Open Media Boston reports that new City Council President Mike Ross wants to hold at least some council meetings in Boston neighborhoods - and at night - so that the sort of people who don't get paid to attend meetings in the middle of the day can see their elected officials in action.

Ross himself discusses what he wants to do with his yearlong term (beyond promoting world peace, of course), such as:

I will require that all council documents be made available electronically on the City of Boston website. It is time for the City Council to enter the 21st century, and ensure that all documents, legislation, and resolutions be fully accessible online.

Hmm, what about those minutes that city lawyers say can't legally be put online?

Although not badly enough to go public, Kevin McCrea reports.

Earlier:
City Council could spend $50,000 determining whether it can get rid of Chuck Turner.

Kevin McCrea reports on a Craigslist help-wanted ad for Scotland Willis, who apparently is running for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council next year. Seems Willis has posted immediate openings for 71 volunteer positions, including campaign manager, First Americans vote director, First Americans vote deputy director, director of Senate relations, lead e-mail writer and blogger.

Turns out the prestigious former federal judge who'll help the City Council determine what it can do about the innocent until proven guilty city councilor isn't doing so out of deep personal concern for the operations of municipal government. The Herald reports he'll be paid $500 an hour. Add in another investigator at $90 an hour, and it starts adding up.

If the Boston City Council wants to publish its minutes online, it's going to have to get permission from the state Legislature first, according to the city legal department.

You may recall how Councilor Sam Yoon proposed requiring all city boards use the city Web site to post meeting schedules and minutes. Seems a good, sensible thing in the Age of the Tubes, right? And, in fact, the council today unanimously approved his proposal to do just that for every city board.

Except the city council itself.

Seems that back in 1947, the state Legislature passed legislation - which Gov. Robert Bradford then signed - barring the publication of "the substance of debates by and among members of the [Boston] city council."

The law is still on the books, and the office of Corporation Counsel William Sinnott says it doesn't conflict with the more modern public-records and open-meeting laws, so Yoon said today he will seek a home-rule petition to the Legislature to repeal it. It's unclear if the 1947 law would also apply to the videos of city council meetings and hearings.

The law doesn't state reasons for the ban, but it was passed while Curley was both mayor and a federal inmate (pesky mail-fraud charges) and the acting mayor, then city clerk John Hynes, basically shut down City Hall so Curley could deal with things when he got out. So maybe the anti-Curley legislature thought it was giving the council a way to circumvent that. Any historians out there know for sure? And as long as we're on Curley, did anybody ever find his desk?

One guess on whose behalf Ramsey Clark is coming to Boston.

Just in case you can't figure it out, Michael Ball discusses.

Councilor Flaherty's lastest campaign financial statement shows a $10,000 consulting bill from EchoDitto, a Washington consulting firm (with Boston employees) that is:

[D]edicated to building vibrant communities online and empowering people through the creative use of emerging technologies.

Founded by a group of people who met on the Dean presidential campaign, it boasts:

Our staff often answers calls from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and other leading institutions to explain new media and the digital world. We have in-house experts who can teach you everything from how to engage the blogs to administer a content management system.

Flaherty's Facebook page.

PolitickerMA reports that Abrigal Forrester, a longtime Boston human-services worker, is considering a run for the District 7 city-council seat now held by Chuck Turner, who is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Carlos Henriquez, who ran against Turner in 2007, is also looking at a run.

The presumed innocent until proven guilty Turner is seeking legislation that would make it a crime to discuss criminal cases before a verdict is rendered - including a mechanism to fine newspapers that violate the "presumption of innocence." He did so in a letter to Gov. Patrick, possibly because his district no longer has a state senator.

Full text of Turner's letter, in which he specifically goes after the Herald's Joe Fitzgerald, the Globe's Joan Vennochi and the Phoenix's Adam Reilly (via Dan Kennedy, who notes Turner cites the Bible, the Koran and the 5th, 6th and 14th Amendments but not, no doubt due to a simple oversight, snort, the 1st):

Mass media outlets must be prohibited from spreading information that conflicts with the presumption of innocence. Legislation should create standards of financial responsibility in order to compensate inviduals whose right to presumption of innocence has been violated.

David Bernstein reports on how Sam Yoon, who is not a member of the council's aviation committee (of course the Boston City Council has an aviation committee), is trying to bar some Chinese airline from flying out of Logan, not because of any grand geopolitical concerns (which in any case are Chuck Turner's province), but because it owes money to some companies in some other state. Um, what?