Boston firefighters union really wants to know what the city has been telling a local online commentator about its members, to the point of suing

Local 718 of the International Association of Firefighters yesterday filed a public-records lawsuit against Boston, demanding the city hand over copies of all the public records requests made by local online commentator Chip Goines over the past three years. 

In its suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, the union says the city has ignored both its request and an order from the Secretary of State' office to provide copies of "any freedom of information requests submitted by Jonathan 'Chip' Goines to the City of Boston regarding any topic from January 2022 to date."

The union says it first filed a formal public-records request on Aug. 14 of last year, that the city acknowledged the request, then failed to answer it, leading the union to appeal to the Secretary of State's office, which on Oct. 7, gave the city until Oct. 17 to provide the documents.

To date, the City continues to ignore both the Union's original August 15th public records request and the Secretary of the Commonwealth's October 7th Order.

At least one of Goines's public-record requests is available publicly - a request to BFD for a copy of a Jan. 20, 2023 e-mail from Fire Commissioner Paul Burke about the suspension of a particular firefighter, although the city rejected his request for a copy because it is about "a specifically identified person" and so exempt from disclosure.

Goines and the firefighter had been feuding on the network formerly known as Twitter. On May 17, 2024, before he decamped for Bluesky, Goines posted a reply to a query about "the maddest anyone’s ever been at you on Twitter and have you been the main character?"

My maddest person on twitter is a racist @bostonfire  / @local_718 firefighter who stalked me online for 9 months in retaliation for me filing a FOIA request for his suspension letter from trolling the mayor. He then looked me up on Venmo & sent me $2. Thanks, stalker! 🙃 #bospoli

In addition to the supposed Goines dossier, the union also charges the city is breaking the public-records law by refusing to answer another one of its requests, for "documents related to the number of instances that the City of Boston's police and fire departments sent employees to an independent medical examination."