Campbell plans Boston IG vote next week; Walsh opposes
City Council President Andrea Campbell says she wants a vote next week on her ordinance to create a city inspector general — a move Mayor Martin Walsh now says he opposes.
Campbell said she made some changes to the ordinance — creating the position to fight “fraud, mismanagement and waste” — to bring it into accord with the city charter.
“Now that people have new language — including the administration — I don’t see why we shouldn’t move on it,” Campbell said.
The last council meeting of the year — and of the current two-year session — is Wednesday.
“Mayor Walsh has met twice in recent weeks with the Inspector General to ensure his involvement and oversight of the City of Boston,” Walsh spokeswoman Samantha Ormsby said, referring to the state IG. “We are confident that through existing federal, state and local authorities, including the independent oversight of the City of Boston Finance Commission, that any potential wrongdoing will be uncovered and investigated to the full extent of the law.”
Walsh previously hadn’t taken a stance on a city IG other than to take issue with what his administration asserted were legal problems with the ordinance, such as the way the IG would be created and how the board would be appointed. Campbell on Friday sent out a revised version of the ordinance that had changes in response to the administration’s complaints.
Campbell introduced the ordinance in September following various issues with the Zoning Board of Appeals, including the guilty plea of one member to federal charges of taking a bribe.
Officials from the Boston Finance Commission and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau came to Monday’s working session on the proposed ordinance to oppose it, joined by state Inspector General Glenn Cunha, who showed up in person to answer questions and register his opposition.
BMRB chief Pam Kocher put out a statement on Friday reiterating that her organization believes a city IG would be an unnecessary duplication of services and could create conflicts of interest.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2sLuCNJ
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