Boston, Massachusetts

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Boston, Massachusetts
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General information
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Mayor:Martin Walsh
Mayor party:Nonpartisan
Last mayoral election:2013
Next mayoral election:2017
Last city council election:November 3, 2015
Next city council election:2017
City council seats:13
2015 FY Budget:$2.7 billion
City website
Composition data
Population in 2013:645,966
Gender:Female 52.1%
Race:White 53.9%
African American 24.4%
Asian 8.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone 0.4%
Two or More 3.9%
Ethnicity:Hispanic or Latino 17.5%
Unemployment:5.9%
Median household income:$53,136
High school graduation rate:84.5%
College graduation rate:43.4%
Related Boston offices
Massachusetts Congressional Delegation
Massachusetts State Legislature
Massachusetts state executive offices
Boston is the capital of Massachusetts. As of 2013, its population was 645,966.[1]

City government

See also: Mayor-council government

The city of Boston utilizes a "strong mayor" and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.

Mayor

The mayor serves as the city's chief executive, and is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors and overseeing the city's day-to-day operations.[2] Martin Walsh is the current mayor of Boston.[3]

City council

The Boston City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies and ordinances.[2] The widget below automatically displays information about upcoming city council meetings.

Membership

Boston's city council has thirteen members. Nine are elected by the city's nine districts, while four are elected at-large.[4] A fill list of current council members can be found here.

Council committees

The Boston City Council features fifteen standing committees that focus on individual policy and legislative issues. Generally, the drafting of city legislation begins with the committees.[5]

For a list of Boston's committees and committee agendas, see here.

Boards and commissions

A series of advisory boards and commissions that are made up of non-elected citizens, whom city council members have appointed and approved, advises the Boston City Council. The roles of these boards and commissions are to review, debate, and comment upon city policies and legislation and to make recommendations to the city council.[6]

For a full list of Boston's city boards and commissions, see here.

Elections

2015

See also: Boston, Massachusetts municipal elections, 2015

The city of Boston, Massachusetts, held elections for city council on November 3, 2015. A primary election took place on September 8, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was May 19, 2015. All 13 city council seats were up for election.[7]

Budget

The city's budget process operates by fiscal years running from July 1 to June 30 of the next year.[8]

2015

Boston's adopted operating budget for 2015 was $2.7 billion. It included funding for "Building a Better Boston," the city's five-year capital improvement plan, school technology, creation of the Chief Economic Development Officer position and new police officers and firefighters.[9]

Contact information

Office of the Mayor
1 City Hall Square, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02201-2013
Phone: (617) 635-4500
Email: [email protected]

City Council
City and County Building
1 City Hall Square, Suite 550
Boston, MA 02201-2043
Phone: (617) 635-3040
Email: [email protected]

To contact individual council members, see here.

Ballot measures

See also: Suffolk County, Massachusetts ballot measures

The city of Austin is in Suffolk County. A list of ballot measures in Suffolk County is available here.

Lobbying

In 2013, Boston's federal lobbying-related expenses amounted to approximately $136,711.[10] The issues for which the city filed in 2013, as well as the number of reports, can be seen in the box below. The issues column lists the generic issues that lobbyists working for local governments are required by law to disclose on quarterly federal disclosure forms.[11][12] The reports column gives the number of reports lobbyists filed in regards to each generic issue. To learn more about the details of the specific issues for which Boston filed reports, read the federal disclosure forms by clicking the "Issues" links in the box below.

Federal Lobbying Issues, 2013
Reports Issues
4 Environment & Superfund
3 Agriculture
3 Disaster & Emergency Planning
3 Housing
3 Law Enforcement & Crime
3 Transportation
2 Intelligence
2 Homeland Security
2 Fed Budget & Appropriations
2 Firearms, Guns & Ammunition
1 Health Issues

Issues in the city

Nondiscrimination laws

See also: Employment nondiscrimination laws in Massachusetts

In July 2015, Ballotpedia found that private employers in Boston, Massachusetts, were banned from discriminating on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. At that time, a total of 71 cities in America's largest 100 prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, while 69 of those cities also prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. Of the nearly 63 million residents in those 100 cities, 80.8 percent lived in cities prohibiting discrimination on both fronts, while 79.9 percent were covered by laws preventing discrimination based only on gender identity. That meant that 19.2 percent and 20.1 percent of those citizens lived in a city that did not prevent private companies from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, respectively.

Nondiscrimination laws can cover a variety of areas, including public employment, private employment, housing, and public accommodations. Such laws may be enacted at the state, county, or city level and prevent discrimination for all citizens in that jurisdiction.

Public pensions

See also: Massachusetts public pensions

According to a 2010 report published at Northwestern University, Boston is one of the ten municipalities with the largest amount of unfunded pension liabilities. Nationwide there is $574 billion in unfunded pension liabilities for local pension plans, and this is in addition to the $3 trillion in debt facing state-sponsored pension plans.[13] The report states that the pension plans could be out of money as early at 2025.[13]

Municipality
(number of plans) 		Liabilities, Stated Basis, June ’09 ($B) Liabilities (ABO), Treasury Rate Net Pension Assets ($B) Unfunded Liability ($B) Unfunded Liability / Revenue Unfunded Liability per Household ($)
Boston (1) 7.4 11 3.6 7.5 430% 30,901

Website evaluation

See also: Evaluation of Massachusetts city websites
Grade2.pngB-
Budget Y
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Meetings Y
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Elected Officials Y
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Administrative Officials Y
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Permits, zoning Y
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Audits
{{{1}}}
Contracts P
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Lobbying P
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Public Records N
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Local Taxes
{{{1}}}
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Transparency grading process

The good

  • Agendas and minutes are available for City Council Meetings.[14]
  • The budget is posted for fiscal years 2006 to 2011, with a proposed budget for 2012.[15]
  • Building permit forms are available on the website,[16] and zoning information[17]
  • The mayor and city council officials contact information are available via a quick search on the contact page.[18]
  • Provides information on City of Boston property taxes.[19] More tax information is detailed in that year's budget.[20]
  • The site features a simple, effective search bar that made finding most information easy and quick.
  • Contract bigs and vendor letters are posted.[21]
  • The most recent audit and past audits are disclosed online.[22]
  • Some information on public employee salaries is disclosed, and so are the collective bargaining agreements.[23][24]
  • Campaign finance reports are disclosed by the city council.[25]

The bad

  • Information is not available for who to contact and how to obtain public records.
  • Lobbying information and ethics is not noted, nor is membership to a government sector lobbying association.
  • There is no checkbook register available.
  • Information on approved vendor contracts over $10,000 is not posted online.

See also

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 		Suggest a link

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ U.S. Census, "State and County Quick Facts," accessed on September 15, 2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 City of Boston, "Government," accessed on September 15, 2014
  3. ↑ City of Boston, "Office of the Mayor," accessed on September 15, 2014
  4. ↑ City of Boston, "City Council," accessed on September 15, 2014
  5. ↑ City of Boston, "Boston City Council Committees, 2013-14," accessed on August 29, 2014
  6. ↑ City of Boston, "Boards and Commissions," accessed on August 18, 2014
  7. ↑ City of Boston, "2015 Election Calendar," accessed January 12, 2015
  8. ↑ City of Boston, "Office of Budget Management," accessed April 2, 2015
  9. ↑ City of Boston, "FY2015 Budget," accessed April 2, 2015
  10. ↑ Open Secrets, "City of Boston, MA," accessed on November 11, 2014
  11. ↑ U.S. House of Representatives: Office of the Clerk, "Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance," accessed on November 11, 2014
  12. ↑ Open Secrets, "Methodology," accessed on November 11, 2014
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kellog Business School at Northwestern University, "The Crisis in Local Government Pensions in the United States," Oct. 12, 2010
  14. ↑ City of Boston, "Agendas and Minutes," accessed on September 15, 2014
  15. ↑ City of Boston, "Budget," accessed on September 15, 2014
  16. ↑ City of Boston, "Building Permits," accessed on September 15, 2014
  17. ↑ City of Boston, "zoning information," accessed on September 15, 2014
  18. ↑ City of Boston, "City of Boston contact page," accessed on September 15, 2014
  19. ↑ City of Boston, "taxes," accessed on September 15, 2014
  20. ↑ City of Boston, "City of Boston FY 2011 Budget," accessed on September 15, 2014
  21. ↑ City of Boston, "Contract bids," accessed on September 15, 2014
  22. ↑ City of Boston, "Audits," accessed on September 15, 2014
  23. ↑ City of Boston, "Salaries," accessed on September 15, 2014
  24. ↑ City of Boston, "Collective Bargaining Agreements," accessed on September 15, 2014
  25. ↑ City of Boston, "Campaign Finance," accessed on September 15, 2014
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