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It's great to be mayor
By adamg on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 9:01am
You get to park wherever you want, even in fire lanes, and all you have to do is hope none of your competitors has a camera to take an embarrassing photo.
Of course, one of the downsides of being mayor in an election year where the local broadsheet has decided to sic an investigative reporter on city government is having to explain how a retired BRA official can make $162,000 a year on top of his pension working 25 hours a week:
McCann, seated in his City Hall office overlooking Faneuil Hall on Friday afternoon, insisted he has not violated the law because it does not apply to him. He said he believes the BRA is an independent authority and not a government agency covered under the income-limit clause of the law.
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Comments
He'll be the one of the first against the wall
when the revolution comes.
which one
McCann or the Mayor?
Independent authority...
Ok, so you're an independent authority...of what? City improvement? Who pays for your existence? What covers your salary? Tax money, right? You're getting a CITY pension!? Who created you? The legislature, right? What is one of your roles as defined by law? You get power over tax concessions to help development, right? Where are your offices? One CITY HALL Square, right? What logo is that on the bottom of your homepage with the mayor's name plastered everywhere???
Goddamnit, you lying sack of crap, you even have a government exchange of 617-722- for your phone number. This guy should be fired AND sued by the city to get back all of the salary he's been paid above and beyond the law!
Dick
So is he like the Dick Cheney of Boston government?
I dunno
But somehow I do feel tortured by the current administration around here.
No mention of Flaherty being
No mention of Flaherty being a part time City councilor and full time lawyer? I had an argument defending the fact that you were not biased, i guess i was wrong. I was there and that pic was taken with the driver still in the car
People are arguing over me?
Cool.
I presume you're referring to stuff like this when it comes to Flaherty.
No, I didn't link to it. No, not because I'm backing Flaherty (or anybody else for that matter). It's because, well, I miss stuff sometimes. Or was Flaherty using his lawyer skills at the IBEW or wherever McCrea took that picture?
So it's a campaign finance violation, not a parking violation?
Is it legal for the mayor to use a city paid driver and car when he's campaigning on a Saturday? If it is it probably shouldn't be. Doesn't sound like there was much if any official city business going on here.
Anybody work at Boston shines this weekend - hope you all got your official Thomas M. Menino T-shirt and work gloves! I still had mine from last year and reused those.
Question - anybody know what happens to all the brand new gloves, rakes, brooms and shovels after this is over - kudos to the sponsors -but who gets all these leftover materials? - those shovels looked expensive.
Wow...
...where do I begin? 1st off...Adam, be a bit more honest on this one. That was a big "miss" on Flaherty and his law firm trying to hide his clients and possible ethic issues. The article was in the globe for christ sakes. If some two-bit rag like the Dot Reporter or joe shmo's blog writes anything even slightly negative toward the Mayor you post it promptly. Oh, I forgot, you have a business agreement with the Forry's.
2nd, Stevil are you really taking shots at a great program which gets its neighbors involved in the parks and common areas? I was at a couple of these in my neighborhood and it was great to see the turnout. You act as if the city gave us gold plated shovels and riding lawn mowers. Hardly. Keep thowing things against the wall....the classic "angry white guy" thing suits you well.
You want complete honesty?
Sometime late Wednesdy or early Thursday, I came down with a bad head cold. For which, as my friends would tell you, I started taking antihistamines (Store brand, little red pills). So what parts of my brain were not fogged up by the cold were knocked out by drugs (yeah, antihistamines hit me that way; their main saving grace is that they also tend to put me to sleep).
So I missed a story. It happens. You seem to know quite a lot about me and the site. If so, you probably know that anybody can sign up for an account and post stuff. Other people do it all the time - and even link to Globe stories.
I was going to link to all the possibly negative things I've posted about Michael Flaherty, but why do your work for you? Michael Flaherty - just look at the headlines on the first couple of pages and tell me if they're all positive. You'll notice one of them is about Flaherty and his wife's civil-service exam.
As for the Reporter, yes, I do have a business relationship with them. And I believe the only mayoral story of theirs I've linked to since we started working together was about a firefighter using city resources to convince people to vote against Menino in an online poll the paper ran (and you'll note that post discloses my work for them).
So, are you simply a concerned citizen or one of the mayor's paid political operatives?
Simply.....
...(or I hope not so) concerned citizen. I became hooked on your site a few months ago. Liked all the local pieces about the city. More local then Herald and Globe (obviousy). I have NO idea how a piece is posted, sorry just a reader. I assumed you posted everything or a mod did the rest. I, like the previous poster, found it odd that the Flaherty piece concerning a rather large ethical question would be missed on this site. I coupled that with the seemingly daily link to any tom, dick or harrys blog bashing the incumbent (popular to do rather then look at what is going right in our city) and thought I saw a tilt in the coverage. Truth be told I have no guy in this fight. I work happily in the private sector and just enjoy the "sport" of politics. I do however enjoy a lot of things about this city and some of those things can be attributed to programs the Mayor has put in place. As far as my comment on the Dot Reporter....I saw that you were working with them and am hoping that such a business relationship does not change a sites agenda or tone. Again, just a fan of a site that he hopes wont change and see's signs that it might be. Nothing more nothing less.
Thanks
I do post most of the stuff on the site, but please feel free to get an account (they're free) and, if I miss something - or if there's just something you feel warrants attention - post away.
Not the program - the city's management
Zollo - no shots at a great program - been out there for years myself even before it went citywide. Can't disagree with you there - we had about 50 people in my neighborhood. Great turnout and hats off to the kids from the local colleges and schools that came out to be good neighbors.
At my location we probably had about $1000 worth of brand new equipment - like we do every year. Say 50 locations across the city and that's one teacher job saved just by reusing tools or asking residents to bring their own if they can (I did). $50,000 on garden tools, $250,000 on a consultant and the list goes on - good thing there are a lot of walls in the city - I think I'll need all of them to throw things at!
We're broke. We have to stop the "It's just another cup of coffee" mentality - especially when we're springing for venti double mocha fudge lattes (plus the 6.25% tax)!
so if there's a fire, or a shooting, or some other incident
Someone has to summon a "city" car, to replace a private vehicle? Get serious. Not only does the Mayor work on weekends (budget, public events, etc), it would be absurd for him to have to trade off depending on the event. You should work as many hours as Tom Menino does.
Maybe the President should drive his own car when he goes to a DNC fundraiser too ...
Working hard v. working smart
Cagey - he works hard on the budget on weekends? Then how did he happen to miss the report in the first few pages of the budget that his own finance department was forecasting a $33 million deficit for FY 2010 LAST YEAR months before the financial crisis and then his response was to budget for 142 additional employees and actually hire 165 additional employees even though we had a hiring freeze on (thank god we had a freeze or God knows how many extra employees with full health care and retirement bennies we'd have)? Forget not voting for him, he should be removed for gross incompetence on this one.
If he's on official biz that's one thing - but this was obviously a campaign stop and his campaign should pay for the services or use a private vehicle (and POTUS is a different story - he commands the military 24/7-silly argument-Tom Menino doesn't have his finger on The Button). In the extremely rare event he needs to get somewhere in a hurry, I am sure there is always a police vehicle within a mile or so for an escort - not like he's going to get stuck in traffic.
McCann's contract canceled
McCrea overhears Menino at some event this morning.
isn't it funny
that you can post on the Mayor's web site without getting approved but you cant post on McCrae's
Apparently had to take out that function
According to a post or comment he put up several months ago, people were posting vile things about his mother and wife so Kevin had to turn on the screening function.