Marty Walsh was elected Boston’s first new mayor in 20 years on a platform that included a vow to increase transparency in City Hall. But on two important issues that have surfaced early in his tenure, Walsh is proving to be far less transparent than Tom Menino.
The most recent issue centers on diversity in city government. Walsh, who received crucial backing from minority voters and from the three leading minority candidates for mayor who finished out of the money in the 12-way preliminary election, spoke often of his commitment to ensuring that the make-up of the City Hall workforce reflects the city’s population, which is now more than half minority. Breaking with longstanding practice in city government, however, Walsh has refused a request from the Boston Globe seeking information on the gender, race, and ethnicity of city workers. Walsh raised concerns with the Globe about the methods previously used to classify employees, which he said used visual observation of employees to categorize them. The city is now asking new employees to complete a form asking for this information, but a Walsh spokesman says this, too, is a problematic approach because it doesn’t give workers the option of not identifying their ethnic background.
Walsh vowed to release the information as soon as the administration is confident of its accuracy, but he provided no timeline for that. A previous Globe examination of his early hires reported that they were overwhelmingly white and male.
Pam Wilmot , the director the state chapter of Common Cause, said concerns about the accuracy of information do not constitute a valid excuse for withholding public records under the state law. “This is certainly a step back for transparency, and it makes it more difficult [for the administration] to be accountable for the diversity standard. It’s disappointing,” she told the Globe.
Earlier this month, Walsh and the president of the city firefighters’ union, Richard Paris, announced that they had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. But neither side would divulge its terms. When pressed by reporters a few days later for information on the terms of the deal, Walsh said, “I can’t tell you.”
It represented a stark departure from the practice of the Menino administration. Walsh suggested that Menino would leak contract details through an “unnamed source.” But the Globe reported that in the case of the last major contract hammered out by Menino, in 2012, there was no leak but rather a City Hall press conference where Menino and leaders of the Boston Teachers Union outlined the terms of the agreement they had reached, which was then being brought to the union’s members for ratification.
Sam Tyler , head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-funded watchdog group, said the public deserves to know the terms of the firefighter agreement immediately, and that it would take time to scrutinize the details of the pact. But Walsh, who received heavy backing from the firefighters union, wouldn’t budge. The union and affiliated firefighter unions spent more than $130,000 backing Walsh’s campaign, the Globe reported.
A Globe editorial criticizing Walsh for refusing to divulge terms of the deal said taxpayers “don’t know whether to cheer or jeer” the contact. The same is now true for City Hall hiring and Walsh’s pledge to have the city payroll reflect the diversity of Boston’s population.
–MICHAEL JONAS
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Lawrence officials investigate claims of racial discrimination and imbalance within the police force, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Fall River installs security cameras inside One Government Center, but the Herald News raises questions about whether the devices are turned on.
New Bedford receives a $200,000 federal grant to help plan its waterfront’s future, South Coast Today reports.
Cambridge officials want the state to delay the reconstruction of a bridge over the Charles River to allow for the inclusion of a pedestrian underpass.
Foxboro will likely raise funds to build a new town hall, after bids for leased office space came in higher than the cost of building a new facility.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The FCC reverses course on net neutrality as it prepares to issue new rules allowing different rates to be charged for various types of Internet content, the New York Times reports.
Sen. John McCain predicts a major campaign finance scandal as a result of the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision.
Georgia approves what some are calling “guns everywhere” legislation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Speaking at Simmons College, Hillary Clinton says too many women still face a glass ceiling that holds them back, NECN reports.
Black scholars discuss Barack Obama’s impact on race issues at a Tufts University national conference.
Rand Paul ‘s favorite Nevada rancher isn’t just a warrior against federal overreach; he’s also the type of guy who explains black poverty thusly: “…They never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves…?” The Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates has some thoughts on his statements.
ELECTIONS
Attorney General Martha Coakley is the first gubernatorial candidate to submit her nomination signatures, NECN reports.
The Globe says Charlie Baker‘s worst nightmare in his run for Massachusetts governor could be Scott Brown and his run for Senate in New Hampshire.
A pair of new super PACs file paperwork with Massachusetts campaign finance regulators. One is explicitly aligned with Steve Grossman‘s candidacy, while the second appears to be a pro-Baker fund. CommonWealth previously reported that the Legislature plans to advance a bill requiring rapid disclosure of super PAC donors, but that it’s unlikely to take effect before November’s gubernatorial election.
Keller@Large says he believes Sen. Elizabeth Warren when she says she has no plans to run for president. He says she isn’t especially qualified to be the commander in chief. Joan Vennochi says Warren still hasn’t really come clean on the issue of her claimed Native American ancestry and whether it may have helped her career advancement.
New York magazine wonders how long the Democrats’ demographic advantage can last, while the New York Times analyzes increasing racial polarization among southern voters.
David Bernstein rounds up the top recipients of PAC contributions in the Massachusetts congressional delegation.
Celeste Myers , one of the the organizers of East Boston‘s anti-casino movement, plans to challenge Rep. Carlo Basile.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Governing highlights Massachusetts in a story on what states are doing to help the unemployed find work.
The National Review says President Obama is setting back the middle class with his Keystone Pipeline indecision.
Five Buffalo Jills are the latest NFL cheerleaders to sue their employers for exploitation and failing to pay the minimum wage, the Daily Beast reports.
HEALTH CARE
The Herald News lays out the staggering national statistics of opiate addiction and its consequences.
The federal government will begin to regulate e-cigarettes. Read CommonWealth’s profile of Susan Liss, who is leading the charge against e-cigarettes.
TRANSPORTATION
Only a dozen people show up for a public meeting on MBTA fare increases in Lynn and most of them were more focused on transit schedules and other non-fare matters, the Salem News reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Geoff Chapin , founder and CEO of Next Step Living, says the climate change fight requires practivism, something Massachusetts has a lot of.
Stephen Moore , writing in The American Spectator, goes all nutty on green power enthusiasts, accusing them of trying to impede economic growth, material progress, and capitalism.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Two former college football players — one from Boston College and the other from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York — have been charged in connection with the vicious beating of a homeless man in Allston.
OK, so it wasn’t an actual crime. But Michael Pineda‘s “rule infraction” for the ages (specifically, 8.02(b)) last night at Fenway Park cannot go unacknowledged by the Download. The situation made for a field day for the Globe‘s Christopher Gasper, and he made full contact with this meatball of a gift from the baseball writers’ gods.
MEDIA
Media Nation asks: Would John Henry sell the Telegram & Gazette to an out-of-state chain?
Charles Clemons , a cofounder of Touch 106.1 FM, defends his unlicensed and now closed radio station serving Boston’s African-American community.
The Nieman Journalism Lab has a Q&A with David Leonhardt on The Upshot, the new politics and policy replacement at the New York Times for FiveThirtyEight.
William Kristol, writing in The Weekly Standard, says a New York Times poll of the Arkansas Senate race was bogus.