Connolly Rails on Boston Redevelopment Authority and Menino
Boston City Councilor and mayoral candidate John Connolly had some harsh words for the Boston Redevelopment Authority and outgoing Mayor Thomas Menino. “Although we have thrived from a development perspective, we are trapped in a system that puts the focus on who you know rather than the merit of your project,” Connolly said at a candidates forum, according to the Boston Herald. “That’s what we need to break and that’s the transparency — we need transparent decision-making within the BRA.” Connolly made the comments during a development-oriented candidates’ forum hosted by the Boston Society of Architects on Wednesday morning. To read the rest of the article, click here. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Salary Increase for Boston Redevelopment Authority Employees
Boston Redevelopment Authority staffers will receive raises for the first time in five years, the Boston Herald reported this week. With a budget separate from the city’s budget, the BRA recently approved 3 percent raises for all employees except for nine senior staff members, including Director Peter Meade and Chief Planner Kairos Shen. The increase puts eight staff members above the $ 100,000 salary level, for a total of 34 BRA employees who make six digits, according to the Herald. BRA spokeswoman Susan Elsbree told the newspaper that the raises represented a cost of living increase. BRA employees have worked without raises since 2008 and even received a pay cut one year, in 2009, the Herald reported. The BRA employs 207 people today—a drop from 2009 when the agency had 268 workers on the payroll. Read more about the increases and see a list of salaries for all BRA employees on the Herald website. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Rivas v. Chelsea Housing Authority (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-021-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC‑11090 ELIZABETH RIVAS vs. CHELSEA HOUSING AUTHORITY. Suffolk. October 2, 2012. ‑ February 8, 2013. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, & Duffly, JJ. Housing Authority. Municipal Corporations, Housing authority. Administrative Law, Hearing, Regulations. Due Process of Law, Hearing, Housing, Vagueness of regulation. Housing. Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on November 2, 2009. The case was heard by Nancy S. Holtz, J., on motions for judgment on the pleadings. After review by the Appeals Court, the Supreme Judicial Court granted leave to obtain further appellate review. Joshua N. Garick (Stephen J. Callahan with him) for the plaintiff. Thomas F. Feeney for the defendant. James M. McCreight, for Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. CORDY, J. Elizabeth Rivas has received housing assistance through the Massachusetts rental voucher program (voucher program) since 1998. The voucher program is a State-funded program that provides rental assistance to low-income tenants who lease apartments from private landlords. The voucher program participants contribute a percentage of their household net income toward rent, and the State pays the remainder of the rent directly to the landlord. The program is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (department)[1] through local housing authorities, and is governed by 760 Code Mass. Regs. §§ 49.00 (2012). Rivas rented an apartment in the city of Chelsea and received her voucher through the Chelsea Housing Authority (authority). Rivas’s voucher was considered a “project-based” voucher, meaning it could only be used to subsidize her rent at a particular housing unit: 12 Fourth Street, Apartment 4, Chelsea. See 760 Code Mass. Regs. § 49.02 (1998) (definition of project-based voucher); 760 Code Mass. Regs. § 49.06 (2000) (project-based voucher requirements). On July 9, 2009, Rivas received notice from the authority’s voucher program representative, Carmen Torres, that the authority was terminating her voucher, effective August 31, 2009, because she did not report “changes in family composition and in family’s income” within thirty days of the change, as required by the conditions of her voucher. The notice informed Rivas of her right to request a grievance hearing pursuant to 760 Code Mass. Regs. § 6.08(4)(a) (1998).[2] Specifically, the authority alleged that Rivas had failed to report to the authority that her mother, Ana Burgos, had begun to live with her […]