and it was
> > obvious that a nurse was performing oral sex on him.
> >
> > Again, the woman screamed, "Oh my GOD!! How can THAT be justified?"
> >
> > Again the doctor spoke very calmly, "Same illness, better health plan."
> >

Only in New Orleans....

2010-02-10T08:36:00.001-05:00

A flight was cancelled yesterday because the pilots were 2.5 hours late because of the parade. A passenger on the plane who was also a pilot suspected them of being drunk, so he called 911 and the flight was grounded!

Not a good day for my sewer main to back up in New Orleans...

2010-02-09T18:45:00.002-05:00

Today was the day of the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Parade. It also happened to be the day that my main sewer backed up, and I had to get the City out to dig out the sidewalk to fix the broken pipe.

This could either turn out great or horrible..., it seems to be in that gray area under the sidewalk where it is hard to determine if I own it or the city owns it.

Hopefully the great spirit of positivism and Mardi Gras will have this end in a good way, but we are still waiting to get someone out there....

Update, the Superbowl parade is being broadcast live on NOLA.com, so far it is 50 minutes late, but that is New Orleans, the Big Easy....

I watched the game with my New Orleans friends in the shirt I last wore at the Superdome for their home playoff game in 2006, good kharma!!!

Who DAT????

Steve Murphy is running for State Treasurer!

2010-02-04T19:17:00.002-05:00

Apparently the one month of this term is enough already!

I can see how with Steve's excellent performance with the Boston City Budget
of voting for pay raises for councilors while city services are being cut
that people would think he is the change they are looking for!

Read more here!

Robert Jubinville is running for Governor's Council!

2010-02-04T18:12:00.001-05:00

I have met this gentleman, and he seems to understand that reform is needed not just with our politics but with our courts.

Votejubinville.com is the link.

I hope you will consider him for your vote!

Mayor puts out great proposal to ban smoking in public housing!

2010-01-31T08:22:00.001-05:00

I give credit where credit is due, and I like the new proposal by the Mayor to ban cigarette use in BHA Housing.

Dance a thon-next Saturday for Haiti victims

2010-01-30T08:31:00.002-05:00

Benefit: "HOUSE OF LOVE for HAITI" Dance-A-Thon
A 12 HOUR DANCE-A-THON & MUSICAL EVENT presented by Boston HouseMusic Coalition / Love & Nappiness together with ROXBURY YMCA & PARTNERS IN HEALTH

Start Time: Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 12:00pm
End Time: Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:00am
Location:
Roxbury YMCA (Gymnasium)

285 Martin Luther King Blvd.
City/Town:
Roxbury, MA

Fort Hill --lookout for issues

2010-01-30T08:20:00.002-05:00

Over at Universal Hub, there has been a discussion about Daryl Settles from Bob the Chef's and the Beehive fame trying to put in an establishment on Centre Street. Some people, including my friend John Keith, think the people there are behind the times in not wanting to get hip. I disagree. I have lived there and own property there, and I feel so much more at peace up there than I do here in the South End where life seems to be constant battle between jealous neighbors, devious developers, and keeping up with the Joneses. My comments:

John Keith-

My good friend. I think you seem to have become very angry (okay, many of us who
run for office to do good things are angry at the status quo) but this anger at
the Fort Hill residents is misplaced. I have lived and worked in Fort Hill for years,
most recently living on Highland Street in Summer 2008. It is a great area, with nice
friendly neighbors who look out for each other. It actually reminds me of the way
the South End was 15 or so years ago, back when people cared more about architectural detail
than how much square footage everything had.

There are some points to the NIMBY attitude on the hill, but isn't that their prerogative? I proposed putting a restaurant and community
gathering place into the old plantation building at the top of the hill owned by Mel King's brother.
I met with the neighbors, we talked about different ideas, they indicated they didn't want
a restaurant and we dropped the idea. The building still stands abandoned, dangerous and an eyesore,
but the 'democratic process' worked. The people I know (including tenants) love living on the Hill,
and I think it is a great area, otherwise I wouldn't own property there.

Just because not everyone wants what the South End has, doesn't make them bad or stupid, just wanting
something different in life. You (of all people!) should appreciate that. Not everything in life
needs to be real estate values (My South End properties have gone up in value, my Fort Hill ones down), but I will agree with you that if amenities like a local bar, restaurant and grocery store went in, that
the values would go up. But then, maybe the people that make the neighborhood great might not be able to afford it anymore and have to move out, sort of like the South End......

Is Democracy real in the USA?

2010-01-28T21:14:00.002-05:00

This is a fascinating article which articulates much better than I could, how corporate America and the wealthy have taken over our system. I love the phrase "pliable candidates", an excellent description.

Thanks to my friend Mark.

anyone want some specific sox tickets? send me an email:

2010-01-27T20:01:00.003-05:00

From the Red Sox for season ticket holders:

We realize that now more than ever the type of commitment and dedication you have shown is not easy. Yet your passion and devotion remains constant and helps to give Fenway Park a home field advantage that is unparalleled across the league. You are truly the lifeblood of this organization. As a small token of our gratitude, we want you to be among the first to have an opportunity to purchase additional tickets for the 2010 season, before they are made available to the general public on January 30.

If you want some tickets send me an email, electkevin@gmail.com, tell me which dates and how you will pay.

Representative of Boston?

2010-01-24T13:28:00.002-05:00

I went to my wife's annual work party last night and had a wonderful time. She is a psychologist who works for a professional psychology association, staffed by many smart, educated people, many with Ph.D's. It was held at the College Club on 44 Commonwealth Avenue, a beautiful building.

There were slightly more than 50 people, two hispanic: my wife and the husband of another associate, and one African American, the banker who has helped the company out. During the Yankee swap, (we won some glass globes to water our plants) I asked for a show of hands of how many people in the room had gone to Boston Public Schools. One man put his hand up, the insurance agent for the company who had gone to Boston Tech, a now defunct school. Anecdotally, I have met many successul people in many walks of life who went to Boston Tech, what happened?

So in a 50 percent minority city, a growing successful business has less than 5 percent of its workers and associates as minorities and no members of the Boston Public Schools. This is a super progressive firm as well, with health care, time off, owned by a lesbian couple with many openly gay employees, by all accounts a great place to work for both employees and owners.

It is hard for me to not come to the conclusion that BPS is not filling the jobs of today or teaching for the jobs of tomorrow. It is not totally the fault of any one group, the Mayor, the Superintendent, the teachers, the parents, but until we acknowledge the huge failure that it is, instead of saying 'we're getting better every year' we are not going to have substantive change.

NY Times outlines changes for the City Council...

2010-01-23T12:21:00.002-05:00

These changes could almost verbatim be established in Boston, if you changed "NY" to "Boston", and reduced the number of councilors and aides commensurate with the size of NY vs. Boston.

This is great food for thought, thank you NY TIMES:

By DAVID PECHEFSKY
Published: January 22, 2010

IN Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City speech on Wednesday, he spoke of the City Council as if it were an equal partner in government. Indeed, the mayor’s surprisingly close re-election, the unusual defeat of a handful of council members and some spirited races in the general election in a city where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory, might lead one to expect the 51-member body to be imbued with new democratic vigor. However, the council members inaugurated this month have joined a body whose governance structure is hardly more democratic than a high school student council’s — where the principal calls the shots.

Ultimately, all City Council decisions are made by the speaker and the speaker’s staff. The speaker controls which members get to sit on which committees and who heads those committees, what legislation comes up for a vote, the hiring and firing of the 250-plus central staff and the money that members get to dole out to their districts.

Since the 1989 City Charter reform enlarged the Council’s powers, a strong speaker has been seen as necessary to counterbalance the mayor, but this balance doesn’t hold. Because the current speaker, Christine Quinn, has so much control over the Council, Mayor Bloomberg can deal almost exclusively with her, ignoring the members and, by extension, their constituents.

The consequence of a cozy relationship between the speaker and the mayor is a Council that goes along with the mayor on most major issues. That’s why we’ve seen the City Council approve — at the mayor’s initiative — the rezoning of large areas of the city for high-end development, congestion pricing and the overturning of referendum-approved term limits.

Fortunately, creating a representative and transparent City Council that can check mayoral power won’t require a wholesale rewriting of the charter. All that is needed are three small but significant changes.

First, the Council should reform its process for approving the city budget. The mayor now prepares the budget with his Office of Management and Budget and city agencies, and then submits a relatively final document to the Council. Council committees hold hearings to review the mayor’s plan, but they have no real ability to make changes.

The Council’s budget negotiating team then spends torturous hours behind closed doors, proposing a few alternative cuts, which are usually rejected by the mayor’s side, and haggling over additional expenditures, which make up a tiny fraction of the whole. The final size of the Council’s “pot” is decided between the speaker and the mayor.

There are better alternatives. For instance, Council committees should vote on the components of the budget under their purview, like Congressional appropriations committees. Votes in committee would be in the form of resolutions and would therefore lack the force of law, but they would be a template for the Council’s negotiations with the mayor and carry more weight than the current closed-door deliberations.

This would engage more members earlier in the process, instead of allowing all the action to happen around the end-game exercises of the negotiating team, and encourage the Council to look at the budget in greater detail and more comprehensively. Best of all, city agencies would have to publicly substantiate the worthiness of their programs or risk an embarrassing vote in the Council.

Second, we need to restructure how the Council is staffed. The members of the central staff, which provides technical assistance and policy advice, serve at the pleasure of the speaker, meaning they can be fired at any time.

So if a councilman requests an analysis of a particular piece of legislation, staff members need to assess whether that councilman is in good standing with the speaker and whether his proposal is likely to get the speaker’s support. If the answer is no to both, then the request gets a low priority on the work pile. This results in some good ideas never getting a full vetting and some bad ones that are never put to rest.

As many parliamentary democracies have already done, the Council should establish a legislative services commission that sets the rules for hiring, compensation, promotion and retention of legislative staff. The result would be a professional staff that works for the Council as a whole, is better insulated from politics and better able to provide objective aid and analysis.

The third fix is to reform how the speaker is selected, and it would require a charter amendment. Instead of being chosen by the council members, the speaker should be popularly elected citywide (and the redundant public advocate position should be eliminated). The speaker should then be subject to a recall vote by three-fourths of the council members; if the speaker lost that vote, a special election would then be held to fill the position. This would ensure that the speaker remains responsive to council members and the electorate.

With these reforms, the speaker would lose some power, but gain a public mandate akin to the mayor’s — as well as leadership over a strong institution that could fulfill its true potential as an agent of democracy.

Great time to build!

2010-01-22T06:52:00.002-05:00

I realize I can seem very negative sometimes, and I apologize for that. I'm actually in a very good place personally. I've committed to buying 4 buildings in the last month, I'm very busy with many different projects, and I'm even thinking about trying to take a vacation.

But, when I read the news I get angry. When I interact with government I get angry. I have put myself into a personal news blackout for the last couple months. I don't read the Globe or Herald except when people refer me to articles. I scan the NY Times every day or so, and I try and read Sunday papers. As always, I don't watch Television.

I'm angry that we don't have universal health care. I'm really angry that we are sending 50,000 troops to Afganistan. What a waste of money. Does anyone really think we are going to bring democracy to a country that has its own cultural traditions? We will look back at this in 25 years as the debacle it was. While we don't educate our children for the economic war we are battling everywhere in the world, the rest of Earth is laughing at us.

Locally, politicians tell us they are valuing education when the truth is that we cut education in Boston last year in order to give more money to cops and firefighters overtime. Not one fire death in Boston (a good thing), so why do we need overtime? (Very simplistic I know, but the overall point in terms of management of resources needs to be understood)

So, to end on a positive note: it is a great time to build! I put an ad online for plumbers and electricians and had 200 responses within 2 days, some people bidding against themselves to drop their prices. Put some people to work, and get some projects to spruce up your house! Or let me do it for you!

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the 50 degree day on Monday and then tell me we don't need to worry about Global Warming.

I will be in court Monday afternoon for the fifth year of the McCrea v. Flaherty and Boston City Council case. The law says I get a hearing in 10 days. That is why Brown won, people are sick and tired of different sets of laws for the connected and for the people, like an aristocracy. No City Councilors will be there, as they haven't had to once in five years. Why get involved?

Cheers!

I voted for Martha....

2010-01-20T23:11:00.002-05:00

But, I can't say that I don't understand Brown winning. An editorial in the Herald summed it up:

“It’s about the 25 percent increase in sales tax, Deval’s promise to cut property taxes, Dianne Wilkerson padding her bra, Chuck Turner kickbacks, Galluccio’s DUI, Buonomo ripping off the copiers at the Registry of Deeds, Gerald Amirault, three indicted speakers and four criminal senators.”

I know I'm tired of being treated like a second class citizen by the elected officials. Tom Menino tells me I don't understand finance but yet the assessment on my house keeps going up. My taxes went up by $3600 this year. The assessment on his house went down. He makes more money than I do, why does he make bad real estate investments if he knows finance so well.

I'm hoping he gives a class on finance so maybe I can learn more. I'd like to be able to take care of my family as well as he takes care of his family.

wink, wink, nudge, nudge

How not to run a legal department

2010-01-17T10:46:00.002-05:00

A couple of times over the last few years I have put Freedom of Information Act requests in to the City of Boston legal department to find out how much time and money that the in house counsel has spent on certain cases, such as the McCrea v. Flaherty case. (Which is still going on by the way, 4.5 years later, despite what the City Councilors would like you to believe. They are still spending money on it.)

At the request of a Dorchester resident, I recently asked the City legal department how much they have spent on the 99 Melville case, where the City is kind of arguing against their own zoning code on behalf of a politically connected family. This case has been going on for six or 8 years I believe.

The City's response to my request: "The City did not hire any outside counsel on this case, nor did the City incur or bill any other expenses regarding this case. Additionally, Assistant Corporation Counsels do not track work by the hour. As a result, the City does not have any records responsive in either of these regards."

In other words, the City doesn't keep track of its time so it has no idea how much it is spending on any case. Is there a law office in the private sector anywhere in the world which operates like this? How can they decide whether to settle a case or not? How can they figure out who is being efficient and who isn't? How can they know if anyone is getting anything done?

But of course, they don't want to know the answers to these questions because then actual performance reviews might take place, and accountability might kick in, and we can't have that at Boston City Hall.

Where is the Boston About Results for the City Law Department that Harvard Economics professors are crowing about in the Boston Globe? I run a tiny business, but I keep track of how much time I spend on every lawsuit I work on, and how much time and money is spent on every job. But then, like Tom Menino so graciously explained to me in the debates: I don't understand finance.

Running for the open State Senate seat left by Galluchio--Marjorie Decker

2010-01-13T15:10:00.001-05:00

Sources have let me know that Marjorie Decker, Cambridge City Councilor is going to be running for the Open Senate seat.

National Teacher's Union takes on task of eliminating bad teachers

2010-01-12T07:55:00.002-05:00

The NY Times today talks about how the AFT has a woman (who spoke to the BTU during the campaign) who is seriously tackling the issue of ensuring that we have good teachers.

I think this is the crux of the charter school debate. No politician wants to take on the teachers union, yet they have to do something about improving education. One of the problems (not the only one) is how to deal with teachers who are not effective.

Measuring teacher performance and having a mechanism to eliminate teachers would seem to be part of the solution.

I'm amazed when I speak to kids in schools how often they talk about teachers who didn't care, or they thought weren't teaching the subject very well. The first step is to give every teacher help to become a better teacher, often, I suspect, like many of us, they aren't aware of their own shortcomings. When they are teaching our future, we need to make sure they are at their optimum.

Snapshot of America-2010

2010-01-10T08:09:00.003-05:00

SIGN AT A US PORT IN PUERTO RICO

I think this sign sums up the United States perfectly right now. We are spending all of our money on security, which creates no value, while we can't even do the basic things like spell.

What good is it going to do to spend billions on Afganistan to bring democracy and capitalism to the Middle East (yeah, right). We have so much democracy and capitalism here, with the Supreme Court about to approve more money in politics, and the Congress using our money to bail out huge corporations. That's not capitalism, that's corporate welfare.

How long will we be able to maintain our standard of living when people can't even spell?

As I was leaving Boston, I asked the TSA person what security level we were at. She clearly didn't know so she said "the same". I said, "I haven't flown in about 6 months so I don't know what it is, could you please tell me?". She told me "You don't need to know what the security level is." Clearly, she doesn't either. What has it been, two weeks since the underwear bomber came through? Don't you think it might be good to know what the danger level is in order to be prepared?

Who is the enemy?

1984

Postscript: I just read the NY Times. They report: Meanwhile, China last week tested the fastest bullet train in the world — 217 miles per hour — from Wuhan to Guangzhou. As Bradsher noted, China “has nearly finished the construction of a high-speed rail route from Beijing to Shanghai at a cost of $23.5 billion. Trains will cover the 700-mile route in just five hours, compared with 12 hours today.

We spent 20 billion dollars on the Big Dig, to go from 6 lanes of traffic above ground to 6 lanes of traffic below ground for around 20 miles of road. The failure of America to not build a high speed train between Boston, NY, and Washington is a symbol of how we can't get things done in this country, and we are setting ourselves up to have our clocks cleaned by the competition.

DPW chief Royer shoved out by Menino administration

2010-01-09T09:00:00.002-05:00

Universal Hub reports that Dennis Royer, the DPW chief who did good work in Denver has been cleaned out of City Hall.

I met his wife Linda, who was appointed to the Main Streets program when she got to Boston, when I was out collecting signatures for Mayor. She signed my nomination sheets, and said she knew who I was and we ended up having an involved conversation.

I was amazed how much she told me about the "inside" knowing that I was running against "the man". She compared her and her husbands experiences in Denver with how things are in Boston. I thought about using her quote in one of the debates:

"I am amazed at how Bostonians tolerate such a low level of services from their government." This from a woman who works for government agency and whose husband was head of DPW. I asked about how her husband found working here, and she specifically talked about the unions and Menino. She said her husband found that the city workers didn't care about the city and about trying to improve it, they just cared about their job and their perks. I asked if Menino would let him do his job and institute reforms, and she explained how Menino would let him do some things but not other things and that he absolutely micromanaged. He was frustrated with not being able to do what he wanted to improve things.

It does not suprise me one bit that he has left, and I wish him and his wife all the best.

So there are two positions open now. Don't keep holding your breath for a "new" Menino administration full of reform.

City sells $451,000 building for $100 after $500 campaign contribution to Menino!

2010-01-06T18:55:00.002-05:00

The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same:

But remember there is no quid pro quo in Boston!

West Roxbury Transcript does reporting, Globe doesn't

2010-01-06T04:34:00.003-05:00

The West Roxbury transcript did some good reporting, and the Menino administration admitted they have been violating the Open Meeting Law in regards to selecting the school committee for the last 17 years. Big surprise.

Another news:

Vornado Trust and partners who own the hole in the ground at Downtown crossing are being considered for tax breaks by the BRA. Why not, we need to give more tax breaks to the rich, right? Menino and the BRA love Reaganomics, give to the rich and trickle down to the poor!

So, if you lie to the city, break your promises, get things rushed through permitting, and then destroy a business district---and you are rich and connected, you get tax breaks!!

However, if you are a middle class citizen who had their house devalue last year, you go to work, pay your bills, are decent and honest with your neighbors. You get a tax increase to make sure that Lisa Menino continues to make more than $100,000 a year as a secretary.

Isn't America a great country?

Boston Globe editorial about me and transparency

2010-01-03T19:16:00.003-05:00

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/03/transparency_is_the_cure_for_those_fifth_term_blues/

Notice that in the second paragraph he says how good Boston About Results is and then in the fifth paragraph says he can't get any information from it. That's good?

Check out the comments section, someone says it much better than I could have:

Professor Glaeser confuses 'reporting' with 'transparency'.

The Menino administration uses Boston About Results as advertising, reporting oddball statistics carefully selected to make the organization look good. If Boston About Results went away today, nobody would miss it and city government would behave about the same.

McCrea and others want real transparency, giving residents easy access to the information the city would prefer to hide, like every payment of more than $1,000. If that raw information were made public, it would have a real impact on how tax dollars are being spent.

The difference between reporting and transparency comes down to who decides what information is presented; if the publisher (Menino) decides then it's reporting. If the subscriber (McCrea) decides then it's transparency.

State of America....take care of your own?

2009-12-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

From Time Magazine:

Talk about a dream deferred. African-American and Latino schoolchildren are more segregated, according to a January report from UCLA's Civil Rights Project, than they were at the time of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, in 1968. Nearly 39% of blacks and 40% of Latinos attended schools composed of 90% to 100% students of color in the 2006-07 school year, the report found, and blacks and Latinos are far more likely than their white peers to attend high-poverty schools and "dropout factories" where huge numbers of students don't graduate. With the segment of nonwhite American students at 44% and climbing, the potential economic consequences are dire. "In a world economy where success is dependent on knowledge," the report said, "major sections of the U.S. face the threat of declining average educational levels as the proportion of children attending inferior segregated schools continues to rise."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1945379_1944495_1944497,00.html?cnn=yes#ixzz0bB2SquSV

Menino breaking campaign promises already !

2009-12-28T19:18:00.001-05:00

Last week Mayor Menino broke 2 promises he made during his re-election campaign.

He dismissed disciplinary actions against sick leave abusers in the fire department, and he guaranteed dozens of firefighter jobs would be immune to budget cuts, even if those jobs are found to be unnecessary and the salaries a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Menino hid last week’s sell-out inside a larger agreement to hire non-union truck mechanics. He hopes that most people are too focused on truck maintenance to notice that he also guaranteed dozens of jobs, and that he canceled discipline for sick leave abusers.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/26/boston_firefighters_ok_changes_in_firetruck_maintenance/

Ned Flaherty

Last nights meeting

2009-12-23T09:56:00.002-05:00

Nancy Lo and James Travers at the School Committee Nominating Panel meeting

I appreciate people being interested in this, sorry I don't have more time to write now.

Last night in room 608, 7 of the 13 members of the committee showed up (amazingly, just enough for a quorom!) for this allegedly important meeting to decide which names to pass along to the Mayor for a 4 year term.

In the audience was an attorney for the City Law Dept., Mary Pierce from the Mayor's office, Sam Tyler from the Municipal Research Bureau, a woman who seemed to be an assistant to Mary Pierce, president of ABN Shirley Kressel and myself. (Interestingly, there were no African-Americans in the room, but then why would they care about the Boston Public Schools?)

I asked Nancy Lo, who is identified on the City Website as the contact person for the meeting, before, during and after the meeting if the 6 people that they discussed were the same people that they had already decided on at the Dec. 10, 2009 meeting and which the Globe had written about. She and the other 7 members of the committee present refused to answer the simple question, "are these the six people you already decided on at the Dec. 10 meeting"?

The meeting was a farce. Nancy Lo started up by explaining how they had narrowed the field from 27 to 11 people, they had held interviews with 11 people and had narrowed the list down to 6. She then "opened the floor" to nominations and the 7 members present pretended to have a discussion as they nominated the 6 people present. I had two favorite parts, one was when they were discussing a Cape Verdean gentleman, a Mr. Barros. Three times the phrase "he is so articulate" was used, right out of the textbook of 'how to say nice things about minorities.' When they were discussing the white candidates, no one said any of them were "articulate". I sure hope they are!

The second funny part was when James Travers spoke about how impressed he was with the open and thorough process that the committee went through to arrive at the nominations. Last year Mr. Travers was appointed to the board by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. This year he was appointed by the Chamber of Commerce. Amazing how two separate business groups pick the same guy to be on the committee. Also amazing that Mr. Travers gave $500 to Menino's campaign last year.

They then held public comment and Mr. Tyler, Mrs. Kressel and I took our turns. I asked the committee to answer whether the same 6 people they had just nominated were the same ones they had nominated on Dec. 10, 2009. A deafening wall of silence ensued, while people on the committee instantly found how interesting their navels were. Nancy Lo broke the silence by saying this was comment period not question period, and in a back and forth it was determined that no questions would be allowed.

After the meeting I asked the committee members again if any of them would tell me if this was the same group of 6 and again none of them would answer.

Such an impressive group of people who inspire my trust in government so much that they can't even answer a simple question about what they have done.

Pathetic.

But, don't forget that the Boston Globe endorsed Menino and so endorsed this type of behavior. It is not new or unknown to them. I called the editorial board, emailed them to ask how they got and endorsed two people (who were on the list of the final 6) before the committee had even met and the Globe wouldn't answer any questions either.

Case law has determined that holding a rubber stamp public meeting after an illegal meeting doesn't correct the violation if no true discussion ensued. Clearly no real discussion ensued.

Will the District Attorney do anything about it? We shall see. I did video tape the whole meeting in case anyone wants to waste an hour and a half of their life.

A Merry Christmas to all!

The School Committee rubber stamped the vote, I guess they didn't care about Oiste's letter!

2009-12-22T21:48:00.001-05:00

December 15, 2009

Nancy Lo
City of Boston School Committee
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02111

Dear Ms. Lo:

On behalf of ¿Oíste? I am pleased to submit a letter of support of Mr. Kevin McCrea’s application to the Boston School Committee.

As you know, ¿Oíste? is the first and only statewide Latino political organization in Massachusetts. The mission of the organization is to advance the political, social and economic standing of Latinos in the state. We bring these goals to fruition through civic education, leadership development and advocacy. For the past three years, we have worked on building an advocacy campaign to address the drop-out rates, particularly within students of color. We also have been extremely active on the issue of English Language Learners (ELL) on local and statewide levels and are particularly concerned about the status of ELL in the Boston Public School system.

I am sure you are aware of the study done by the Mauricio Gaston Institute at UMass, Boston which describes the disproportionate amount of Latino students not graduating from Boston Public Schools. In early 2010, another study will be coming out on the state of English Language Learners in cities, including Boston. The statistics are severe.

Given the dire situation of Latino students in the Boston Public School system, we need a person on the School Committee that has a track record of ensuring accountability who is not afraid to ask the hard questions; a professional who has a solid foundation in finance and administration and can bring creative financial strategies to tackle our failing school system; and an individual who has evidenced passion about education and will fight tenaciously on behalf of all of Boston’s public school students. This person is Kevin McCrea.

We are certain that Mr. McCrea will be an asset to the Boston School Committee by challenging the status quo and proposing new, innovative ways to move forward on critical issues facing Boston Public Schools. At the end of the day, the School Committee and the City needs a fresh perspective – better that it come from one of its strongest critics who is willing and able to help forge a better path to excellence in education.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Giovanna Negretti
Executive Director

Mayor's Committee has been violating the Open Meeting Law for at least 10 years

2009-12-21T07:49:00.002-05:00

Applying to be on the School Committee

As a child of a divorced family who attended public schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Vermont I have always been appreciative of the free education provided me in our country, and I have volunteered in the Boston Public Schools, and spoken out strongly in support of our public schools. When my campaign for Mayor was over, many people suggested I apply for the school committee and Mayor Menino had told me that he was interested in working with me, in particular in regards to our trade school in Boston. During the campaign, Superintendent Carol Johnson had pulled me aside and thanked me for my strong words in support of public school education. I was hoping to work with the school department to make our schools better.

There are two open positions on the school committee this year. There was a deadline in early November at which it was announced that there was only one applicant, and the City extended the deadline for applicants until November 30, 2009. The application is fairly involved and it took a few hours and a number of pages to answer all the questions.

The applications were to be emailed to a Nancy Lo, who works for the City of Boston.

I sent my application in along with my resume and asked Ms. Lo to acknowledge that she had received it. She emailed back within a couple hours acknowledging she had received my application. I wrote back asking her what the process would be for selection. I didn’t get a reply.

Over the next couple of weeks when I had some free time I tried to find out what the process was. I checked the City of Boston website and the School Department website and there was no information about the Boston School Committee Nominating Panel or the process for selection, or the criteria for selecting people for the School Committee. I called the Mayor’s office to try and talk to the Mayor about how I’d like to work with him to improve the schools. Mary Pierce from his office called me back and said that the Mayor didn’t speak with any applicant because he didn’t want to influence the process, and she assured me that the process would be transparent, with emphasis on the word transparent. I called the Superintendent’s office and the School Committee’s office and neither of them knew anything about the process. I went to the Mayor’s office to ask them if they knew anything about the process and they told me to ask the school department. I left a voice message for Nancy Lo that was never returned.

By December 14, 2009 I still hadn’t heard from Ms. Lo and I knew that the two new school committee members needed to be chosen by the beginning of the year and I was wanting to make travel plans for Christmas but wanted to be around in case there was an interview to be at, so I sent another email to Ms. Lo asking her to again let me know what the process was. I also had my assistant look up the State law governing the Boston School committee since it didn’t appear as if anyone that worked for the City of Boston knew anything about it. (The Law can be found here: http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/actsResolves/1991/1991acts0108.pdf)

According to the State Law there are to be 13 people on the Boston School Committee Nominating Panel and there are specific details as to how these individuals shall be appointed. Four are appointed by the Mayor, one by the teachers’ union, one by the Department of Education, one on a rotating basis with the Private Industry Council, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, etc. Every October they are to get together, elect a chairperson who is to submit a list of all the members to the City Clerk and they “shall meet in public for the sole purpose of deliberating upon, hearing public comment with respect to, and finally selecting a list of nominees” to be presented to the Mayor. They are to suggest 3 to 5 people for each open position to the Mayor.

I had some free time on Wednesday afternoon the 16th of December, and I still hadn’t heard back from Nancy Lo so I went to the City Clerk’s office around 3 pm. I asked for the list of the Boston School Committee Nominating Panel and a nice woman gave me a copy of the 2008 list which was the most recent one available. I then asked for the public notice of their meetings and minutes from their meetings for the last three years. There were none, and they had no knowledge of any meetings or any minutes. I asked to speak to Rosario Salerno, the City Clerk, and she said they don’t keep track of any boards like that.

I looked at the list of the people on the committee and noticed one person worked right around the corner on the 6th floor at City Hall so I went there first to ask him about the meetings and the process but he wasn’t in. I then picked another name from the list and got a person on the phone. I identified myself, and that I was trying to find out about process for selection, and asked if they had held a meeting yet. He said that they had held a meeting but didn’t want to comment on my application, and he suggested I talk to Nancy Lo. After speaking with this somewhat evasive gentleman, my curiosity became less about my chances of actually getting on the school committee and more about the dubiousness of the selection process. I said that I had been trying to get in touch with Nancy Lo but had been unsuccessful. I asked when they held their meeting and he said he didn’t remember. When I asked whether it had been “in spring, in summer?” he asked me to hold a minute and came back and told me that they had met on December 10, 2009 at City Hall and that they had completed their assignment. I thanked him for his time and said I’d try and find out more information from Nancy Lo.

It seemed at this point that an Open Meeting Law violation may have occurred and between 4:30 and 5 pm I left a message at the District Attorney’s office, which is the entity that is supposed to enforce the O.M.L., asking them to call.

At 5:08 pm that day I received an email from Nancy Lo:

Hi:

The selection process is still ongoing. The Nominating Panel has reviewed the applications and have made our recommendations to the Mayor. His office will be continuing the review process and will be setting up any future meetings.

Thank you for your interest in the Boston School Committee.

The next morning, Thursday, December 17, I called Dot Joyce, the Mayor’s spokesperson and told her that I suspected that the School Committee Nominating Panel had not followed the proper procedure in nominating people. I suggested that the Mayor might not want to be involved in a process that wasn’t transparent. She told me that the Mayor has nothing to do with the process, he just selects from the names that the committee selects for him.

I made a few calls and left messages to other members of the committee to try and find out if I had made the cut or not. During the course of the work day I heard back from a number of the people on the committee. They were all extremely nice, freely answered my questions and clearly were just citizens who were volunteering and doing their civic duty who had no idea what the rules laid out by the State Law were. They had all been on the committee for years, some up to 10 years. They all referred me back to Nancy Lo who clearly was the organizing and directing force of the committee.

Through these conversations I ascertained that there had been a large number of applicants for the School Committee, that the applications had been received by Ms. Lo and sent out electronically to the members for their review. She received their feedback and narrowed the list down to 11 people, who were invited to the hearing on December 10, 2009 to be interviewed at which time they narrowed that group down to two sets of three people for the Mayor to choose from. I found out that they had not taken public comment for at least 10 years as the law requires. No one knew anything about voting for a chairperson, the committee has always been run by Nancy Lo.

One committee member told me that it is “not a fair process” and that committee members “dare not say anything” because if they disagree with Menino that they will soon be gone. I also took the time to look up Nancy Lo and found out that she has been with Menino for years, previously running the elections department and named by Boston Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Boston. She currently works for the Inspectional Services Department and makes more than $100,000 a year. On Thursday afternoon I sent a FOIA request by email to Nancy Lo for information about the process.

That evening I talked to my wife Clara who is infinitely smarter than I about what I should do about these types of things. I clearly could file an Open Meeting Lawsuit which if filed within 21 days of the December 10, 2009 non-public meeting would rescind the action the group took. But what was clear in speaking to the members of the committee is that there was no knowledge that anything they were doing was anything other than their civic duty, unlike the Boston City Council which was willfully trying to exclude the public from their decision making process. I didn’t want to drag good, decent citizens into something not of their making. It seemed to make sense that since the Mayor hadn’t made his final decision yet to just ask the committee to hold the process in accordance with the State Law.

The next morning, Friday, I called Dot Joyce again and let her know that I was now convinced that the Open Meeting Law had been violated, probably for at least a decade, but that I’d like to work with the administration to rectify the situation without wasting valuable time and resources. I asked her if she knew the person in charge of this: Nancy Lo. She said she had heard of her, but didn’t think she had met her. I told her that I hadn’t been able to get in touch with her, but perhaps she or the Mayor could get in touch with her, and let her know that the State Law had not been followed. I let her know I’d been working with the District Attorney on this matter as well.

I spoke with the District Attorney’s office again and they agreed that a “do over” that followed the law was probably a reasonable thing to do since no final decision had been taken. They said they would confer and get in touch with the City.

Although the Mayor doesn’t believe in using computers, and City Hall doesn’t believe in voicemail, one thing the City does believe in, like any totalitarian regime, is Caller ID because that way they know who is calling and whether they should take the call or not.

I decided one last time to try and call Nancy Lo, but first to block my number so she wouldn’t know that it was me who was calling. At 11:00 a.m. I called and amazingly enough I got her. She confirmed that I had not made the cut to make the interview process. She said she had received my FOIA request and was already working with the City Law Department to get a response to me within 10 days.

I asked her if she had read the State Law and she said she had “reviewed it from time to time”. I asked if she had ever held a public process with public comment and she said she would “refrain from comment.” I asked if she had been elected as chairperson and when, and she said she had been “elected in private amongst ourselves” about a month ago. I asked if she had ever met with Dot Joyce and she said she had. I read the part of the State Law to her about holding a public meeting and asked if she had held an Open Meeting. I asked her to please hold the process in accordance with the State Law which she said she had looked at from time to time.

When I got back to my office after 5 pm on Friday there was a message from the District Attorney’s office that next Tuesday there would be a public meeting of the Boston School Committee Nominating Panel at City Hall and that it was posted on the City’s website.

Here is hoping that the City understands that the entity that makes the laws should obey the laws; and, that asking tough questions of people in an open, public forum is more than appropriate when said people will control an $800 million dollar budget and how our children will be taught. It is an important process that the public deserves to participate in. My hope is that we may end up with people on the Boston School Committee who are not only qualified and passionate about our schools, but are also not afraid to ask questions to make sure the schools are the best they can be.

It is too bad that I had to go through of all this just because the chairperson of the committee wouldn’t answer a simple email asking what the decision making process was for over two weeks. But in the end, it will have been a worth-while endeavor if in the future, the process is transparent and in accordance with the law.

Party a Big Success!

2009-12-21T07:47:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came to our holiday party. We were hoping to raise $500 for the Travis Roy Foundation but we nearly raised $1000. It was great to see old friends, meet new ones, and everyone seemed to enjoy the holiday spirit.

A nice eclectic crowd, from Clover Club members, to people from the projects, millionaires to artists, people from the Yoon campaign, the Flaherty campaign, and from the BRA! All are welcome at the big house where we all "can just get along!".

Hope you have a wonderful holiday as well!

The Boston School Committee Nominating Panel will have a public meeting for the first time in anyone's memory

2009-12-19T10:26:00.003-05:00

The Boston School Committee Nominating Panel will hold a public meeting on Tuesday at City Hall at 4 pm.

They will meet to discuss applicants for the two open positions, as is required by State Law.

If you are interested in the future of the Boston Public Schools, public testimony should be allowed.

I will have much more later on about how the State Law and Open Meeting Law has been violated for as long as anyone can remember, and how I was able to work with City and the District Attorney's office to make this process transparent.

Getting good water at Boston City Hall

2009-12-17T10:39:00.002-05:00

The Phoenix today has a story about bottled water at the city and statehouse. An idea I've had for years would be to train the plumbing apprentices at Madison Park trade school to fix water fountains, such as the many non working ones at city hall.

It wouldn't cost anything other than parts, it is a real world job fix for the students, and clearly there is a career here for at least some graduates as there are many, many water fountains and water dispensers around the city which don't work.

Almost seems too easy.

How to divide up who is for and who is against term limits

2009-12-16T06:57:00.003-05:00

There are many different ways to look at who is for and who is against term limits on the city council. There is some information to be gathered from their bio's.

One is by age, as a Blue Mass Group blogger has written. With the exception that Turner is for them, and Consalvo is against them.

One might want to argue that intelligence, as measured by advanced degrees is another dividing line. Only Yancey (Masters in Public Administration) of the opposed against term limits has a degree past the college level. However, Flaherty, Ross, Yoon, and Connolly all have graduate degrees. Of course, I don't have an advanced degree either, and I'm for term limits.

Another obvious dividing line is a sort of combination of "time since being in the private sector/possible employment" in the private sector. Flaherty and Connolly actively pursue law outside the council, Ross has a degree in law and (I think) one in business, Tobin is currently running a comedy club. No one doubts that Sam Yoon has many marketable skills. They clearly don't need public jobs to keep their families afloat.

If you look at those opposed, Yancey, Consalvo, Lamattina and Linehan have no record at all in the private sector. It has been 16 years since Feeney worked in the insurance business. Ciommo has always worked in the public sector except for a mention as a non descript small business owner. Murphy worked for a bus company until 1984, 25 years ago. Doesn't seem like the private sector is very appealing for those opposing term limits.

The other dividing line is that those closest to Menino are against term limits, with the exception on either side of Ross and Yancey. Of this whole group, I must say I am very impressed that Mike Ross is coming out in favor of term limits. Three cheers for Mike!

I wish that Charles Yancey would recognize how term limits have hurt his constituents in one of the two poorest districts in the city. All these years of Charles complaining that the Mayor won't help the people in Mattapan, won't build a school there, well he can look himself in the mirror after this and say that he is part of keeping machine politics in Boston. Any future complaints he has about Menino will be falling on more deaf ears.

Which councilors are for and which are against term limits, according to Sam Yoon

2009-12-16T06:54:00.000-05:00

Undecided or Opposed

At Large. Stephen J. Murphy (617) 635-4376 Stephen.Murphy@cityofboston.gov

District 1. Salvatore LaMattina (617) 635-3200 Salvatore.LaMattina@cityofboston.gov  East Boston, Charlestown, North End/Waterfront, City Hall/Beacon Hill

District 2. Bill Linehan (617) 635-3203 Bill.Linehan@cityofboston.gov Chinatown, South Boston, South End, Roxbury/South Bay, Dorchester   

District 3. Maureen E. Feeney (617) 635-3455 Maureen.Feeney@cityofboston.gov Dorchester   

District 4. Charles C. Yancey (617) 635-3131 Charles.Yancey@cityofboston.gov Dorchester, Mattapan   

District 5. Rob Consalvo (617) 635-4210 Rob.Consalvo@cityofboston.gov Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan   

District 9: Mark S. Ciommo (617) 635-3113 Mark.Ciommo@cityofboston.gov Allston, Brighton

In Favor of Term limits

At Large. John R. Connolly (617) 635-3115 John.R.Connolly@cityofboston.gov  

At Large. Michael F. Flaherty (617) 635-4205 Michael.F.Flaherty@cityofboston.gov  

At Large. Sam Yoon (617) 635-4217 Sam.Yoon@cityofboston.gov

District 6. John M. Tobin, Jr. (617) 635-4220 John.Tobin@cityofboston.gov Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury   

District 7: Chuck Turner (617) 635-3510 Chuck.Turner@cityofboston.gov Roxbury, Dorchester, South End, Fenway   

District 8: Michael P. Ross (617) 635-4225 Michael.Ross@cityofboston.gov Back Bay/Beacon Hill, Fenway/Kenmore, Mission Hill, West End, Allston   

Testifying at City Council today for Term Limits

2009-12-14T18:38:00.002-05:00

I testified at the City Council meeting today in favor of term limits. There were between 40 and 70 people there to testify in favor of term limits, one woman who was identified to me as a campaign worker for Maureen Feeney (but not verified by me) testified against term limits. The councilors seemed split between any of those who have aspirations for higher office being for term limits, and those who have worked for the city and/or wouldn't appear to have higher elective offices in their immediate future. Tobin, Connolly, Yoon and Flaherty are for term limits, Ciommo, Feeney, Linehan and Yancey are opposed to them. The Mayor told me he would sign the bill if it reached his desk.

Thank you Councilor Feeney for holding this hearing and allowing a vote on this issue.

As far as the proposal, as the saying goes, “you had me at Hello”. As Councilor Yoon has pointed out 9 of the ten largest cities in America have term limits. We know the phrase “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, we have a situation here in Boston where it is virtually impossible to unseat a sitting Mayor, unless he is in jail.
Massachusetts was recently found to be the least competitive of all 50 states in terms of contested elections. I don’t believe that this is something to be proud of. I have questions: Why, and what can we do about it?

Term limits and better campaign finance laws would go a long way towards making our system more fair. Boston is the birthplace of the revolution that brought us a country that believes ‘we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal’. Why not have an electoral system where all participants have equal footing, and the power of incumbency is not an insurmountable mountain to bringing positive change.

I sat down with Mayor Menino recently and he said that if this bill reaches his desk that he will sign it, and why not, it would insure his place as the longest serving Mayor in Boston’s history. I’m not trying to make history here, but I hope you will.

In America, we believe in democracy, that many can and should serve, and that there are many capable and able leaders in our government of and by the people. We live in a cynical world, and people just say I want the truth, well I hope you will allow the citizens a chance to see where every councilor stands on this issue. Which councilors believe a “Mayor for life” is a good thing for public participation and which don’t.

George Washington believed that two terms were enough for him to accomplish his goals, I think he is a good model to go by.

I’m glad we had this talk, and thank you for holding this hearing and voting on this issue.

Tax rates go up 11% as I predicted almost a year ago....

2009-12-10T18:10:00.002-05:00

The Globe reports. If people were paying attention, such as every Globe and Herald reporter I met and spoke to, then no one would be surprised by this. The numbers are pretty straightforward.

Don't say I didn't tell you so!

For my Atheist Friends, A Warm Fuzzy message from my mother:

2009-12-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING
>>>
>>>A message every adult should read because children
>>>are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you hang my
>>>first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately
>>>wanted to paint another one.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a
>>>stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind
>>>to animals.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my
>>>favorite cake for me, and I learned that the little
>>>things can be the special things in life.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a
>>>prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always
>>>talk to, and I learned to trust in Him.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make a
>>>meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I
>>>learned that we all have to help take care of each other.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you take care
>>>of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have
>>>to take care of what we are given.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw how you
>>>handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't
>>>feel good, and I learned that I would have to be
>>>responsible when I grow up.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw tears come
>>>from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things
>>>hurt, but it's all right to cry.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I saw that you
>>>cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I learned most of
>>>life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and
>>>productive person when I grow up.
>>>
>>>When you thought I wasn't looking I looked at you and
>>>wanted to say,’ Thanks for all the things I saw when
>>>you thought I wasn't looking.'
>>>
>>>I AM SENDING THIS TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE I KNOW
>>>WHO DO SO MUCH FOR OTHERS,
>>>BUT THINK THAT NO ONE EVER SEES.
>>>LITTLE EYES SEE A LOT .
>>>
>>>Each of us (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, friend)
>>>influences the life of a child.
>>>
>>>How will you touch the life of someone today? Just by
>>>sending this to someone else, you will probably make
>>>them at least think about their influence on others.
>>>Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.
>>>Speak kindly.
>>>Leave the rest to God.

Alternative XMAS/holiday gifts for activisits and citizens:

2009-12-07T16:33:00.002-05:00

Friends,

Forgive me for a solicitation, but it's for an organization I have long loved: Resist, which has just a few days left in its Radical Holiday at www.resistinc.org/auction.

RESIST is a national progressive foundation that supports grassroots organizing for peace, economic, and social and environmental justice and provides political education for social change activism. For 40 years, RESIST has funded groups that challenge reactionary government policies, corporate arrogance, and right-wing fanaticism through organizing, education, and action.

As a non-profit organization itself, RESIST relies on contributors with a strong commitment to social, economic and environmental justice, and a firm belief in the need to build grassroots movements and capacity.

So please place your bids on 100 items, including:

* Incredible artwork by John Lennon
* Signed Joan Baez CD
* A chance to meet Noam Chomsky
* Vacations to Cape Cod and Utah, among others
* Autographed David Ortiz Baseball
* My sister’s art
* And much, much more!

Start bidding today at www.resistinc.org/auction
... where you can fund grassroots organizing and shop for gifts at the same time!

Thanks!

Marc

What NY, SF, and DC are doing with public information, we could too if we'd release it....

2009-12-07T16:26:00.004-05:00

The NY Times reports. We need to catch up!!!

A Holiday Invite to our Friends

2009-11-30T19:23:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends,

Clara and I will be hosting a holiday party at the Big House, 218 West Springfield Street on Friday Night, December 18th, 2009.

We are asking guests to contribute $20 or $25 (or more!) to the Travis Roy Foundation, a non profit set up to help people with spinal cord injuries. We have been involved with this charity for a couple years now, and we have made a commitment to raise $3000 this year, and to take a group of inner city kids up to Vermont for the annual whiffle ball championship, fundraiser and celebration. We hope that you find this a cause worthy
of your donation.

We all have so much to be thankful for. We made many new friends this year during Kevin's campaign for Mayor, and we also have neglected many of our old friends. Clara has her first successful year in the professional world under her belt, and Kevin is up to more of his crazy projects around the world and is hoping to take a motorcycle around Africa next year.

We hope to see you anytime after 7:00pm. We will provide light snacks and refreshments, a bottle of your favorite is always appreciated, or maybe an ornament for the Big Tree! Please send an RSVP so we can plan ahead to electkevin@gmail.com,
or visit our EVITE!

We hope that you and your family are healthy and happy!

Best,

Kevin & Clara

PS-As always, no shoes in the Big House, so bring some slippers or warm socks!

Another South End mugging

2009-11-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

A poster comments:

This is an amazing story! I really respect this woman's courage. What led me to find this article was a mugging I witnessed the night before Thanksgiving in the South End that I would like to share. It led me to do some research to try to find any information there may be on muggings in the South End. I was looking to find any similarities from my experience and others in the area, because I had a theory that perhaps the mugger I witnessed was part of a "group" of muggers that focus on this area (conveniently located by parks as an easy escape with many alleys). After coming across this article, and reading what the mugger said to this brave woman, it really made me wonder.
At 5:55pm I was walking home from the Pru on W. Newton St, heading towards Columbus Ave. I was walking on the left side of the street. The woman who had been walking in front of me was walking at a slower pace than I tend to walk, so I decided to cross over to the right side of the street. Seconds after I crossed,a man jumped her from behind and mugged her. I charged back across the street chasing him as the woman let out a scream. I followed her scream by screaming "stop him" several times as I followed him, creating enough awareness to the men in the area to apprehend him long enough to recover her purse. This man eventually got away, but I was shocked that he mugged this woman at such a busy time on what I feel to be quite a busy street.
This area is located conveniently by parks and side streets, so I can see how it is appealing to muggers. This man is about 5'11, average to athletic build, brown hair, goatee, Caucasian, and was wearing a white HOODY!
During these difficult times, we need to increase our awareness to these violent crimes now more than ever.

I'm wondering if the poster reported this to the police? My wife tried to report it to the State Police but they wouldn't take the information over the phone, they needed her to come to the office.

Default on your mortgage? Maybe, says law school prof...

2009-11-29T14:31:00.004-05:00

The Herald has an interesting article today. I'm amazed people have loyalty to the banking industry, who in this article tells people they have a "moral" obligation to pay back loans. Where is the word morality defined in capitalism?

Thanksgiving Day 2009

2009-11-28T07:35:00.003-05:00

Setting up the Tables at Pine Street

I couldn't sleep, I was up at 2 a.m. so I watched "Roget & Me" with the commentary by Michael Moore. Very enlightening. I did some exercises then headed over to the Pine Street Inn where I had signed up to do set up for their big Thanksgiving Day meal for their guests.

I started off in the kitchen helping make sausages and hash browns before helping to clean up the dorms and set up chairs and the dining room tables for a few hours. I always have a hard time keeping from crying when I go to Pine Street. We are so rich in this country, we have so much, but we refuse to look at those around us who are suffering. Our politicians espouse us being a Christian nation, but I don't understand how lower capital gains taxes for the wealthiest, tax breaks for Bob Beal and JP Morgan, and making One Beacon Street a blighted area, help these people whose life and dignity are stuffed into a locker that they are so thankful to have. Most of the volunteers were not from Boston, including a man who I see nearly every time I'm at Pine Street who usually brings his boys to give them perspective, this time his niece accompanied him. I suggest volunteering some time, it will bring warmth and color and vividness to the rest of your day and your life as you realize how lucky you are.

Came back home and spent the morning doing paperwork and talking to family members from Hawaii to Colombia. My friend Jim joined us in the afternoon and we went to a Thanksgiving Dinner/Birthday Party in the projects in Roslindale. It was very nice, the smells of marijuana and turkey wafting in the air, everyone being very friendly while loud Reggaeton music permeated the walls from the neighbors.

We got back just in time for our Thanksgiving dinner, where a wonderful toast was given by my mother in law who has survived both a son dying and cancer this year. She spoke about how wonderful life is, and how good it is to be here.

I hope your Thanksgiving was even better than mine !!

CORI Reform from Senator Diaz

2009-11-26T04:54:00.002-05:00

This is relevant, as I just worked with ABCD to get a young man some work with my company. 3 years in jail for a gun charge, no diploma from South Boston High, but he seems eager, willing to learn, and he is studying to take his GED. At 23, he is too young to give up hope.

From Senator Diaz:

Tonight we won passage one of the top Chang-Díaz legislative agenda items for the 2009-2010 term: comprehensive CORI Reform! Critically, the bill (S. 2210) includes:

*
A prohibition on employers from asking job-seekers if they have a criminal record on their initial job application (the so-call "Ban the Box" provision)

*
Reduction in the wait time to seal a CORI-from 15 years for a felony and ten years for a misdemeanor to ten and five years, respectively. While we fought for 3 and seven years, these new sealing times are nonetheless a great victory for our community.

S. 2210 also includes important reforms to our mandatory minimums system and improvements in post-release supervision.

More to come in tomorrow's news and on our website about the details of this bill. But for now, the State House team and I just wanted to send a big congratulations and thanks to everyone in the community who has worked so hard on this bill. While the House will now need to take up S. 2210, today the Second Suffolk District still scored a huge victory!

Saludos,

Sonia Chang-Díaz

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T10:29:00.002-05:00

I thank everyone for reading my blog, for caring about our world, and for giving me the impetus to keep writing.

I hope that everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving, that they appreciate the wonderful world that we have to enjoy. Reflect on the 150th anniversary of one of the most important books ever written, "Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin and how we might be able to continue to use reason to solve our worlds problems.

Peace,

Kevin

more reasons not to like Bank of America!

2009-11-24T10:40:00.002-05:00

I opened up my business checking account today to pay bills and they had a NY Yankees logo and the following message:

Put your money where your heart is. Get Yankees™ banking today. This link will open a new browser window.

Believe me, my heart is not with the Yankees, nor with Bank of America. This is the final straw and I'm going to open up my new company with Sovereign Bank. I'll have more later, but Bank of America has really, and is really, screwing the public and the American taxpayer with the help of our federal elected officials. Not surprising they would be pitching a team from NY who can buy whatever players or politicians they need to get the public to pitch in to their bottom line. Oligopolies are not good in my humble opinion.

Especially one whose heart is with the Yankees.

Mugging in the South End: Urban Youth with Knife vs. my Colombian wife

2009-11-21T08:06:00.007-05:00

Yesterday morning in the rain, my wife was walking to work on the Southwest Corridor and was near the dog park between W. Newton and Dartmouth. A young man in a hoodie she guessed to be about 18 years old, and not particularly large, approached her and pulled out a Rambo style knife, held it perpendicular to their bodies, and told her to hand over her purse.

Acting on instinct, and not one to back down to anyone, she told him "NO", and reached out with her free hand onto his outstretched arm and lowered the knife down to his side.

She says his demeanor immediately changed and he apologized saying "I'm sorry, this is what they told me to do." He then asked her if he could have some money, so she calmly took her wallet out of her purse and gave him about $25. He thanked her and then he gave her some advice, "Look, Look, if you see someone with a hoodie walking towards you, just avoid them, just turn around and go the other way." He then walked quickly down one of the alleys.

She continued walking to work, and saw her clients for the day, and asked me to pick her up in my "bullet proof truck" for an afternoon treat of lunch at House of Siam, where she enjoyed a glass of wine to wind down the day and the week. She didn't bother filling out a police report, because she knows how busy they are doing details and doesn't want to bother them with their important work. (we'll do it today, Saturday is a slow detail day) We saw a state trooper later in the day on a detail in the Southwest corridor and he gave her the number to call to report it. He told us that Boston is "no worse than anywhere else.", in that knowingly assured way that uninformed uniformed people have. I thought about informing him that according to the FBI the rate of violent crime is twice as high in Boston as NYC, and the USA is 10 times higher than Japan and three times higher than Canada, but my wife gave me a look as to say "why waste such a beautiful day?"

My wife is a five foot three inch, 105 pound BADASS! To think that some American born and bred punk, most likely with a fine American urban education, could take my Colombian born wife, with a doctorate in Psychology is ridiculous. This is the woman who didn't blink against KGB trained breakaway Russian Republic soldiers armed with AK-47's trying to steal our money.

I think it is so funny how people think it is dangerous for us to go on our travels around the world. So far this year, of the three people living at our residence, two of three have been mugged. My campaign manager was mugged by three African-Americans in Allston. Just a statistical anomaly I'm sure, our government would tell us since "crime is down".

My wife says she will be walking up Columbus now, and then left on Dartmouth for awhile.
I'm so proud and lucky to be with someone so strong, who is willing to stand up against what is wrong. Hope you let her know next time you run into her.

Wonderful summing up of why zoning laws are important, and what makes a great city...

2009-11-21T07:51:00.002-05:00

Roger Cohen in the NY Times today had a paragraph that was just so wonderful, I had to share it.

The new premises, as I’ve gradually learned, placed us just within the garment district, an area where zoning laws have protected apparel manufacturing space and so held off the developers who would otherwise have turned clothes factories into condos and created yet another gentrified district bereft of seediness, tawdriness, community and that strange high-low alchemy essential to any great city’s mystery and charge.

This is why the corruption of ideas, neighborhoods, and money by the BRA and City Hall is so detrimental to our town.

Sam Yoon still pushing term limits---Tom Menino says he will sign bill

2009-11-19T09:56:00.002-05:00

I got a mass email from Sam Yoon this morning encouraging people to call their councilors to get the bill to impose term limits in Boston out of committee. When I had dinner with the Mayor (who we all wish well in his recovery from leg surgery) he said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk. So, the question is, who on the council is for term limits and who is against it? Some enterprising journalist should call them all and see where they stand. I would buy that newspaper.

Sam's email:

Dear Friend,

Our campaign addressed the power of the Mayor of Boston - and our belief that too much power in one person's hands holds us back as a city.

That's why we fought hard for Term Limits. If eight years is good enough for President of the United States, it's good enough for the Mayor of Boston.

Term Limits bring urgency to government and protects us from political machines that put politics before people.

Nine out of the ten largest US cities already have Term Limits. And so can we.

A bill to limit Boston mayors to two four-year terms is before the City Council's Government Operations Committee. But we need your help to get it out of committee and to the full Council for a vote.

I am asking you to call and e-mail the Chair of the Government Operations Committee, City Councilor Maureen Feeney, and respectfully ask that she bring the bill to the full City Council for an up-or-down vote.

And please call and e-mail your District and At-Large Councilors to urge them to support this bill.

Your opinion matters to your city councilors - they represent you - and we need to make sure that they debate and vote on Term Limits before year's end.

This is what our campaign has been fighting for.

The contact info for your City Councilors is below. Please take a minute to do this - and then forward this to five of your friends in Boston.

Thanks,

Sam Yoon

Where is our country headed?

2009-11-17T05:31:00.002-05:00

It is very depressing watching what is going on in our country, and around the world. I watched the Wabash vs. Depauw Monon Bell Game last Saturday with a 1960's graduate of Wabash who is a Ph.d working for a local bio tech company. We spoke about how the education system in this country is going downhill. He said his company is doing well, but that 30 to 40 percent of their researchers are from the Far East. He agreed that our country is not on the right track and we need to get back to science and engineering disciplines.

The NY Times today has a good comparison of the attitudes in China and America, and how they have become the "can-do" country while we have lost our energy, our quest for the future. They link to a Harvard Business School teacher article about what we need to do to get back ahead.

I see the dithering in Congress, the Democrats and Republicans just being two sides of the same coin, a bunch of rich guys being puppeted by much richer guys and corporations, taking care of the rich and themselves at our expense, and at the expense of our future. We need Universal Health care in this country yet that isn't even on the table unless some connected MBA's get a percentage off the top. I thought we had RICO laws against that?

I remember in 2006 when the City Council raised their salaries from the 60's to the 80's and Sam Yoon said that we needed to pay councilors more money to attract better candidates. Well this year we lost Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty with degrees from Harvard, Princeton, BC and BU for Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley with degrees from UMass/Boston, and Southern New Hampshire University for Felix, and Ayanna didn't complete her studies at BU. With all due respect to the colleges and elected officials involved (I coined the saying "there is a sucker from Harvard born every minute), on paper at least it would not seem as if we really increased the quality of our councilors by giving them huge raises.

I asked both Felix and Ayanna during the campaign about the BRA, and neither had anything to say about it. Those who don't know about the past are doomed to repeat it. I like the energy of both of them, and am hoping that they both use their considerable gifts to get up to speed fast before they become part of the machine.

Still, they are just tiny players I use as an example.

Why is it that every smart person I know has investments in foreign countries? From buying Australian dollars, to Argentinian vinyards, to Brazilian farms, it seems I am not the only one seeing the writing on the wall.

Yet, I am still seeing the money here in America. It seems as if others do as well, but now we seem to have a situation where people make their money here, but then invest it elsewhere.

I should have listened to Sean Ryan and bought gold at the beginning of the summer. You can't just keep printing money to get out of our economic crisis. It didn't work for the Weimar Republic, I doubt it is going to work here, especially because we aren't creating jobs, we are just getting the rich back to their standard of living.

Sorry, to be gloomy, I'm actually still very bullish on Boston, but I want to wake people up to what is going on and some options for doing something about it.

Have a great day, and think about getting a motorcycle!

Minor changes at Charles View

2009-11-14T12:15:00.001-05:00

Allston/Brighton Community:

Please see the attached revisions to the Charlesview Redevelopment proposal

In response to comments raised during the review of the Draft Project Impact Report (“DPIR”) and Development Plan, the Proponent has already requested a reduction of twenty (20) rental units on the Brighton Mills Site from two hundred and sixty (260) rental units to two hundred and forty (240) units. The Proponent is now requesting a reduction of height on the Telford Site to seven (7) stories and a reduction of height on the Western Avenue buildings on the Brighton Mills Site to primarily five (5) stories.

Please contact me should you have any questions.

Regards,

Jay Rourke

Thought from election day

2009-11-13T12:04:00.002-05:00

I was working the polls in Charlestown on election day and someone came by to thank me for running and said "Kevin, it's easier to sell a lie then to give the truth away for free." A great quote, just wanted to remember it.

Nothing happening here politically is there?

2009-11-13T10:12:00.002-05:00

The Boston Globe called me the other day to get a comment on Kineavy returning to work at City Hall. "Shocked and Chagrained" that Menino would say one thing during a campaign and then do another. Why is this news? Who cares?

I feel like this press/media dance is just a big carousel, a farce, and thankfully I have been slowly but surely weaning myself off of it. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving I won't be reading any of the papers anymore for political news because there isn't much. Coakley will win as long as she doesn't say much. Millions will be spent, trees will die, schools will continue to be underfunded, and soldiers will die overseas.

And the Globe wants my comment on how someone who has been lying to the public for 16 years whom they endorsed continues to lie to the public? Do us all a favor and write about the scholarship programs available to students and adults so they can get educated for the knowledge based jobs that are out there.

I don't enjoy participating in this farce.

Anyone want some authentic Fenway Park Seats?

2009-11-10T18:07:00.002-05:00

If anyone wants any of these seats, I will help facilitate this as long as you make a reasonable donation to the Travis Roy Foundation.

Dear Season Ticket Holder,

While the home team is no longer playing, there is still much work to be done at Fenway Park as we approach another ambitious renovation schedule planned for this offseason. Each year since 2002 we have made offseason improvements to “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.” This offseason will continue this tradition. A component of the 2010 improvements will be replacing the red Dugout, Field Box and Loge Box seats. We are pleased to provide our loyal season ticket holders with the first opportunity to own these authentic and historic Fenway Park seats. They are the same seats that have held fans witnessing the exploits of Yaz, Rice, Evans, Lynn, Clemens and Ortiz, not to mention the stunning performances of the 2004 and 2007 World Series.

Last year we were overwhelmed with the response to the 2008 seat sale. We hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to own these vintage pieces of Fenway Park.

The seats will be packaged and sold in pairs (2 seats). While we would like to be able to offer you specific a seat location, the removal process does not allow us to preserve a significant portion of the seats. However we will attempt to provide you with seats in your desired section. This year’s seats are being removed from sections 27-33. Seat removal will commence after the “Frozen Fenway” events this winter.

For a limited time only, season ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase a pair of seats for $750[1]. This “first chance” sale will conclude on Monday, November 16th at 5pm. Thereafter, sales will open to the general public and a pair of seats may be purchased for $795[2].

If you are interested in purchasing, please reply to this email at seatsale@redsox.com with your full name, day & night time phone numbers or call (617) 226-6800 to speak with one of our sales representatives. We will be in touch to secure payment and your part of Red Sox history. Thank you once again for your ongoing loyalty and support of the Old Town Team.

Sincerely,

The Boston Red Sox

City Hall still playing funny games with emails

2009-11-09T18:58:00.002-05:00

As soon as the election was over, the City Hall attorney who earlier insisted that I make all FOIA requests through her, promptly insisted that she would no longer be facilitating my FOIA requests and that now I would have to go directly through the people that I used to make my requests to previously.

My first request was for her emails from the last 4 days as clearly she received instructions from "someone". So, the City apparently has hired outside counsel to answer this FOIA at what I assume is her usual cost of around $200 an hour. I thought we didn't have any money in the city????

What is so hard about just forwarding some emails, unless you have something to hide!!!

Her is outside counsel's response to me:

Dear Mr. McCrea,

I have your FOIA to Maribeth Cusick, seeking her emails from Friday, October 23 through Thursday, October 29. Please be advised that the cost of producing these materials is as follows: 2.5 hours of review, at $30 per hour; redaction; and production of 96 pages of material at $0.20 per page. The total cost is therefore $95.

If you wish to continue with this request, please send payment in that amount, payable to the City of Boston, and direct to my attention to the address below.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this matter.

Best,

Mary Jo Harris

___________________________________

Mary Jo Harris

MORGAN, BROWN & JOY, LLP

200 State Street

Boston, MA 02109

Tel: (617) 788-5011

Fax: (617) 367-3125

More top level political appointees getting more money (What Recession?!)

2009-11-08T08:35:00.002-05:00

Andrea Estes shows again why she is the best reporter in the State. She is as close to neutral in her reporting as anyone I read, she gives all sides a chance to comment, and if you read between the lines about when someone doesn't comment on something, you know they are hiding something.

Still waiting for that (real) Reform before Revenue.

Charlestown residents want to quiet Old Ironsides?

2009-11-07T08:14:00.002-05:00

The Herald today has an article about some residents who want to quiet the cannons on the USS Constitution. As anyone from there will tell you, they go off every day at 8 am and at sunset.

I used to live on a boat at the Constitution Marina which was the closest boat in the harbor to the Constitution. I thought it was wonderful having the cannons go off, you were never late for an 8:30 appointment amongst other advantages. You actually get used to it after awhile, and it is great when someone new sleeps overnight to see them freak out when the cannon goes off at 8 am.

When will people start appreciating the wonderful history that we have here?

I bet and hope that this goes nowhere.

For everyone that thinks we have great health care in this country, read this:

2009-11-05T17:06:00.002-05:00

From the NY Times today (Kristof):

(Thanks to Michael Pahre for cluing me in on proper use of links!)

The basic argument, is that despite what the idiot politicians tell us, we don't have the best health care in the world, in fact we are far from it, and as he has repeatedly made the case, Slovenia has better health care than we do.

Why I'm voting for Flaherty

2009-11-02T07:19:00.001-05:00

Almost a year ago I was sitting at Doyle’s enjoying a drink with Michael Jonas (former Globe now Commonwealth writer) and discussing the idea that I might run for Mayor. I talked about how the Boston Globe was in the tank to the Mayor, but Michael insisted that the Globe wasn’t going to give Mayor Menino a free pass this time around. I pointed out that there had been a recent scathing report on the state of the Boston Public Schools and that the Globe had written an editorial about how the Mayor should be commended for accepting the results of the report and vowing to work harder. No sense of urgency that these results are not acceptable in a rich, intellectually dominant city. I said to Michael that the Globe wants a Mayor’s race for the same reason that the Harlem Globetrotters need the Washington Generals. You need someone else in the race to have something to write about, but in the end we all know who the Globe is going to endorse, and who is going to win. Jonas laughed, but while not completely accepting my premise, said that the analogy had some merit.

I had planned on running for Mayor four years ago to bring up the same issues of transparency, the need to eliminate the BRA and that the state of our public schools were not acceptable. I had lunch with Maura Hennigan and she convinced me to run for City Council and that she would be raising these issues. She did an admirable job, but I don’t think the city was ready to hear that message just yet.

I was the first into the race for Mayor this year, knowing that Michael Flaherty was probably going to enter but with no idea that Sam Yoon would. My platform from Day 1 spoke about the need for term limits, the elimination of the BRA, the need for transparency at City Hall, the need to properly fund and bring accountability and fiscal reform to the Boston Public Schools.

Neither Michael Flaherty nor Sam Yoon included eliminating the BRA when they entered the race, but Sam did quickly start talking about term limits. Later, the three of us were on a WBUR interview in the spring in studio and during Sam’s time in the booth he mentioned getting rid of the BRA, and I said to his campaign manager Jim Spencer who was sitting next to me, “When did Sam decide it was time to get rid of the BRA” and Jim laughed and said “I think just right now!”

Many people think, erroneously, that there is a lot of personal antagonism between members of the administration and the City council and me. While there are clearly people who wish that I were not around, I actually get along well with a number of them. Tobin, Murphy, Ciommo, Yancey and others share pleasantries and a laugh here and there when we run into each other. At the first debate this year Michael Flaherty noticed I was down to my last pair of socks (that my mom had given me) that had the name “Kevin” written on it, with the Gaelic explanation of the name on them. Michael needled me throughout the campaign about them. At the first debate with Jon Keller after beating Michael up about violating the Open Meeting Law, we went to break, and I said to Michael during the intermission “I feel bad about beating you up on this at every forum.”, he responded “hey, its fair game, I’ve got thick skin and I was wrong.”

After that debate as I was waiting to go on the Dan Rea show, Tom Menino was in the hall and he congratulated me on a great performance and I returned the compliment. He made an interesting, insightful comment that shows how much the Mayor understands people: “Kevin, you and I are the outsiders in this race.” His meaning that neither of us had grown up with the natural advantages that
Michael and Sam had, and that both of us had to work our tails off to get to where we are.

Right before the second debate I got wind of some illegal building activity that seemed to have inspectors looking the other way for some connected people on Temple Place. It really threw me off, as I reported the information I found out to the FBI and the head of ISD that day. I have learned all too well that the Democrats voted to enforce the laws, the DA and the AG will not enforce the laws on their fellow Democrats in this state. It is no coincidence that only the Federal Authorities have found any corruption at the State House and at City Hall. I was also concerned that I was being branded as just throwing “bombs” (even if those ‘bombs’ are based on facts and evidence, but when did the powers that be care about facts and evidence, if they did they would be scientists) so I wanted to tone it down and try and talk about policy as much as possible.

This is the quandary of modern politics, you work and you work and you work for months and months, meeting voters, talking to local papers all for 10 minutes of TV time in a debate with television people who don’t live in the city and usually are not very informed (Jon Keller excepted) about the issues. So politicians can get away with saying things that are blatantly untrue without being challenged. I am usually my own worse critic and I actually felt I did okay but nothing particularly great during the debates, but apparently I struck a chord with some people who are as fed up as I am.

On the way home from the first debate we were listening to Dan Rea, who doesn’t hide the fact that he is on Menino’s side, on the truck radio. He was just finishing up with Sam Yoon and he wasn’t asking Sam fair questions, or giving Sam a chance to answer. How do you answer a question like “I think Boston is a great City, name me a better City than Boston…???” After he was done with Sam he opened up the phone lines to talk about the debate and the first two callers called up and said essentially “that guy Kevin McCrea did a great job, he really won” and Mr. Rhea was dismissive and subtly tried to play up the Mayor: ‘so you want to go with the outsider, the unknown as opposed to the person who has made this city so great’ it was great to hear it, people we didn’t know calling up and saying positive things about our effort.

We raised and spent about $17,000 on the campaign (some from me), and on election day I felt very positive about the way the race had been run. I told my wife if I received more than 1,000 votes that I would be happy. My biggest hope was to get 5% of the votes. On election day I had a great time running around the City talking to voters thanking poll workers from all the campaigns for getting involved, receiving many compliments, and getting limp wristed handshakes from Menino supporters. I borrowed my wife’s Chrysler convertible loaded it up with Bob Marley, James Brown and the Clash and one of my favorite moments was driving along Centre Street in West Roxbury with the top down rocking out to the Clash “Justice Tonight” as people in adjoining cars were giving me the thumbs up.

Later that night, after the polls closed I was being interviewed by WBUR around 10 pm and the results were coming in and showed Menino around 48 percent. I said to the reporter, “I guarantee you that at the end of the night Menino will be over 50%”. I had seen too many odd things at the polls, mentally handicapped people being hand taken to the polling stations by Menino people, Menino numbers crunching running around with worried looks on their face, and phone calls from people before the primary who had worked for the elections department telling me about how election fraud is carried out. It would look very bad if Menino was below 50% and I figured he would pull out all the stops to make sure that was the case.

I was ecstatic with my results and with the race I ran. I am appalled by the money in politics. Menino spent about 1.5 million to get 41,000 votes or $36 bucks a vote, Flaherty spent $915,000 to get 19,459 votes or $47 a vote, Yoon spent $657,000 to get $17,179 votes or $38 a vote. I spent $17,000 to get 3,340 votes or about $5 a vote. It really is out of control. Between the four of us we spent more than the entire book budget of the Boston Public Schools in just the primary.

The day after the election Natasha Perez from Flaherty’s campaign called and asked me to join them. I told them I could support them if they were getting rid of the BRA, but that first they needed to get Sam Yoon on board, as he was much more important to victory than I was. They were holding a fundraiser that Thursday at Anthony’s Pier 4 that they wanted all of there for. I had promised my wife we would go away for the weekend so I could not make it, and Sam needed time to discuss things with his family and his people.

Then in the first joint interview that Flaherty and Yoon held with the Jamaica Plain Gazette they equated my campaign to Donald Duck, and made fun of Freedom of Information requests, saying that they would have a special department to handle Kevin McCrea’s requests of the government and call them “McFoia’s”.
I was on business in New Orleans when this came out and my wife told me one night that I had received an odd apology on the voicemail from Sam Yoon which neither she nor I knew anything about. When I returned to Boston I called John Ruch of the Gazette to confirm the story he had written and whether anything was out of context. He confirmed what he had written, and I have a good relationship with John and had no reason not to believe him. I was a bit taken aback that the people asking for my endorsement and calling for transparency at City Hall and an investigation by the Attorney General would make fun of Freedom of Information requests.

I am realistic enough to know that if this election had been 65% Menino to 35% for the rest of us that no one would care about me. But, instead we had a situation where my 4% of the vote could be crucial. So I decided to be objective and try and make my decision based on facts, and to leverage what minimal amount of influence I had to try and do the best I could to make the city a better place. I contacted Dot Joyce, Menino’s spokesperson, and asked if I might perhaps speak to the Mayor about some common ground that we might work together on, in particular the schools. She was very gracious, and we set up a dinner with the Mayor and his wife and my wife and me.

I was extremely confused at this point. I had three options, endorse one or the other or stay out of it. Politicians are masters at making you think that they care about you and your issues, and of making you think they are going to do something about an issue without actually committing to anything. Even though I think I’m a reasonably intelligent person, I know my hubris can be attracted to praise and the spotlight, and I asked my wife to accompany me to get an objective and professional (she is Doctor of clinical psychology) take on the two candidates. We sat down with Michael and Sam and their people and spoke about what needed to be done to win the election. They were very kind in complimenting me on the issues I had raised and what I had brought to the campaign. They were definitely for term limits and bringing in new management and accountability practices to City Hall.

We then had dinner at with the Mayor and his wife Angela, and both of us (particularly me) had a bit of trepidation. We met at Hammersley’s where Gordon, the owner, has been a longtime supporter of South End baseball and I knew the Mayor and he were friendly and that the Mayor had eaten there. We ended up having a really wonderful evening. We spoke about common experiences, travels to South America and Turkey. The Mayor and I had both dealt with problems of alcoholism in our families when we were young. None of the four of us had a drink, which we rarely do and it turns out the Menino’s don’t either. Angela spoke about how when Tom got involved in politics he stopped drinking because he had seen too many politicians make fools of themselves while imbibing, and he would not be that way. We spoke about the problems of dealing with the media, and how they had thick enough skin but they really thought it unfair when the media went after their family.

The Mayor asked one question about where Flaherty thought he was going to pick up votes, but I replied that he wouldn’t want me sharing anything with Michael, and I wouldn’t want to share what Michael said to me with the Mayor. He respected that and we moved on. We spoke about tax policy and why I didn’t believe that we should be giving tax breaks to the big rich corporations, because as the Mayor says “this is a great city, people want to be here, because of the great institutions, the neighborhoods and the people.” Further that these tax breaks were just picked up by the working people in this city and that it isn’t fair. He said we had to give them or else the companies would leave, but later in the conversation he talked about how some of the financial institutions that had left the city were now looking to come back because they couldn’t find qualified workers. I pointed out “Exactly” how there was an inconsistency in his logic, that is why we shouldn’t be giving them tax breaks, we should just continue making the City a great place to live with good schools, safe streets, parks, etc. He truly seemed to be taking the point in. We agreed to disagree about the BRA, and we didn’t talk about emails. I told him that people are afraid of him in this city, and that shouldn’t be the case in a democracy. He dismissed it, but I explained how even friends of mine were afraid to let me have fundraisers in their restaurants because of fear of repercussions. I told him that I thought he was going to win, because people genuinely liked him, and felt that he cared about the city, and I said that if he just changed a few things, if he was more open to others ideas and to collaboration that he could really leave on top and be remembered for being a fantastic Mayor. At the end of the meal, he said he’d like to work with me, and all of us remarked what a nice time we had and that it was great to get away from the campaign for an evening.

I was in an even bigger quandary than ever, and then we had some family medical issues with cancer and surgeries, and brought us back into “reality”. As I went back to work in my construction business and I spoke to working people, to wait staff, to students, to guys I play basketball with in Roxbury, I was struck by how little anyone really cared about this, and about how little impact they felt it had on their lives and that nothing was going to change. The only ones who seemed interested or had an opinion were City workers, and they were mostly in favor of the Mayor.

Many of my supporters implored me not to endorse anyone, saying that people respected me for telling the truth and not compromising on honesty and transparency. But, I also had many people asking me who I was going to vote for and looking at me for an informed opinion.

I have been thoroughly unimpressed with the media during the campaign in terms of asking the candidates substantive questions on the issues, on holding them accountable, and of asking follow up questions. I got into this race to get some questions answered by the candidates, and 9 months later there are basic questions unanswered. I came up with an idea: I asked both candidates if they would be willing to do a one hour debate at the Boston Public Library, with questions from me about what they would do about the future of the City. No “gotcha” questions, nothing about the past, just a chance, on the record, to talk about what they were actually promising to do about schools, about transparency, about public safety, etc. They both declined to take my questions, but offered to answer written questions. On another tangent, I asked Flaherty to introduce the legislation into the City Council that would begin the process of eliminating the BRA to show that he actually was going to do it, but his staff said they had procedural reasons why they couldn’t do that. Interestingly, the BPL was unhelpful in scheduling a room. To be fair I was asking last minute and they had a policy of only allowing non-profits with a long lead time. But, I mentally thought about all the obstacles to doing things in this city, such as having a block party or having a neighborhood forum. When did we become a society of why we can’t do things, instead of a “can do” society?

I had pretty much decided to stay out of it, not convinced that Flaherty was truly committed to transparency and eliminating the BRA. But, I received his mailings which put down in print that he would eliminate the BRA and institute some measures towards transparency. People were still asking me for whom I was going to vote and I felt I had an obligation to let them know, because of course I was going to vote as I do in every election.

For me, it came down to the elimination of the BRA. I believe that the institution of the BRA has outlived its usefulness, that it is non-democratic, and that it is corrupt and that it breeds corruption, and that the rich use it as a tool to take advantage of the rest of us. I called Dot Joyce as a courtesy to let her and the Mayor know, and to thank her for her time, and for the Mayor’s valuable time. She tried to convince me otherwise, but I let her know that the BRA was the deciding factor for me.

So, I’m asking people to vote for Michael Flaherty on election day, to eliminate the BRA and to try and bring transparency and a new sense of inclusiveness and access to City Hall.

No matter who wins, I am bullish on the future of Boston. Not because of the political class, but because of the people and institutions that are here. Because of our institutes of higher learning we will continue to be an international city where smart people come to learn and create, ironically, they often get applied more around the world then they do in our own backyard.

Whether Michael Flaherty or Mayor Menino wins, I hope that they will reach out and try and new things, not be afraid to fail, and to bring in good people who want to make this city shine. I would be willing to work with either of them, and I hope all the citizens feel the same way after the election. How about a City that has all four of us working together to improve Boston? Abraham Lincoln did it, maybe Menino or Flaherty could do the same: wouldn’t that be bold and exciting?

I also endorse Alex Selvig and Christian Kulikowski. It is imperative that we have some independent voices on the City Council who are not afraid to speak up for the citizens. They both believe in eliminating the BRA and so they have my support.

City trying to sell off valuable Park Land?

2009-10-31T16:46:00.001-04:00

Dear Mr. McCrea,

I am writing you this email with the hope that you will look into a story that I think you and your blog readers will find very interesting. As a fellow resident of Boston, I think you will find the actions of our elected officials appalling. I am referring to the Mary Cummings Park.

Mary Cummings Park is a Land Trust overseen by the City of Boston, but the land itself lies in the Town of Burlington and the City of Woburn. In case you are not familiar with Mary Cummings Park, please allow me to provide some background.

Mary Cummings died in 1927 and left her vast estate of over 200 acres to the City of Boston as a Land Trust. In her will she stated that the land was to be kept and maintained in perpetuity as open space. This land is now the 12th largest park inside of the Rt. 128 area.

In addition, Mary Cummings left some buildings that she owned in downtown Boston to her trust. In 1929, the City of Boston seized the buildings by eminent domain and that money is still owed to the trust, which with interest is now worth millions of dollars.

Over the years, programs brought many children from Boston to enjoy the woods and fields of Cummings Park. Children camped, grew vegetables, and enjoyed nature in a way that is not readily available to most kids in Boston.

However, since 1993, all programming has ceased at the park, and the City of Boston has spent virtually no money on the park. In fact, of late, the only money the City of Boston has spent on the park has been on No Trespassing signs and lawyers and engineers who are looking to break the Cummings Trust and sell off the land for residential and commercial development. This would be a direct violation of the Mary Cummings Trust. Some proposals have called for a golf course or to sell the land to pay for the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Mayor Menino who claims to have the best interests of the residents of Boston at heart, particularly its children, has clearly demonstrated that he is quite comfortable with depriving inner-city kids the opportunity to experience and enjoy a beautiful park that was intended for their use. Once again, Menino would like to set up his developer buddies/campaign donors with a sweetheart/backroom deal.

I apologize for this long email, but as you can see, the issue is quite involved.

It would be a shame for the residents of Boston, Woburn, Burlington, and the people from the surrounding area if this land was sold and developed. I urge you to visit the Friend of Mary Cummings website.

Particularly the page concerning the vision for the park:
http://cummingspark.org/documents/MaryCummingsParkVision2009.pdf

and the documents page which outlines what the City of Boston has done to try and break the Mary Cummings Trust:
http://cummingspark.org/thepark/documents.html

The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald have both largely ignored this story. Lately, the Change for Boston website, and the Northeastern University Student Newspaper, The Huntington, has brought attention to it. I invite you to read there stories:

www.changeforboston.org/negative-public-policy/menino-strikes-again-this-time-in-the-burbs/

www.huntington-news.com/news/woburn-looks-to-save-northeastern-property-1.1933927

Thank you for your time.

Why I hate finance people

2009-10-31T12:39:00.002-04:00

Clara and I were walking along Newbury Street to go to the movies last night and two well dressed guys, 30 somethings, were walking towards us. They had a Friday afternoon, world at my feet, boisterous attitude. A homeless guy wrapped in a blanket walking ahead of us about 30 feet asked them for some change, and one guys says smugly and mockingly "sorry we are just poor financial guys", as they walked past the man in the blanket. The second guy laughed lightly and added as a highlight: "that just got a bailout." The two of them laughed as they continued down the street.

I have no problem with people not giving money to people on the street. But mocking and making fun of the homeless is shameful. The fact that they are laughing about being given a government bailout that I'll bet they didn't need to keep them from being homeless just reinforces for me why these bailouts are wrong. Why do we bailout the rich, but it is okay to have people begging in the streets. Haven't we learned yet that trickle down economics doesn't work?

Very depressing, if I had noticed quicker what was happening I might have given those guys a tongue lashing or at least snapped a picture so everyone could see the true character of these guys who I'm sure are upstanding members of their community.

I've endorsed Flaherty, Selvig and Kulikowski

2009-10-29T12:39:00.003-04:00

At a press conference at Downtown Crossing today I endorsed Michael Flaherty (and Sam Yoon) for Mayor, Alex Selvig and Christian Kulikowski for City council in their respective seats.

All of these candidates are calling for the end of the BRA, and recognize that we need more transparency at City Hall. These are my litmus tests for candidates, and I've had other candidates who have asked for my endorsement but without that understanding of how undemocratic Boston is, and the willingness to do something about it, I can not endorse.

I'll have more later.

Bad News about Taxes, and of course City Hall is hiding the numbers

2009-10-29T07:37:00.001-04:00

A CFA who closely follows City Budgets has the following information if you are doing any financial planning for the next year:

It APPEARS that we are headed for several years of double digit increases in residential property taxes due to the collapse of the commercial real estate sector similar to what happened in 2004. The city so far refuses to release the information necessary to make that calculation. While the numbers they currently have are tentative pending state approval and modification, it is unlikely there will be a significant change between now and the issuance of 3rd quarter tax bills in December. Rather than release the information which can settle this issue, they appear to be holding it until after the election so my assumption is that the news is not good.

I have made two requests (early September and this past Monday - 10/26) to the assessor's office for this information. Was told the first time that it wasn't available and have not received a response to my second request.

FOIA request update

2009-10-29T07:29:00.003-04:00

After blogging about the lack of response by the City on my 3 month old FOIA request, surprise, surprise, I got the information yesterday.

The City has about 2200 Hispanics on their Excel list of Hispanic workers. In her comments to the Jamaica Plain Gazette she said that her list didn't even include the numbers in the school department. Well, contrary to what she said, in fact a huge amount of the Hispanics on the list are in the school system. They also list a number of part time employees, people who are on leave, and even poll workers who (I believe) are just contract workers who work a few days a year for a set fee.

So, even with including these other categories there are less than 14% of the City workforce who are Hispanics. Not a bad number, but less than their percentage in Boston.

Why did it take 3 months to just pass this along? What is it like pulling teeth to get any information from City Hall?

Mafia Wars-(at city hall) a computer guy weighs in

2009-10-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

I play mafia wars all the time. Did you see this article in the Herald today:

This is his link to his Mafia Wars Profile.

http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/index.php?query_params=eHdfY29udHJvbGxlcj1zdGF0cyZ4d19hY3Rpb249dmlldyZ1c2VyPTg5NTgyNTM1NiZza2lwX2ludGVyc3RpdGlhbD0x

I also play the game but never at work. You can attack someones character in this game. I attached hm and asked others to do so. It takes like forever to get to the level he is at. Like seriously a lot of work.

City of Boston refusing to turn over simple information

2009-10-28T08:04:00.003-04:00

As I've reported before, the City assigned an attorney, Maribeth Cusick, to directly answer my Freedom of Information requests. Back in July in response to Michael Flaherty talking about the lack of minorities in City Hall, the Mayor's press secretary Dot Joyce said: Councilor Flaherty’s remarks are completely off-base,” Menino spokesperson Joyce later told the Gazette. “I have 21 pages of Excel spreadsheets that have Latinos in city government, and that’s not even counting the Boston Public Schools.”

So on July 10 I sent a FOIA request to Ms. Cusick for those 21 pages of Excel spreadsheets.

Should be a pretty easy request, just email me the excel spreadsheets, should take about 5 minutes. But, surprise, surprise, the City has not turned over that information. (Apparently they are working hard on their Facebook pages)

Just last Thursday Ms. Cusick sent me an email promising me the information on Friday, of course I haven't received it yet. Her most recent reply:

Kevin:

I think I'll have that for you tomorrow. Sorry again for the delay.

Maribeth

I wonder if I make a complaint to the Board of Bar Overseers that she is complicit in unlawful behavior by the Menino administration if I might get a quicker response. The City is clearly in lockdown phase and is not giving out any information to anyone in the last couple of months. I have made other information requests and am met with a stonewall. But, this has been the modus operandi of this administration and our current elected officials and the citizens don't seem to mind. Don't you wish we could tell the IRS to blow off when they ask us for information?

The G-8 is born!

2009-10-27T22:23:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the efforts of Bill Trabucco, a group of less than ultimately successful politicians gathered in the living room of my home tonight to renew acquaintances, share stories from the campaign, and talk about how we can work together to make the city a better place and to hold our government accountable.

It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have spent in some time. Although we range from Republican (Robert Fortes) to virtual libertarian (Sean Ryan), from rough edged street talkers (Trabucco and me) to men of God (Ego Ezedi), from community leader (Jean Claude Sanon) to biking environmentalist (Scotland Willis), and finally the immigrant accountant (Hiep Nguyen) we all share the common goal of wanting to help people.

There were many laughs, some good natured ribbing, and good stories from the past year. We've named ourselves the G-8, and I look forward to us getting together again and working to help people everywhere. Politics is about people, and this is one great group of people.

Protest against BRA, Harvard, and Menino ramming development down Allston's throats

2009-10-27T06:37:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Michael Flaherty, Sam Yoon, Alex Selvig and Allston residents such as Harry Mattison held a press conference in Allston at one of the dozens of properties that Harvard has bought up to land bank for their future expansions at the detriment to the community. The Globe covered it without mentioning Selvig .

According to Michael Pahre it was Mr. Selvig who spoke most knowledgeably and eloquently about the problems in Allston. It would be nice if the Globe even acknowledged that a race was going on between Selvig and Mark Ciommo. The Herald is even worse.

The City and the BRA and Harvard have essentially snubbed their noses at the local residents, using the poor at Charlesview as pawns in their game, as Dylan would say. Instead of enforcing the City of Boston Inspectional Services department to require the landlords to fix their buildings and maintain them according to the law, they promise the residents a better place someplace else which not coincidentally is on less valuable land than what they sit on now. Sounds like what we did to the Indians back in the 1800's.

Poor Jay Rourke, he has to put up with a couple of bad mentions in the press and all he gets is a $95,000 capital gain signed off by the City Council and the Mayor. Those public servants of ours deserve everything we can give them, they work so hard for us. Makes you proud to pay your taxes.

Senate Debate Notes & pizza night!

2009-10-27T06:11:00.003-04:00

Clara and I watched the Mayoral Debate last night. Pags seemed like a deer in the headlights, Martha was as safe and staid as usual, Alan had some good points but went on and on without answering questions, and Capuano was as Clara said 'the best'.

She liked his tactic of answering the hypothetical questions with "that wouldn't happen" so I'm not going to answer the question. "That wouldn't happen", "That wouldn't happen", etc.

Seems as if it is Martha's race to lose.

I'm looking forward to an interesting evening tonight. Former City Councilor at Large candidate Bill Trabucco has organized a get together for all the losing at Large candidates. He asked if I would host, which of course I'm only too happy to do. We're going to share some pizza and stories and talk about making the city a better place.

The press wanted to make fun of Bill, but he is actually a very smart, committed, honest, devoted individual who brought real passion and fresh ideas to the race. He earned the respect of his fellow candidates, by showing them respect. I can't say such nice things about many of the finalists. Bill got one of my four votes.

The press is so bad, they want to make their snap judgments to typecast someone, they like to say they want a straight talking individual, but then they anoint people who say nothing specific as the 'polished leaders'.

The press was recently fawning over Michelle Obama jumping double dutch, but if she dared to try that while Obama was on the way up they would have had a field day with saying how 'unladylike' she was and how unprepared she was to be 'first lady'. I have no doubts why the newspaper and press business is doing so poorly. Often bigger hypocrites than the politicians they cover.

Ned Flaherty summarizes emails

2009-10-26T10:02:00.001-04:00

1. Calculation of unrecovered messages.

A. TOTAL MESSAGES. After analyzing Kineavy’s daily e-mail traffic volume during August and September 2009, the Globe estimated that he would have sent/received 159,640 messages over the last 5 years.

B. RECOVERED MESSAGES. City officials recovered 11,423 messages, and accounted for them (including 240 withheld) on the City web site by 15 October. Then State officials announced they’d recovered 48,000 messages yesterday. City’s 11,423 + state’s 48,000 = 59,423 recovered messages.

C. UNRECOVERED MESSAGES. Total messages of 159,640, less recovered messages of 59,423, = unrecovered messages of 100,217.

2. Posting the latest 48,000 messages. Galvin’s 5-week investigation finished on 22 October, at which point he concluded that Kineavy improperly double-deleted an unknown number of messages. In yesterday’s Globe, Galvin said he will let the City review the 48,000 state-recovered messages, to exempt personnel and medical messages, prior to their public release.

Calendar

It took the City about 16 calendar days to print, review, scan, and release 11,423 messages, so at 714/day, it will take 67 days to process the next 48,000 messages. Deducting for official holidays in November, December, and January, those 48,000 messages would theoretically be posted by 4 January. Realistically, however, 1 extra month is needed for holiday time off, normal winter illness, and the 2nd and 3rd waves of swine flu (which state health officials yesterday called “widespread”).

Menino and Coakley plan to disclose nothing until after both are firmly enshrined in office in January. Coakley’s already stated that she doesn’t know “whether” the law was broken at all, and even if it was broken, she doesn’t know if the double-deleting was “intentional.”

January 6: Menino hopes to get sworn into his 5th term of office.

January 19: Coakley hopes to get elected U.S. Senator.

February: Bill Sinnott publicly posts the latest 48,000 messages.

March: Coakley concludes her investigation after reviewing 59,423 messages.

April: FBI upgrades the corruption charges related to liquor licenses and Wilkerson.

Ned Flaherty

I just contributed to Blue Mass Group's PAC

2009-10-24T06:20:00.002-04:00

Blue Mass Group is setting up a political PAC and is asking people to donate $1 just so they can build up a data base and a list of contributors.

Although I don't always agree with them, I more than often do, and they clearly care about transparency and good governance and so I was pleased to send them $10.

Their forum is a very civil dialogue of topics, local and national which affect us all.

A BIG thumbs up for the work those gentlemen do!

Emily Rooney doesn't believe anyone either

2009-10-22T09:37:00.002-04:00

Emily Rooney had a very interesting blog post about the balloon boy where she said her rule number 1 was "Everyone is lying and everything is intentional."

It is funny, but when I read this I had a whole new appreciation of her. This could easily be my motto and I can understand now why she can be so aloof to political guests. When you have seen so many of them lie, lie, lie and change positions over the years it can be very hard to get excited or even interested over anyone.

Will Galvin send his report to the AG for prosecution?

2009-10-22T08:52:00.002-04:00

A little birdie told me that the Secretary of State might be so fed up with the email shenanigans at City Hall that he might report it to the AG's office very soon.

(file this under rumors)

Will the Mayor (if re-elected) serve out his four years?

2009-10-22T08:19:00.002-04:00

One of the rumors that has been going around the campaign trail this past year is whether Tom Menino will resign sometime during his last term. The story goes that Rob Consalvo (allegedly his 'secret' God son if you believe comments left on blogs !!??!!) will be elected city council president and then Menino will resign making Consalvo the acting Mayor with enough time to coalesce power and continue the dynasty with the same front room and back room players in place.

Now first of all I want to say that I like Rob Consalvo, and he has always been more than a gentleman to my wife and me. He is a bit over effusive in his praise of the Mayor, "and thanks to the Mayor" seems to be his most common phrase. But, Rob has said he loves his job where he is, and the Mayor and others have said absolutely that he is going to serve all four years.

But, it wouldn't be the first time a politician says one thing and does another and leaves for a higher job (see Flynn, Mayor Raymond). I have spoken to three City Councilors in the last couple weeks who have told me adamantly that they think this is the plan. I have been shocked at how I benignly bring this topic up, and how animated they get in assuring me that they think this is the plan (off the record of course).

Councilor Tobin has introduced legislation that would call for an election if this transfer were to happen. It would be an interesting question to ask all of the City Council candidates where they stand on this issue. You would think that Mayoral aspirants such as Tobin, Connolly, Pressley, Ross and Arroyo would be against it.

Does anyone know when this might come up for a vote?

What Boston Jobs Policy?

2009-10-21T09:04:00.002-04:00

There has been a lot of talk in this campaign about the Boston Jobs Policy. I put forward specific plans as to how I would enforce it, other candidates talk about its importance, and Michael Flaherty has said he is going to "lose it" the next time he goes to a jobsite and sees out of state license plates.

The truth of course, is that no one is doing much about actually enforcing it, and the Mayor isn't worried about it. The City right now is in the midst of a massive redo of Massachusetts Avenue, and the Susi company from Dorchester is doing the work. They started about a week ago, and since I live right next to it and drive Massachusetts Avenue all the time I can see what is going on. As usual what is going on is a bunch of white guys are doing the work, much of it unskilled labor involving picks and shovels and wheelbarrows.

This morning as I walked by on Columbus Avenue I counted 9 white guys and 1 African American. I talked to the African American cop on detail and asked how long he had been working the detail and he said about a week. I asked how many black guys he had seen in the week and he said "three". I said "doesn't seem like they are enforcing the Boston Jobs Policy here" and he said "well, I wouldn't know" and I said "very diplomatic of you" and he said "you have to be".

Perhaps if Councilor Flaherty would like to make a point about the Boston Jobs Policy he could hold a press conference or a rally on Mass. Ave. pointing out how the Menino administration is not enforcing the policy. How hard could it be for a company in Dorchester working in the South End to find some minorities to work for them? (I have not seen any women on the site at all)

People want to do studies about why the inner city is dangerous, why African Americans are in jail and the high unemployment rate about inner city minorities, but the simple answer is jobs and access to opportunity. Why aren't the black ministers coming to job sites and saying "give our people a chance", or even better supporting minority owned companies to compete on these projects. You can preach against doing drugs all you want, but if there aren't other options, you take what you can get.

Ayanna Pressley takes the time to answer some of my questions-Thanks Ayanna!

2009-10-20T13:51:00.002-04:00

On Blue Mass Group, Ayanna Pressley was kind enough to answer some of my questions. She is for lifting the cap on the Charter Schools, she doesn't know that 6 councilors are allowed to meet behind closed doors, she has proposals she wants to introduce that will be paid for by that evergreen 'efficiency and collecting unpaid stuff' line that all politicians use (apparently she doesn't think Menino is doing a good job of collecting all the money that is owed to us), and she won't cut anything, or say how she will get anything done until she has time to meet with all the parties and analyze everything. She has learned from the best (Joe Kennedy, John Kerry) how to promise everything while saying nothing, and she will get elected as I predicted in February. I am impressed that she took the time to answer, and I look forward to her being as accessible as she promises which will be a nice breath of fresh air.

Her responses:

Kevin-
Thanks for the questions. I'll do my best to answer them as thoroughly as my time allows. And don't forget, I'm #8 on the ballot- hope I can earn one of your four votes.

1) Are you for expanding the Charter School Cap or opposed to it?

I was fortunate enough to have a mother who cared deeply about my education, and fought hard to ensure I got the best education possible. Today I see the long wait lists for a number of our city's charter schools, and those wait lists only exist because there are so many parents who take personal pride and responsibility for their child's education. It is the job of a City Councilor to support those parents who have decided this is what's best for their children. So while I do support lifting the existing cap, I am concerned that there could be some fiscal "blowback" on BPS.

2) Where in the Back Bay/Beacon Hill are you going to advocate for diverse, mixed use housing?

I believe development must include community-input that is respected and taken seriously by developers and the city. I don't have specific locations in mind and would be uncomfortable imposing my views, at this time, on a process I really believe should be driven by neighborhood residents.

3) Do you agree with the current city council rules which allow for 6 councilors to meet behind closed doors and discuss issues? If not, will you introduce new rules in your first 100 days?

As far as I know, Council rules do not allow for 6 councilors to meet behind closed doors. I support the work that has been done in the last few years to improve and ensure that the Council is fully educated on and compliant with the Open Meeting Law requirements.

4) Counseling for victims of violence is a good thing. What will you propose cutting from the budget to pay for it?

I think it's a bit irresponsible to advocate cutting programs before I am elected and before we have a clearer idea on where the city stands fiscally next year. There are opportunities to collect unpaid taxes, fees and tickets that could amount to tens of millions of dollars. Some may see my answer as pie-in-the-sky idealism but I think making rash announcements in October about budget cuts is more about political posturing than anything else.

5) How will you pay for a Green Jobs workforce?

In the budget section of my post, I spoke about a few places where we can improve on revenues. Longer term, I believe we need to be thinking about economic development as a way of sparking our economy and generating revenues. But "paying" for a Green Jobs workforce isn't our immediate challenge- educating a Green Jobs workforce is and that can be achieved through creativity, innovation and commitment on the part of our educators and teachers, and not necessarily out of the city's checkbook.

6) What penalties will you impose on contractors who don't enforce the Boston Jobs Policy? Will you introduce legislation in your first 100 days?

Adherence to the Boston Jobs Policy is a priority. If I'm fortunate enough to be elected, I will definitely start work on issues like this. I don't want to make a promise today about legislation that I may write, or tie myself to an immediate timeline, these issues are too important to rush into without talking with all the parties involved. If it takes 101 days, but that extra day makes the difference between O.K. legislation favored by a few and comprehensive legislation favored by most, the important thing is achieving the ultimate goal of better enforcement of the policy.

7) Will you refuse to give any funds to the BRA (as we do now) until they are as transparent as you think they need to be, which means voting against the budget if need be?

Transparency is absolutely essential. But I don't believe in making threats, particularly before I have even been elected, and I don't believe it is productive to hinge my entire budget vote on one issue and in effect abandon all the other priorities that I have for the city.