That imp McCrea is at it again, this time asking why the city fully pays for the police and clean-up costs associated with the annual Southie parade, but wants the organizers of Sail Boston to either pay all those costs up front or have the boats come into harbor at night, when nobody can see them.
Of course, it has absolutely nothing at all to do with the fact that Tom Menino and Sail Boston organizer Dusty Rhodes hate each other.
Kevin McCrea reports: One will be an in-studio debate (i.e., no live audience) on Sept. 15, 7 to 8 p.m. at WGBH. The other, also just an hour, will be open to the public and will be held on Oct. 22 at a place to be determined.
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.
With Tom Menino reviving his push for "resort casinos" in Massachusetts, two of his opponents for mayor are saying not so fast.
Kevin McCrea reports he's registered to run for both mayor and city council.
He says he'd rather run for mayor, but he wants to make sure his voice is heard this fall and just in case he decides he can't raise enough money to run for mayor, he'll try for an at-large council seat:
My first priority is to be elected Mayor and give the citizens of Boston the honest and accountable leadership they deserve. However I am the first to admit that I do not have the same access to money and special interest influence that my opponents have. They are all entrenched politicians who have been involved in 'go along to get along' back room deals that have favored insiders at the expense of the public. I still want the opportunity to change this city, and that is why I am keeping the option of running for City Council open.
Michael Flaherty proposes that city workers who haven't already agreed to wage freezes work an unpaid day once a every other month for the next twelve months. He says this would save the city almost $20 million a year, or enough to pay for the costs of unemployment and health benefits for all the workers the city plans to lay off.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCrea says this wouldn't be necessary if it weren't for 165 new city workers he says Menino has hired over the past year.
What? Jonathan Papelbon is endorsing Flaherty? Does the Papelbot even know there's an election this year?
A New Season For Boston from Michael Flaherty on Vimeo.
Unless Menino is there, too, McCrea writes:
... Sam [Yoon] and his campaign manager both agreed that it sounded like a good idea, that we could invite Michael Flaherty, and if the Mayor decided not to participate we could have a cardboard cut out of him on stage not participating. Because as we have heard from the Mayor he is too busy to participate in debates. He can open burrito stands but not discuss the future of the city in public. He comes to everything in the city, except a debate!
Adam Reilly spends some time with McCrea, the only candidate for mayor who's not already ensconced in City Hall.
Of course, this being the 21st century and all, "tea" is now an acronym. Kevin McCrea says it means "Transparency, Ethics, and Accountability," and he's planning a TEA party/fundraiser at the Red Fez in the South End on March 22. He's also claiming that the first restaurant he approached backed out for fear of offending Tom Menino. Also: Sam Yoon's campaign manager called to apologize for screaming expletives at him.
Kevin McCrea details why he (and apparently most municipal unions) think Tom Menino is crying wolf over municipal finances.
Kevin McCrea sends the city a simple open-records request: He wants a list of all the properties owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (because, of course, this information is not online). He reports he got back a list that, in many cases, gives a street, but no number:
... "On February 5, 2009, in response to your public records request concerning property owned by the BRA, we provided to you the records maintained by the BRA that you requested. The BRA does not maintain records that include the information you requested in your follow-up request, namely the street numbers for all properties. Consequently we will not be providing additional records to you."
This is the most astounding thing I have read since the Walkowski report. So, in the 21st Century, Boston, supposedly an advanced high tech city, has a City Planning and Economic Development Agency which doesn't even have a list of the properties it owns which includes street addresses??? What do they rely on to find the properties they own, Oral Tradition? ...
Looks like not all city workers will go gently into Tom Menino's wage-freeze night: SEIU 888, which represents city clerical workers, today launched MeninoWatch to make the case the city should use money from its "rainy day" fund to make up anticipated budget deficits. They even have a t-shirt contest for "the first person who can tell us how much the mayor will use from the rainy day fund." You may recall that Kevin McCrea recently made the same assertion, that the city is sitting on a pile of cash.
UPDATE: That didn't last long. The blog is now gone. See the last comment in this discussion.
The Tortoise and the Mayor is a new blog all about this year's Boston mayoral elections. No word on who the semi-anonymous author thinks is the tortoise, though.
Kevin McCrea stays out of the kitchen (suggestion: next time, get a little closer to the camera and the mic):
Kevin McCrea asks Angela to the prom. Oh, wait, wrong Kevin McCrea (I think).
That's what Kevin McCrea says. Can anybody more familiar with municipal finance than me comment on that?
Paul Flannery notes the fun little irony that, during last night's School Committee hearing on the budget, mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea parked his construction-company pickup truck in a commercial spot, when he was obviously there for campaign reasons:
... Now this isn't illegal, and one might even say it was smart, but McCrea has run his campaign on railing against the special perks and privileges that are afforded to our elected politicians. ...
Complete with pics of the offending pickup.
The Globe reports that School Superintendent Carol Johnson said tonight she is looking at dealing with shrinking revenue by cutting 400 teaching positions - and 500 other jobs - possibly close more schools and increase the number of school-assignment zones from three to five, which would cut busing costs but reduce the range of schools parents of elementary students could pick from.
Among those at the School Committee budget hearing tonight was mayoral candidate Kevin McCrea, who explains why he thinks the whole thing is a sham and describes the scene:
... It was a madhouse at Court Street tonight, with hundreds of teachers and parents and students there to protest the school cuts. I won't go into detail about how ridiculous the numbers are in the report, which I assume the City will put online(???) for all to see. It is pretty detailed, but the only number that is really important is the proposed budget of $786 million. Dr. Reilinger started to immediately see some of the inconsistency, as the report on one hand says that the city will eliminate 699 full time equivalent employees, but on the other hand has a higher number for health care costs for those (now nonexistent) employees.
The bottom line is that Mayor Menino is trying to drum up support for his meals tax by scaring the heck out of students and teachers and parents. Doing his best Bush/Cheney/Rove tactics to get more money to build his power base. What he is going to do is try and look like a hero, by coming in and 'responding' to the crisis by miraculously finding the money to restore to the budget. ...
Parents will get to question officials at a hearing Thursday, Feb. 5, starting at 6 p.m. at the Blackstone Elementary School, 380 Shawmut Ave. in the South End, and Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. at the McCormack Middle School, 315 Mt. Vernon St. in Dorchester.
There will be additional hearings in March in JP and downtown. The School Committee is scheduled to vote on its budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 on March 25.
The Globe reports mayoral hopeful Michael Flaherty will publicly admit it was wrong of him as city council president to ban the public from meetings involving the Boston Redevelopment Authority between 2004 and 2006:
... At the time, I thought I was acting appropriately," Flaherty said yesterday in a telephone interview. "The courts decided things should have been handled differently. Lesson learned. My administration will be about transparency, accountability, and taking responsibility. ...
We have our first fight of the young mayoral campaign - over openness in city goverrnment.
In his announcement video, City Councilor Michael Flaherty makes a point of the need for transparency in city government and how he's against closed-door government. Kevin McCrea, who announced his campaign last week, wonders if that means Flaherty will disclose all the clients of his private law firm who do business with the city or if Flaherty will make a personal appearance in Suffolk Superior Court on Feb. 24 when a judge tries to do something about McCrea et al v. Michael Flaherty and the Boston City Council, the case in which the city has already admitted repeatedly violating the state's Open Meeting Law.
Kevin McCrea, South End resident, former city-council candidate and successful plaintiff against the city council, today threw his hat in the ring:
We need to end the cycle of career politicians. I am a businessman, and I am running as a common citizen. I'm independent, I'm informed, I have fresh ideas -- and I believe in honest government that includes the citizens. I'm not locked into a political system that dictates I must "go along to get along." ...
Other potential candidates include incumbent Tom Menino and city councilors Michael Flaherty, Sam Yoon and John Tobin. None have yet formally announced they are (or aren't) running this November (or September if we have three or more candidates).
McCrea, 41, is a developer and has been active in the Big Brother/Big Sister program and coached South End youth baseball. He served as an advisor for the carpentry program at Madison Park Trade School in Roxbury.
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