City to pay lawyer in Teamsters’ case $625 an hour
The defense attorney hired by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to represent his administration in a federal investigation of a union’s alleged extortion scheme will be paid $625 an hour, according to a contract released Friday.
That rate is nearly three times what the city usually pays outside lawyers.
The private legal team hired by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to investigate City Hall in the wake of the federal Teamsters extortion probe will be paid $910 an hour, according to the contract.
So what doesn’t add up here? Actually, it’s what does add up that accounts for the discrepancy. From the feisty local tabloid:
Attorney Brian T. Kelly, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, will be paid $625 an hour while his associate will earn $285 an hour, a copy of the contract obtained by the Herald states.
That’s the second graf in the Herald. The Globe mentions it in the ninth. But the stately local broadsheet has info on other costly city contracts, so let’s call it a draw.
The type of Grand Prix racing poised to roar through Boston’s streets next year has forced other host cities to inject taxpayer money to keep the motors running — in one case up to $4 million — spotlighting the challenges the Hub faces in avoiding a big public tab for the event, the Herald has found.
“These events do require capital, like any other type of sporting event or facility, and the onus is on the event promoter to be able to make the event work … from a promotional aspect, from an operational standpoint and also as a neighbor,” said Tim Frost, a Chicago-based motorsports business consultant.
“There is a really big economic event in there,” Frost said, and how they’ll avoid tapping public funds is “a very valid question.”
The Herald piece details some of the taxpayer liability in IndyCar cities San Jose, Baltimore, and St. Petersburg, Fla. The filmy local tabloid also provides this helpful video:
Crosstown, meanwhile, the Boston Globe is stuck in first gear, lamely running this piece on today’s C3.
Indy race riles condo owners
S. Boston group’s letter cites safety, noise issues
Residents of a condo complex on the South Boston Waterfront are challenging efforts to turn their street into part of Boston’s first IndyCar race.
In a 14-page letter sent to Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Tuesday, a lawyer representing the Seaport Lofts Condominium Association raised a number of legal issues with the race.
Among them: the allegation that the city improperly negotiated a contract with event organizer Grand Prix of Boston without going through the proper public review.
The condo residents’ goals include blocking the race, scheduled to take place during Labor Day weekend next year, or forcing it to be moved.
But nothing about the hosing taxpayers might get from the five-year event.
Both local dailies, however, are drafting on David Bernstein’s major takeout in Boston magazine three months ago.
Is the Grand Prix Taking Boston for a Ride?
Since Boston is already mired in a mud fight over whether or not the city can afford to host the 2024 Olympics, you might think Mayor Marty Walsh would be reluctant to take on any big, new, public sporting events. Not so. In mid-May, without public hearings, Walsh signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Grand Prix of Boston, clearing the way for the city to host five annual IndyCar road races on the South Boston waterfront, each Labor Day weekend from 2016 to 2020. Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Walsh compared the Grand Prix to the Tall Ships display, which returns to Boston in 2017. “The economic opportunity is something that made me interested in it,” he says.
It’s an interesting comparison, given Boston’s wild, sometimes comical, occasionally acrimonious disagreements about the economic value of the Tall Ships over the past 25 years. Those events either brought close to $1 billion to greater Boston, or were a net loss, or anywhere in between, depending on whom you ask.
Bernstein proceeds to chronicle, in eye-popping detail, the financial burdens the Grand Prix has imposed on other IndyCar cities. If it’s not the definitive piece on this topic, it’ll do until something better comes along.
We’re not sure which t-shirt Target is in the process of discontinuing, but the retail chain should definitely consider dumping its Free Brady knockoff, which got Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in ice water yesterday (via Boston Daily’s Kyle Clauss).
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh answered the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge thrown down by the governor — and may have one-upped him in the process.
Gov. Charlie Baker doused himself with a bucket of ice water on the steps of the State House on Monday to raise awareness and money for ALS research, and as is customary, challenged others to join him, including Walsh.
The mayor happily accepted, and yesterday he took the Ice Bucket Challenge outside City Hall, wearing a “Free Baker” T-shirt — a dig at the “Free Brady” T-shirt Baker wore earlier in the week.
According to Joe Dwinell’s piece in Sunday’s Boston Herald, it’s all over but the pouting for the Store 2024 Olympic bid.
Bid at Breaking Point
USOC could vote tomorrow
The USOC will meet tomorrow on Boston’s shaky bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where one board member told the Herald she won’t be surprised if the 17-day, $4.6 billion plan comes up for a fateful vote.
“We need to know how (Boston) is doing and if the people of the city are interested in hosting the games,” said Anita L. DeFrantz, a member of both the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.
“We need to get a report. I need to know,” DeFrantz told the Herald yesterday, voicing doubt about support for the games in the Hub . . .
As for speculation Los Angeles is poised to step in if the USOC backs away from Boston, DeFrantz said “L.A. is perpetually ready. It can host with only two years’ notice.”
Yow.
Crosstown at the Boston Sunday Globe, Mark Arsenault’s story was of course more nuanced.
USOC prods Baker, Walsh to help lift Olympic bid
The US Olympic Committee is pressing Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh to put more of their political capital behind Boston’s struggling bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, but neither politician appears ready to satisfy the USOC, according to a person close to the bid process.
With USOC members set to discuss Boston’s status at a board meeting Monday, the standoff raises new questions about the fate of a bid already in peril due to low poll numbers.
USOC members want the popular governor to endorse the bid, the person close to the process said, which could breathe new life and credibility into the city’s effort.
The board is also pressuring Walsh, an Olympic backer, to announce that he will sign the host city contract required by the International Olympic Committee, which would put city taxpayers on the hook if the Games ran short of money or suffered cost overruns, the person said.
Not gonna happen, according to Arsenault’s report.
So how many times has the hardworking staff at our kissin’ cousin Campaign Outsider written about a Boston mayor calling for proposals to redesign City Hall Plaza? At least this many. And they’re sick of the topic over there.
So it falls to the hardreading staff to chronicle the latest chapter in this emptiest of exercises, compliments of today’s Boston Herald.
MARTY: REMAKE THIS PLACE
Calls to designers for new City Hall plan
Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s plans to reinvigorate Boston City Hall and City Hall Plaza took another step forward this week with a call for designers interested in creating a master plan and programming for the hulking concrete building and its vast, barren brick-and-concrete outdoor space.
The cost of the master plan is expected to run about $500,000. It follows the mayor’s informal request in March that went outside the design community and used a Twitter campaign to solicit the public’s suggestions for the redesign of the plaza and new potential uses.
And etc.
Last Saturday the Boston Globe showcased a sort of interim step – Adirondack-style chairs on the Plaza.
Regardless, it’s still a red-brick barbecue pit in the summer. Here’s hoping this time Walsh cooks up a plan he can actually serve.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, the Boston Herald has been the house organ for City Hall in all things Olympic while the Boston Globe has been the preferred venue for the store 2024 set.
For instance, today’s stately local broadsheet includes only this from Walsh in Mark Arsenault’s piece about the come-to-Jesus atmosphere at Boston 2024.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh, in a statement from his office, said he had been discussing in recent weeks a plan to establish “an office of Olympic accountability at City Hall,” and “is pleased that [Boston 2024 chairman] John Fish is on board.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh strongly suggested yesterday Boston 2024 chairman John Fish should accept a diminished role with the Olympic group and instead be an “ambassador” to help keep alive the bid to bring the Summer Games to the city.
“It’s an opportunity now — I wouldn’t say necessarily push him aside — but I think it’s time now to grow as a unit with 2024 and the USOC,” Walsh said. “I think he should be an ambassador and be involved with this.”
Except . . .
STATEMENT OF MAYOR MARTIN J. WALSH IN RESPONSE TO BOSTON HERALD STORY
BOSTON – Thursday, April 2, 2015 – Mayor Martin J. Walsh today issued the following statement:
“I said on Wednesday that John Fish should be an ambassador for Boston 2024, which is a position he holds now as Chairman. I want to be very clear, I did not call for John to step down from his role. John was one of the first people to carry a vision for the Olympic bid in Boston and I strongly believe that he should continue to be involved as we move forward.”
Today’s Boston Herald features more slop from City Hall on the Store 2024 rumpus.
A full page worth, in fact.
From Matt Stout’s piece: “The ‘Team Walsh’ meeting [tonight] comes amid the increasing likelihood of a 2016 ballot initiative as both Attorney General Maura Healey and Gov. Charlie Baker threw their support behind a referendum yesterday.”
And Jaclyn Cashman writes in her column, “Walsh has even warmed up to a ballot question regarding bringing the games to the Bay State. He learned Bay Staters get furious when they feel their voices don’t matter.”
But . . .
Here’s the official statement City Hall released today:
STATEMENT FROM MAYOR WALSH ON OLYMPIC REFERENDUM
“Hosting the Olympic Games presents an opportunity to envision and build together the next chapter in Boston’s history. The success of our bid for the Olympics depends on the support of residents and we should only move forward in a way that will bring the greatest benefit to the City and its neighborhoods. Over the next year, I encourage residents to engage in a conversation to learn more about what the Olympics could mean for Boston and the entire Commonwealth, and to put forward any suggestions or concerns. The Olympics offers a catalyst to unlocking our full potential and only through collaboration can we take advantage of this chance to elevate Boston to new heights.”
Excellent! The Statement on the Olympic Referendum doesn’t actually mention the Olympic Referendum.
Then, several hours ago, this popped up on the Herald’s website:
Boston 2024 sets date for statewide referendum on Olympics bid
The head of Boston 2024 today set a date for a binding statewide referendum on the Boston Olympics — and vowed to give voters in Boston veto power over the controversial project.
“We believe now is the time that 2024 would like to propose a referendum in 2016,” Boston 2024 chair John Fish told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “What that is saying is that: let the voters vote — not just the voters of Boston — but a referendum statewide. What we will commit to is if the statewide referendum passes but the voting bloc in Boston doesn’t want the Olympics, we won’t host the Olympics.”
In the wake of the new WBUR poll that registers a knee-buckling 52% opposition to Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid, the major players have decided it’s time to buckle down. And to pick a local daily to get the word out.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Marty Walsh has drifted toward the Boston Herald, while Boston 2024 gets a front-page boost from the Boston Globe.
Start with the latter:
Boston 2024 goes campaign-style
Bid committee uses political tactics and operatives
It was the ideal place to launch a grassroots movement: a Roxbury basketball tournament that drew a who’s who of political players, from the governor and mayor to city councilors and ward committee activists.
And right inside the entrance were three young people handing out Boston 2024 wristbands and urging anyone within earshot to volunteer for the city’s Olympic bid.
“Whether you’re for or against, we want to hear your voice,” Willie Bodrick II proclaimed as he pitched the Games to a local lawyer and nonprofit executive.
Bodrick, a 27-year-old pastor who worked on Martha Coakley’s gubernatorial bid, is part of a sophisticated campaign-style operation that the local Olympic organizing group has built to persuade skeptical Bostonians to embrace efforts to land the 2024 Summer Games.
Michael Levenson’s piece continues, “the organization now looks much like a well-funded candidate’s operation, with digital media strategists, field teams, fund-raisers, liaisons to clergy and to ethnic media, and consultants who have worked on the biggest races in Massachusetts politics.”
And they all get trotted out here, from uber-consultants Doug Rubin and Will Keyser to “voter-mobilization guru” John Walsh to the ubiquitous Rev. Jeffrey Brown.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh, amid nosediving public support for Boston’s Olympics bid, is looking to hit the “reset button” in hopes of restoring confidence in the push to host the 2024 Summer Games and cutting his own political losses, according to City Hall insiders and observers.
Walsh called out former Gov. Deval Patrick Thursday over his controversial $7,500-a-day lobbying fee for the group behind the bid, Boston 2024, just hours before Patrick finally relented and said he would forgo pay for his work.
“Mayor Walsh has hit the reset button on the Olympic effort given that this is his city and he has the most to lose politically,” said one insider close to the Walsh administration.
Yeah – especially since he told WGBH’s Boston Public Radio last month that he’d consider 70% support for the Boston Olympics “satisfactory.” We’re a long way from that, Mistah Mayah, and headed in the wrong direction.
(Cheek by jowl with Weir’s piece is a Joe Battenfeld column calling for Mitt Romney to take over the whole mess, and a Joe Fitzgerald rumination on Deval Patrick’s $7500-a-day hubris.)
This could get interesting if the Globe becomes the preferred conduit for the Boston 2024 machers, and the Herald generally serves as the unofficial newsletter of the Walsh administration.
The local dailies are currently on Boston 2024, the high-rolling Olympic wannabe outfit, like Brown on Williamson – especially in the matter of who’s getting paid what.
Today Boston hits the Dailies Double, with both papers front-paging the buckraking at the Olympic trough.
Boston Globe:
Olympic bid panel offers salary data
Patrick to earn $7,500 per day during travels
Former governor Deval Patrick will earn $7,500 a day for occasional travel as a global ambassador for Boston’s Olympic bid, selling the city and its vision for the Games to the International Olympic Committee, according to salary data released Monday by local Olympic planners, who say they do not know how often Patrick would be on the job.
The local Olympic bid committee, Boston 2024, which is funded by private donations, is also paying $1,390,500 in annual staff salary, with six of 10 salaried employees making more than $100,000 a year. Chief executive Rich Davey topped the list at $300,000.
Mark Arsenault’s piece features other hauls as well: “Boston 2024 is paying $44,000 a month to communications consultants, including $15,000 each to Northwind Strategies — overseen by former Patrick aide Doug Rubin — and Keyser Public Strategies, whose president, Will Keyser, was a key strategist in Governor Charlie Baker’s winning campaign.”
And: “The committee also has monthly contracts, for $10,000 each, with William Coyne Jr. and Jack Hart — well-connected lobbyists with South Boston ties.”
And: “Nikko Mendoza, who was Patrick’s director of operations, is vice president for engagement and external affairs, making $120,000 a year, according to Boston 2024.”
That’s a lotta dough-re-mi, eh?
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it gets even worse.
Inside, the fiscally local tabloid features this handy clip ‘n’ save pay sheet:
Do we see a pattern emerging here? Boston 2024 operates clandestinely, local media force the issue on some issue, Boston 2024 forks over some information. Time to stock up on crowbars.
Both Boston dailies take on the machers piling up at Boston 2024, the bulldozing bunch trying to bring the Olympic Games to town nine years hence. But the papers have different bigwigs to target.
The Boston Sunday Globe gives the cudgel to Metro columnist Yvonne Abraham, who drops the hammer on Mistah Mayah.
Too close for comfort
You can’t be both cheerleader and watchdog.
Mayor Marty Walsh was initially skeptical about a Boston Olympics, promising to protect the city’s interests as assorted bigs pursued a 2024 Games. Now he’s the Games’ booster in chief.
“Make no mistake, we are in this to win it: to bring the Olympic Games to Boston, along with the immense global investment and community benefits that come with it,” he said at Wednesday’s annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
Walsh and Boston 2024 are now one. He has fully melded his operation with the one run by John Fish and other titans pushing the Games.
Abraham’s conclusion: “[Marty Walsh] now owns the bid, and all that comes with it, good or bad . . . The mayor has leapt from the Olympic high board. No turning back now.”
Of course, there’s no water in the pool – just a bunch of double-talk – so that doesn’t bode well for anyone.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it’s former Gov. Patrick who’s Devalued.
Page One:
Inside, Patrick gets the expensive two-page spread (with special bonus Inexplicable Little Green Numbers!).
This Olympic bid has all the earmarks of classic crony capitalism: The high-priced array of usual suspects, the sleight-of-hand secrecy, the see-no-evil stonewalling – the whole megillah.
The biggest Olympic event of all would be if any of these characters dealt straight with the people of Boston for two minutes at a time.
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