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Election roundup: The races so nice, this guy's running twice
By adamg on Fri, 08/02/2013 - 12:37pm
The Jamaica Plain Gazette takes a look at the race for city councilor in District 4 (Dorchester-to-Roslindale). Not surprisingly, the three challengers criticize incumbent Charles Yancey for running for both re-election and for mayor.
The Dorchester Reporter provides a list of upcoming mayoral forums. There are a lot of them, so you have no excuse not to miss one, other than perhaps terminal ennui.
CommonWealth graphs campaign ccntributions to our mayoral brood; finds a lot of money coming in from out of town.
Meet some of the candidates. The South End News covers a forum where some at-large and mayoral candidates appeared.
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Comments
I use to like the Gazette,
I use to like the Gazette, it's a shame they are wasting paper with Faraone.
Boston City Council playing a silly game... Stenographic Record
It sounds like the city council is playing a silly game with you. Under Massachusetts law they are generally required to share any government record upon request unless they can argue that the given record falls under one of the small set of stated exemptions. It seems like they don't want to share the full transcript but couldn't come up with a reason to deny your request so they are purposely misinterpreting your request for the steno record as requesting the useless steno notes file.
Maybe you can force them into a corner by asking for a specific file that exists and if you guess right then they may find themselves required to send it to you. Try officially requesting "Any and all files produced by the stenographer in connection with the city council meeting including but not limited to all files with the following extensions: .sgcap, .ptf, .rtf, .xmptf, .cv, .txt, .sgcvn, .htm, .html, .sgngl, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .docm." Those are all the extensions that I could think of that might have been produced by a stenographer who is using case catalyst as their software.
It's possible that the government doesn't actually have the files but that the stenographer is the official record holder for these files. You might also want to ask "is someone else the custodian of records for the requested information and if so what is their contact information".
This lawyer Ms. O'Donnell seems keen to point out what state law does and does not require. You could remind her that the Massachusetts Public Records Law requires them to furnish government files upon request. You probably know more than me about Massachusetts government but I found this to be a very interesting document about Freedom of Information Requests in Massachusetts. Perhaps you would find it useful
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf
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Per your request to Sophia Apostola [sophia.apostola at cityofboston.gov Deputy Commissioner Mayor's Commission for Persons with Disabilities], I have attached the stenographic records of the City Council meetings since the last email to you on June 14, 2013.
As provided previously, the minutes of the meetings are available on the City Council’s website at
http://www.cityofboston.gov/cityclerk/citycouncil/...
State law requires public bodies to create and maintain accurate minutes of all meetings. State law requires that the minutes include a summary of the discussions on each subject but does not require a transcript.
Thank you,
Christine O’Donnell, Esq. Legislative Director Boston City Council, 5th Floor
tel 617-635-1185
fax 617-635-4203
Christine.O’Donnell at cityofboston.gov
cc06192913.STSTN (92K)
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/hearatbost...
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Please arrange for access to read the plain English text Stenographic Record of the Public Meeting of Boston City Council. a) This dot .SGSTN stenograph stenonote format isn't English text ! b) Minutes are heavily edited, too brief. More complete than Minutes, the Stenographic Record is a good resource for hard of hearing, for all folks!