January 30, 2002
The Daily Free Press 842 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215-1205 By email and by regular mail
To the Editor:
In a polemical and deeply flawed editorial, the Daily Free Press criticizes what it characterizes as my “misguided effort to organize” the Boston City Council by seeking “a closed-door agenda setting” council session. I am accused of disdaining the “voice from the public” and of “betraying” various principles of representational democracy in a fashion apparently only slightly less repugnant than that of Soviet bloc dictators of yore.
It is an editorial as mistaken as it is misguided.
The goals of the seminar I have proposed for the Boston City Council would simply be to bring councilors together in an informal setting to build relationships, identify issues of priority to the city of Boston and its residents, foster cooperation in our efforts to improve the city, and take advantage of a professional development opportunity that would put current challenges into a historical framework set by a qualified and experienced facilitator. This last goal is especially important given the fact that eight of thirteen current members of the council have joined this body since 1996, and ten since 1994.
My colleagues and I would not be “deciding,” “deliberating,” or “acting upon,” for purposes of the state open meeting law, any public business or policy matter. Rather, the seminar I envision would be first and foremost a social gathering where matters related to our official duties would be discussed but no final agreements would be reached, in accordance with both the letter and spirit of the open meeting law. The council’s staff director, an attorney, as well as the City Clerk, would be invited to the seminar, in part to ensure, along with the facilitator, that no transgression of the open meeting law should occur.
But these are facts of which I would not expect the Free Press to be aware, in light of the fact that nobody from your paper bothered even to contact me on this matter. Instead, you lazily relied on an equally dishonest daily tabloid report that grossly mischaracterized both my intentions and my motivations.
Very truly yours,
MICHAEL F. FLAHERTY President of the City Council J.D., 1994, Boston University Law School
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