Good government is open and transparent. It lets the public participate in decision making, and it forces us to think about policy based on everyone’s long term good, rather than short term political expediency. I write to let you know about the step I am encouraging the Boston City Council to take to help Boston government work smarter and better – and to help you understand what we’re doing.
People tell me that the minutes of City Council meetings are hard to understand. I am introducing an ordinance that requires the minutes to be comprehensible – written in plain English, and made available to the public online. While the Council currently posts the minutes on its web site, it’s not required to, we could therefore stop posting them any time.
We can’t move the city forward if we’re afraid to even consider new ideas and change the way we do business.
We establish instruments of government to protect our common interests. Those of us in government have a duty to make certain we are spending tax dollars wisely – and let you know what we’re doing with those tax dollars.
It’s basic, it’s simple. That’s what this is all about.
was reading about this in the paper… it seems pretty basic. The enitre cityofboston site could use an overhaul, but let’s start with this.
But is it actually possible to render the minutes of the Boston City Council into comprehensible plain English. It seems a challenge like finding the true value of Pi. Still, certainly a worthy step in the right direction.
It’s the circumference of a circle with diameter 1. Or did you mean the base 10 decimal representation of pi…
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p>:D
Simple and to the point. Exactly what the City of Boston needs more of.
Sam:
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p>I have read the Walkowski “Open Meeting” report and it is an outrage that this insipid drivil is being paid for with our tax money. If your recommendation for greater access is genuine, that is one thing, but if this is just another distraction to confuse the people Boston while our right to Open Government is gutted and destroyed, then I would rather see you put your efforts towards stopping this abomination of an attack against Open Government and deal with this “minutes” stuff later.
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p>Anyone with any concept of Robert’s Rules of Order or any other governmental structure knows that that City Council has violated that Open Meeting Law on the BU meeting and the dozen or so BRA meetings. It is time for you and your fellow councilors to admit that the council violated the law repeatedly, accept responsibility and then move on.
The Boston City Council has been sued for violating the Open Meeting Law and they lost. They are appealing, but their appeal is a joke.
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p>That is why they are trying to change the law, so they can retroactively say that they were right all along, it was the law that was wrong.
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p>For details on the state of the appeal, check out the August 14th blog item at
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p>http://electkevin.blogspot.com/
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p>Also see the March 20, 2008, December 21, 2006, December 14, 2006, December 8, 2006, December 1, 2006, November 18, 2006, and so on and so on.
Here’s a direct link to the August 14 post.
Is this document posted on line anywhere?
is here, thanks to Robert Ambrogi of Legaline.com.
Menino and most of the council seems staunchly opposed to any modifications. I applaud your efforts on the council to get a better sense of where city money is coming from, and where it is being spent- you should look into the phenomenon of unpaid/uncollected personal property taxes- it’s a strange animal, that. The city budget is very mysterious indeed, and could use better translation.
This business of trying to gain exemption from the state open meeting law is the paragon of bogusness.
Question answered, thanks to UniversalHub.com’s post on this- I also learned that Sam Yoon opposes any efforts to skirt or alter the public meeting law. Commendation to Councillor Yoon is in order.
On a serious note: What’s the story on specific members of the city council wishing to have all meetings behind closed doors—-or was that a misleading headline I read. Perhaps again, I’m stepping in dung, because I am well aware of many provisions of the “open meeting law” and the run of the mill city council meeting does not qualify.
to see a councilor who is willing to tackle this issue. Most of the time we just hear talk about transparency and don’t see any effort to really change things. So kudos to Sam Yoon.
I appreciate the comments.
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p>To respond to a few of them, I believe we need to take proactive steps to improve transparency and accountability.
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p>As was mentioned, there is litigation currently before the courts. For the record, I was not on the city council when the meetings referenced in the lawsuit took place. As a current member of the council I am unable to comment on the litigation, but I will say that the ongoing litigation should not be an excuse for us not to act proactively.
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p>Incidentally, I encourage all of you to attend the hearing on the city council’s minutes when it is scheduled.
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p>Also, to Farnkoff’s query, the city council only meets once a week. It is televised live, and customarily re-broadcasts are played the Friday or the Monday after the Wednesday meeting.
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p>Regarding police details vs. civilian flaggers on Boston city roads – stay tuned. I introduced a hearing order at last week’s council meeting asking whether the current law on the books, which requires the use of police details on city roads, still makes sense. I will post on this subject as the hearing approaches.
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p>It seems that even if evidence brought out at hearings showed that changes to the police detail law were in order, such changes would not be supported by the Mayor or by many of my colleagues on the council, if any. However, I plan to move ahead with the hearing because I believe that asking questions helps us find solutions and moves the city forward.
The ordinance
http://SunshineBoston.blogspot.com
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p>Extracts from the report by Paul Walkowski
http://SunshineBoston.blogspot.com
Boston City Council sent out the Report
but not Tabs 1-5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
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p>How do you persuade our Boston City Council to send the Report in it entirety?… or post it to the web and as well putting all Council communications on the web routinely.
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p>Report to the President
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Committee on Rules & Administration
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p>Table of Contents
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p>Letter to the President
About the Author
Executive Summary ……………………… Page 2
Overview & History …………………….. Page 4
Form of government & methodology ………… Page 6
Case Summaries ………………………… Page 8
Effect of Decisions ……………………. Page 24
The importance of the city council’s
internal exemption …………………. Page 26
A. Generally ………………………. Page 27
B. The Historic basis for exemption…… Page 30
Remedial Responses …………………….. Page 40
Proposed G.L. Affecting the
relationship between the executive and
legislative branches of government …… Page 41
Political options ………………….. Page 41
Addressing the Open Meeting Law ……… Page 43
Open Meeting Law changes necessary …… Page 64
Proposed G.L. on Open Meeting Law
Option 1 ………………………….. Page 69
Option 2 ………………………….. Page 70
Option 3 ………………………….. Page 71
Open Meeting Law …………………… Page 72
Conclusions …………………………… Page 76
A note about the salary ordinance ……. Page 78
Case Law ……………………………… Tabs 1-5
1821 Charter ………………………….. Tabs 6
1854 Charter Revisited …………………. Tab 7
1885 Charter, Shift of Executive Powers ….. Tab 8
1909 Charter, Consolidation of Power …….. Tab 9
1948 Plan A Charter Offered …………….. Tab 10
1951 Charter Revisions, Council Exemption … Tab 11
1910 Finance Commission Report ………….. Tab 12
1909-1910 List of Incidental Expenses ……. Tab 13
Presentation of Charter History …………. Tab 14
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p>We have much larger problems in this city then worrying about the remote possibility that the city council meetings won’t be on-line.
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p>Your proposal is what is wrong with this city. And now you want to run for mayor?
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p>I know you need them to see what is going on. Your absentee rate is sickening.