Mayoral Candidates and the End of the BRA?

I would love to see the general hatred/concern with the BRA redirected toward ISD--the most wrongly politicized, behaviorally arbitrary, unpredictable, and poisonous agency in Boston.
 
Globe
Walsh lays off 14 in BRA shakeup
By Andrew Ryan

March 07, 2014


Mayor Martin J. Walsh has fired 14 employees at the Boston Redevelopment Authority as the administration continues a shakeup at the city’s planning and development agency.

Administration officials would not identify the employees who had been laid off because they said the workers had a right to a termination hearing. The firings include the entire department of business development, according to a statement from the redevelopment authority.

“Today’s personnel changes are difficult for those who are leaving and for the staff who remain,” the statement said. “These steps are a necessary part of the ongoing restructuring of the agency as we strive to more efficiently and effectively support planning and economic development in Boston.”

The entire statement follows:

“As announced in February 2014 the Boston Redevelopment Authority/Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (BRA/EDIC) is conducting a comprehensive performance review of its policies and procedures to better align the agency with Mayor Walsh’s overall economic development agenda. In conjunction with an audit being conducted by KPMG, a thoughtful, internal review is underway, and over the last several weeks the agency leadership has identified 14 positions that are no longer critical to the agency mission.

“Effective today, the BRA’s Business Development Division will be dismantled. In addition, several other positions in divisions across the agency will be eliminated. The leadership of the BRA is grateful for the dedication and commitment of these employees, and wishes them well under these challenging, but necessary circumstances.

“Today’s personnel changes are difficult for those who are leaving and for the staff who remain; however, these steps are a necessary part of the ongoing restructuring of the agency as we strive to more efficiently and effectively support planning and economic development in Boston.”

Andrew Ryan can be reached at acryan@globe.com Follow him on Twitter @globeandrewryan.
Click to expand...
 
Walsh really does care

What's a termination hearing? You work for the taxpayers.
 
I really hope the proposal pipeline picks back up after all of this... I'm a bit concerned that the proposals seem to have dried up after Menino left.
 
Don't let the door hitcha' where the good lord splitcha'.

So everything that the BRA approved up to now is OK though, right?
 
meddlepal said:
I really hope the proposal pipeline picks back up after all of this... I'm a bit concerned that the proposals seem to have dried up after Menino left.
Click to expand...

You could also look at it as the natural gestation period after the BRA had that fire sale on approvals back in November/December. Either way it's too early to tell.
 
meddlepal said:
I really hope the proposal pipeline picks back up after all of this... I'm a bit concerned that the proposals seem to have dried up after Menino left.
Click to expand...

We have 9 current approvals over 400'. Only 1 is U/C. What about the other 8? That's where your current concerns should lie. The whole process means jack shit if nothing is actually getting built.
 
This is one of those times I'm glad to have been wrong - I was none too happy when the race came down to either Walsh or Connolly, but it appears to be working out well. Walsh is wasting no time in following through on his promises. Now I just hope he sees them through, and this isn't a dog and pony show with no finale.

More on topic; I'm also pleased he is shaking things up at the BRA, but still keeping it intact. The BRA is/can be a great tool for positively shaping the city, but like any powerful tool needs careful handling to prevent disaster.
 
Looks like the union boys are feeling pretty confident -- I just got splashed with this full-page ad for the IBEW on Boston.com's business page (don't ask why I still bother with boston.com... old habits die hard I guess) showing off all the projects they're working on. I should also add that in the 8+ years I've been going to boston.com daily I've never seen ANY union advertise there, let alone take out a full-page flash spectacle.

2xc0.jpg


All things considered, Boston's looking pretty damn good right now, and light years ahead of my favorite Tommy image ever (apologies for the repost):

kvhy.jpg
 
Last edited:
Well, the KPMG audit just came out, and surprise surprise, the BRA has left millions on the table due negligence, lack of internal controls, and lack of a central database. Hopefully Walsh actually does something to fix this.

The Boston Herald said:
Mayor Martin J. Walsh is vowing to collect what could be tens of millions of dollars the BRA has “left on the table” after a long-awaited audit found that the agency’s lax, archaic record-keeping has allowed developers to dodge affordable housing payments and delinquent tenants to rack up unpaid rent.

“Is it alarming that we find out that there’s deals out there that the city hasn’t been paid on? Absolutely. That should not happen. ... Here we have multimillion-dollar deals where money’s left on the table,” Walsh said yesterday of the findings of an audit of the Boston Redevelopment Authority that also suggested the agency hire a chief operating officer to oversee day-to-day operations.

“If the past BRA didn’t follow through on them, well, they didn’t,” Walsh said. “It’s my job now to clean up their mess and collect on that money and, moving forward, make sure this does not happen again.”

The audit by the accounting giant KPMG found that the agency is in dire need of an IT overhaul and lacks a centralized accounting system and “compliance database” to keep track of whether developers make “buyback” fees in lieu of creating affordable housing units at their sites and don’t renege on Boston jobs creation requirements.

It also faulted the agency for not having a “central repository” for its documents, most of which are kept in paper files rather than scanned electronically, and for lacking “internal controls” and standard business “document protocols.”

Among the audit’s key findings:

• The BRA lacks a master list of “all compliance requirements” developers owe as part of their deals and a monitoring system to track them, which allowed Samuels & Associates, developers of Fenway Triangle Project, to avoid paying $600,000 in affordable housing fees due when the firm was issued its building permit and one year later;

• The agency does not have a written policy for evicting deadbeat tenants who rent property owned by the BRA and its subsidiary, the Economic Development Industrial Corp., which resulted in the agency racking up $800,000 in unpaid rent, including $295,908 from real estate developer Pappas Enterprises; the EDIC also accrued $4.3 million in outstanding rent for space leased in the Seaport District and Boston Marine Industrial Park; and

• The BRA has failed to keep a list of leases with escalating terms that trigger payment increases, which ended up costing the agency $500,000 from Zoom Group, a large landlord that rents space in the Industrial Park.

The auditors said they asked the BRA to provide a written policy on “how and where” it spent the affordable housing funds it collected, and a schedule of compliance but was told none existed.

“Without a compliance listing of such requirements, it is unclear how the BRA/EDIC effectively monitors its compliance,” the audit states.

Walsh this week transferred the responsibility of collecting the affordable housing money owed by developers away from the BRA and to the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development.

He is also bringing on a team of compliance officers and wants another audit by a different firm to probe deeper into some of the planning issues at the agency.

Samuels & Associates said it “has a consistent record of making timely payments to the city on all of our development projects” and is negotiating “the calculation of a lump sum payment” for Fenway Triangle project. “We expect to make the payment immediately upon agreement,” the company said.

Pappas Enterprises did not return a call.

Jeff Wallace of the Zoom Group, which also owed the BRA nearly $280,000 in unpaid rent, said the two sides settled for $500,000 of the $1 million owed for past refinancing fees. “The lease was ambiguous on how to calculate a number. It’s a very complicated formula,” he said.

Brian Golden, the BRA’s secretary and executive director under former Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who is now heading the BRA under Walsh, acknowledged that the agency “is a mess.”

“The BRA needs to develop acceptable business practices for most of its major operations,” Golden said.

“The organization historically has paid more attention to its external mission, urban planning and real estate development, than to its internal operations. So decades of this neglect of the internal operation has created an abject mess.”

Messages for Menino and Peter Meade, his last BRA chief, who resigned after Menino left office, were not returned yesterday.
Click to expand...
 
It's funny how the BRA leaves 10Millions of dollars on table but then promotes tax incentives or tax breaks to certain corporations or certain developers on specific projects.

Sounds like a Fixed game in Boston by these losers.

Boston is booming and issuing 46.5 Million dollars in tax breaks to Liberty Mutual is a fucking joke. Especially when the CEO salary was 50 Million a year. We should have said GET LOST and find a new fucking home.
 
TheRifleman said:
It's funny how the BRA leaves 10Millions of dollars on table but then promotes tax incentives or tax breaks to certain corporations or certain developers on specific projects.

Sounds like a Fixed game in Boston by these losers.

Boston is booming and issuing 46.5 Million dollars in tax breaks to Liberty Mutual is a fucking joke. Especially when the CEO salary was 50 Million a year. We should have said GET LOST and find a new fucking home.
Click to expand...

YEAH! Take your largest number of jobs in the Commonwealth and GET LOST!
 
If any other Boston, State or Federal agency were subjected to an audit and the level of scrutiny the BRA has been subjected to, I think one would find the level of uncollected fees, malfeasance, and criminal handling of power far higher than was found at the BRA. This is probably because appointments to the BRA cannot easily be tied to hiring or votes.

It would be great if ALL government agencies we scrutinized, and cleaned up both financially and managerially. The amount of uncollected fees and other mismanagement at the BRA is only in the millions, surprisingly small compared to what I thought it might be. We have heard almost nothing in defense of the BRA since the trial is taking place in the media and orchestrated by the mayor who is establishing public support to control the BRA.

Given the magnitude of what was discovered vs. what was expected, I think the Mayor should simply take control of the BRA as he already has the power to do, and stop wasting time scrutinizing it to gain favor with the voting public. Boston needs a more transparent and streamlined way to promote development and growth and villainizing the already disliked BRA, which turns out to not be much of a villain in the grand scheme of things, doesn't help much.

Walsh should give equal focus on cleaning up the BRA and all of the other less maligned money wasting agencies.
 
tocoto said:
If any other Boston, State or Federal agency were subjected to an audit and the level of scrutiny the BRA has been subjected to, I think one would find the level of uncollected fees, malfeasance, and criminal handling of power far higher than was found at the BRA. This is probably because appointments to the BRA cannot easily be tied to hiring or votes.

It would be great if ALL government agencies we scrutinized, and cleaned up both financially and managerially. The amount of uncollected fees and other mismanagement at the BRA is only in the millions, surprisingly small compared to what I thought it might be. We have heard almost nothing in defense of the BRA since the trial is taking place in the media and orchestrated by the mayor who is establishing public support to control the BRA.

Given the magnitude of what was discovered vs. what was expected, I think the Mayor should simply take control of the BRA as he already has the power to do, and stop wasting time scrutinizing it to gain favor with the voting public. Boston needs a more transparent and streamlined way to promote development and growth and villainizing the already disliked BRA, which turns out to not be much of a villain in the grand scheme of things, doesn't help much.

Walsh should give equal focus on cleaning up the BRA and all of the other less maligned money wasting agencies.
Click to expand...

Two decades of growth without adequate attention to housing has resulted in midprice housing crises which impacts economic growth, a crisis that should have been addressed through planning and zoning. Other cities, including Cambridge and Somerville have already recognized and addressed this issue through zoning and enforcement.

As for my neighborhood:

Two decades of development in the Seaport District without consideration of cultural planning has resulted in a "destination" waterfront with nothing to do after 9 PM except eat, drink and sleep. State regulators were ready and willing to see something more derived from Chapter 91 regs than a dozen visitor centers, ticket kiosks, observation decks, conference rooms and lobbies qualified as civic or cultural uses. Those regulators repeatedly called on the BRA to engage Boston's civic and cultural sectors in the planning dialog, to no avail.

Two decades of growth of Seaport District without consideration of housing in proportion to office space and hotels, and bereft of civic uses and long-term planning found in every other zip code except for 02210, has resulted in a waterfront compromised in its potential. The highest and best use of the waterfront from an economic perspective was WIDELY recognized 15 years ago. Three renown urban planning firms were engaged with the BRA/EDIC in 2 years of analysis. The consensus: Evolution of the Seaport District as a dense urban neighborhood with a critical mass of residents. Look at the data and amendments filed since then to understand what's been going on.

As for approvals, I think most people on this board know how I feel about the quality of Seaport District development, from architecture to materials, and the squandered opportunity that was possible on premium real estate through the approval process without compromising profit. The fact that 31 of 40 large Seaport District projects (76%) since FY2000 are/were designed by 6 local architecture firms is worth consideration.

Boston's entire future rests in the hands of the BRA. Let's not minimize the value of this audit and IMHO the respect Mayor Walsh deserves for shaking things up.
 
^^^The BRA is inept and promotes crummy buildings and urban design at the whim of the Mayor. An audit will not change that. It's up to the new mayor to steer the BRA toward better developments, something he seems afraid to do.
 
tocoto said:
^^^The BRA is inept and promotes crummy buildings and urban design at the whim of the Mayor. An audit will not change that. It's up to the new mayor to steer the BRA toward better developments, something he seems afraid to do.
Click to expand...

Jeez, the guy's been in office for half a year and he's already afraid to support good developments? Tough crowd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top