City Councilor-At-Large Michael Flaherty recalled incumbent Mayor Thomas Menino asking the public four terms ago to judge him by the Boston Public School system, and to judge him harshly. Flaherty did just that at Monday’s mayoral debate, giving the mayor a grade of ‘F’.
‘The mayor’s had 16 years to fix the Boston Public School system,’ Flaherty said. ‘He’s asking for four more and I say, ‘why?”
Menino was not nearly as hard on himself, arguing that the dropout rate has decreased during his tenure, and gave himself a ‘B.’
‘Let’s not be so negative,’ Menino said. ‘Look at the improvements we have made in our schools.’
The debate at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library was the last chance for the candidates to make their case in front of a televised audience before the Nov. 3 general election, only two weeks away.
Both candidates were questioned about their commitment to transparency. Menino insisted there was more transparency in his administration than ever before, despite the current investigation into top aide Michael Kineavy, who is now on unpaid leave after deleting emails in a potential violation of state public records law.
Flaherty was asked how he could credibly charge Menino with not being transparent, given that he had violated state open meeting laws eleven times as City Council president.
‘Leadership is about accepting responsibility,’ Flaherty said. ‘I’ve accepted responsibility. I’d like the mayor to take responsibility for the email issue.’
As he had done in previous debates, Menino downplayed the email controversy as just politics, unimportant to voters.
‘We haven’t been charged with anything,’ he said. ‘This is a political move a few weeks before the election to say there’s corruption. Let’s talk about the issues that face the people of Boston.’
Flaherty said he counted what he has dubbed ’emailgate’ as one of those issues.
‘There’s nothing more important than the public trust,’ Flaherty responded.
Flaherty, who has made the elimination of the Boston Redevelopment Authority a focal point of his campaign, was asked if developing in Boston would become a longer, more bureaucratic process without the BRA.
‘We’re going to end the pay-to-play system,’ Flaherty said. ‘We’re going to put community back into planning development.’
Menino attacked Flaherty for proposing a city-wide plan to deal with future development.
‘A city plan doesn’t work,’ Menino said. ‘Every neighborhood is different.’
On another development issue, Menino was asked point-blank what is going to become of the Downtown Crossing area, where empty buildings stand where Filene’s Basement once was.
‘The economy is down right now. We can’t get investors,’ he said. ‘Yes, One Franklin Street is an eyesore, but that’s not because of our inaction, it’s because of the economy.’
In a press conference following the debate, Flaherty said he didn’t accept the mayor’s reasoning that the economy was to blame.
‘No, it’s leadership,’ Flaherty said. ‘Downtown Crossing looks like Fallujah. It’s unacceptable. We need a mayor that stands up for the residents of Boston and demands more not only from the developers, but from the investors.’
When asked by Flaherty to name his biggest mistake as mayor, Menino said it was his failure to secure more financial aid from the state.’
Flaherty wasn’t asked to name his biggest mistake either as a city councilor or a mayoral candidate, but volunteered anyways.
‘Mine would be that I didn’t run four years ago,’ he said.
The candidates are scheduled to debate one more time at Faneuil Hall on Oct. 27, but there are no plans for that debate to be televised.
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