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What would you ask Michael Flaherty?
By adamg on Tue, 08/04/2009 - 10:21am
Michael Flaherty is springing for lunch for a bunch of bloggers today. Have any pressing questions for the mayoral candidate? Post them, up to about 12:30 p.m. and I'll ask. Over at Blue Mass. Group, David will live-blog the session (I'll be bringing my laptop, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be blogging live).
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Comments
What Crisis?
Councilor Flaherty keeps referring to the "financial crisis" in the city. How and why is there a crisis if:
The budget (after adjusting for $50 million in stimulus funds and a $9 million accounting change) is actually increasing by 1-2%?
Even with this year's "austerity budget", the city's budget has increased by 50% over the past 10 years (all on his watch) while inflation has only run about 25% and the city has over $1 billion in the bank (over $100 million more than this time last year)?
And this is despite the fact that BPS has 10% fewer students and we have 994 fewer employees in the 2010 budget than we did in the 2000 budget.
Please explain how it is possible to have a crisis considering these facts.
Property Taxes
With residential values down modestly (5-10%) while commercial values have cratered (down 30-40%), it appears almost a certainty that residential owners will get a substantial property tax increase in December as the city's tax burden will shift from commercial to residential like it did a few years ago. Can the city make the most recent estimates of these increases available prior to the election as it will be an important issue for consideration? If not, how was it possible for the city to have the estimates available for hearings at the state house around mid-year five years ago during the last similar situation when it was not an election year but not this year?
16 years
I have a question.
In Sunday’s Globe article on Councilor Flaherty, there’s the following excerpt:
“Flaherty often praises Menino, but his campaign is based on the notion that 16 years is enough and that the schools, Police Department, and development agencies badly need reform. The candidate says harsh, negative campaigns don’t work, and he is banking on the argument that while Menino was good for the city when he took office in 1993, Flaherty, a generation younger, is better today.”
If 16 years is enough, does the councilor think Senators Kerry and Kennedy should leave their posts? They’ve been in their seats for 24 and 46 years, respectively.
Michael Flaherty Questions
1) What has Mayor Menino done or failed to do that warrants not reelecting him to another term? Please answer with specifics; if you cannot offer specific actions or inactions, at least explain beyond trite phrases like "failure to lead" or "new generation needed for new problems."
2) What are the five major actions, initiatives or changes you intend to make as mayor? Please provide specifics on these items, how you're going to accomplish them, and where the funding comes from to do them.
Economic development
Mr. Flaherty's campaign office on Belgrade Ave. in Roslindale is flanked by two vacant storefronts. What are his plans for economic development in the city, and do they include any programs for small business owners?
Two empty store fronts
On the other side of those two empty store fronts is Mayor Menino's campaign office.
Weigh in on alternative transportation
This city is notoriously backwards when it comes to supporting alternate modes of transportation. We have a "promise" that BTD won't ticket "limited use" plated scooters that are out of the way on the sidewalk. There is no motorcycle-designated parking. There are more bike racks, but few dedicated bike lanes even though City Hall has had hundreds of people give input as to what routes would be useful (remember the Google Map project of 2007?).
Specifically, what position does Flaherty take on allowing scooters to freely park out of the way on the sidewalk and would other scooters of equivalent size be included in that usage? And more broadly, what other initiatives would Flaherty demand in his first year to improve alternative transportation in the city (and please don't say "bikeshare")?
Flaherty's answer
Scooters need dedicated parking spaces. In some places, that might mean on-street, scooter-specific spots. In other places, such as, say, Boylston Street with its wide sidewalks, there's probably enough room on the sidewalks to allow for scooter parking. Where that wouldn't work is someplace like Hanover Street in the North End.
The city needs to take a bigger role in fighting for good T service. It affects every resident and the city contributes $70 million or $80 million to T coffers. T needs to become more efficient - look at full pensions after just 23 years on the job.
T stations and bus stops need to be made safer.
Grabauskas has always responded quickly whenever he's called the MBTA about a constituent issue.
Mattapan doesn't need a trolley, but it does need more frequent, more reliable bus service along route 28.
Who's Mr. Fish?
According to the Commonwealth's Office of Campaign and Political Finance, City Councilor Michael Flaherty's campaign has received $1,750 in "contributions" from Edward Fish in the past 4 years, who is listed on his filings as "developer, E.A. Fish Associates."
I'd ask the councilor how well he knows Mr. Fish, and why real estate developers seem to be so "supportive" of certain candidates for public office, and not others.
MBTA
Menino has never led any confrontation with the MBTA over its recent poor service record. The closest we've come is Menino's announcement last week that he opposes a fare increase in favor of a gas tax increase (that has zero political support; it's a safe alternative to use as a crutch for wagging his finger at the fare increase while simultaneously not standing in its way for lack of a plausible alternative). The MBTA primarily exists to service Boston and yet Boston doesn't officially demand that the State fix the MBTA by unloading its debt and funding its repair and upgrades in a meaningful way. What is Flaherty's plan to proactively flex some muscle on Beacon Hill to put the MBTA back on the right track?
City Council Budget
If the City Council is not a strong body with no real control or power over things as Flaherty has claimed, why has it's budget increased by 20% over the last 4 years?
Why did Flaherty vote for the budget every previous year when the budget was going up by 4% or more a year, but this year he voted against essentially a level funded budget saying that it hadn't squeezed enough waste out?
Flaherty Question
Other lawyers who were candidates have released their client list with permissions from the clients. Will he ask his clients to release their names. He made close to 85K as a "real estate" lawyer and said their are no conflicts prove it by releasing the names with permission...
Flaherty's answer
They're his firm's clients, not his. Firm unwilling to make them "political footballs" and none do any business with or before city boards, including the BRA and the licensing board, he said.
Questions
Just to reiterate:
1) What will Mr. Flaherty do w/ all of the empty stores in Roslindale - especially on Belgrade (where he has a campaign office)? Roslindale needs more small business help - not a huge family dollar store.
2) Property Taxes - my home has gone down in value due to all the foreclosures in Roslindale - what are we going to do about A) foreclosures B) not raising my property taxes?
3) What are you going to do about downtown crossing? It's a disgrace. A huge part of the city looks like a slum. No one goes there anymore b/c there is nothing there.
THank you.
Downtown Crossing
"Downtown Crossing actually looks like Fallujah, like a surface-to-air missile came in from one of the Harbor Islands."
Too many kids loitering there in the morning. Bostonians have a choice - they're going to the CambridgeSide Galleria or South Shore Plaza. Hotels are sending guests to Cambridge or Newbury Street, not Downtown Crossing.
Would require performance bonds for developers - build by a certain date or the city gets millions of dollars. Would work to bring "marquee" tenant in, rather than a petting zoo, as Menino once proposed.
Same would apply to the Harvard hole, "one of the largest holes in New England," and the result of years of Harvard misleading the community under Menino and the BRA. "It's a gaping hole and rats, probably the size of small dogs, are literally taking over Allston."
Waterfront
City has screwed over John Hynes on the Waterfront because Hynes dared talk to the press and now the mayor has it out for him.
Missed opportunities in good times translates into problems in down times.
Boston Water and Sewer Commission
The better way of billing would be to allow monthly anounts to be automatically deducted from customer's checking or credit cards.
Can he commit to finding out if there are plans for implementing this feature and if not can make it happen?
Question
Simple Question... How come he has never once spoke out against Menino until now that he is running for mayor? He has been a City Councilor for a decade and never so much as raised his finger in opposition....passed every budget, carried every bucket of water. Menino won't retire & give him the job so now he is a bad Mayor???
Simple Question... How come he has never once spoke out against Menino until now that he is running for mayor?
What is your plan to revive Downtown Crossing?
....as we have discussed so many times here.
as mayor would you share
as mayor would you share power with the city council by supporting 4 year terms for councilors which would also save the city a ton of money.
4-year councilors
Willing to consider it.
Schools
What do you say to all the families in South Boston, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Roslindale, etc who have to leave the city because of the school situation? Once a family has more than 2 kids they have to move. What can you do to keep these great families in the city?
Why do families with more than two kids have to leave?
Is this some program we adopted from China?
Have the environmentalists flexed their legislative muscle?
Can't send more than two
Can't send more than two children to the same school.
Bussing = FAIL
Whaaaaaaaaat?
First of all, I know plenty of families with three or four children in the same school. What's this policy you're coming up with?
Second of all, where does it say that families need to move out of Boston in the event that their children are assigned to different schools?
Third of all, what's up with specifying which (predominately white) neighborhoods have "great" families in them who need to be kept in the city? Should families in the other neighborhoods not be encouraged to stay in the city?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Fourth of all
Busing works for my daughter.
Busing for the kidlet...
An honest question:
If you stay in the City until your daughter is old enough to attend one of the exam schools, and she is not admitted, will you stay in the city (and not send her to a private school)?
I don't know
We haven't gotten to that point yet. Let's not forget charter schools.
Schooling and Safety
Sorry, I meant to lump in the charters with the exam schools.
Fair enough, Adam, and thanks. I asked your point of view because based on conversations with friends of mine (in their early 30s) who live in the City, that is the reason they expect to move to the suburbs at some point. They are simply not willing to gamble on admission to the charters or the exam schools.
Public safety and public education are the single biggest drivers of where people settle down, and unless you can guarantee acceptable offerings of both, you (as a city or town) are always going to "lose" people to communities that do.
Schools
Not sure what is meant by schools not having more than 2 kids from one family. Sibling preference actually encourages that. The real problem is the lack of options for secondary education. If your child isn't fortunate enough to get into one of the test schools, then the options can be pretty scary. Most parents would worry more about their childs physical well being at the majority of the public high schools, nevermind the education. The other option being one of the private schools, of which there seem to be less and less. Now your talking between $10-15 grand a year per kid. If your kids are still young, think closer to 20k each by the time they graduate grammar school. They are looking at paying close to a quarter million to send 3 kids to school for 4 years all the while they are paying for public school through taxes as well. (I'm not even going to get into the fact that many of these private schools can start at 7th grade making entrance into them in the 9th really tough, causing the multiplier to jump to 6 years instead of 4.) That is what's driving families with 3 children or more out of the city.
So how did it go?
I read the live blog -- I would be interested in your assessment of how Flaherty handled himself and in general how he handled the different questions. I might have missed it but...did anyone ask about the BFD, more accurately the BFD leadership?
He handled himself well
He seems to know his stuff, admitted he probably could have done more to criticize the administration earlier as a city council.
Arrgh, no, nobody thought to ask him about the BFD, sorry.
Writing up more notes now.
What exactly is the stuff he
What exactly is the stuff he seems to know?
I didn't ask all your questions
For which I apologize. Just wasn't time, what with four other bloggers also asking questions.
Would you appoint the first
Would you appoint the first black police Commissioner?
I know of two very well respected black man who have rose those the ranks during their years of service within Boston Police Department. I am a 32 years old white male and I would like to see James Claiborne or Joseph Carter as the police commissioner. I really would like to see one as the police commissioner and the other superintenent in chief which is 2nd in command.