Maura Healey's Communication with Boston 2024 on Transparency

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

Any communication, electronic or written, sent or received by Attorney General Maura Healey regarding Boston's 2024 Summer Olympics bid between April 1, 2015, and May 31, 2015. Key words include "Olympic," "Olympic bid," "Olympics," "Boston 2024," and "2024." This request should include, but not be limited to, any communication between the Attorney General and the current or former chairman of Boston 2024 (Steve Pagliuca and John Fish, respectively), the CEO of Boston 2024 (Rich Davey), the General Counsel of Boston 2024 (Paige Scott Reed), and the Outside General Counsel of Boston 2024 (Robert Popeo of Mintz Levin).

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Dear Cyndi,

A piece in Boston Magazine today talked about the the AG's Office extensive work on setting transparency standards with Boston 2024 and the Mayor's Office:

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From her time working in Coakley’s office, Healey learned that the AG doesn’t always need to lead with a fist: She can wield soft power to decisive effect. Case in point: Boston’s bid to host the Olympic games. Led by a group of private backers and former Beacon Hill insiders calling themselves Boston 2024, the city won the U.S. Olympic Committee’s blessing without giving Massachusetts citizens specifics about how the games would be financed. Through this past winter, Boston 2024 stonewalled attempts to get more information about the costs and the source of the billions of dollars in funding. In March, when Boston 2024 unexpectedly announced it had retained Patrick to lobby for the bid, Walsh pressed the organization to reveal salary information for its staff and consultants, including how much the former governor was being paid. Sticker shock hit when the public learned Patrick’s rate was $7,500 per day

Behind the scenes, Walsh’s office asked Healey for help bringing more of Boston 2024’s finances to light. Just a few weeks after her office got involved, in June, Boston 2024 suddenly agreed, after months of delay, to release quarterly reports with itemized staff salaries, contracts, expenses, and dollar ranges of contributions. Most notably, the group agreed to ban anonymous donations.

Technically, under Massachusetts statutes, Healey couldn’t demand much more than the minimum required by the IRS’s Form 990 nonprofit filings. But just by virtue of getting involved, her office raised the implicit threat of a lawsuit if she felt Boston 2024 was withholding vital information. Boston 2024 CEO Rich Davey says the organization already knew it had to begin releasing quarterly reports, and welcomed conversations with the Attorney General’s Office about “what might be appropriate to have in such a report.” Both Davey and Walsh’s chief of staff, Dan Koh, say that, over a few weeks, the conversations were collaborative as the three offices tried to agree on a satisfactory level of disclosure.

But the political skill Healey exercised in extracting concessions from Boston 2024 impressed one of her predecessors, former AG Scott Harshbarger—a man who initially supported Healey’s opponent, Warren Tolman. “She gets a lot of points from me,” says Harshbarger about the Boston 2024 negotiations, “for getting involved early instead of waiting, for trying to prevent a problem from happening.”

[Quoted from http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2015/07/28/unstoppable-maura-healey/4/]

***

That seems at odds with the fact that both Attorney General Maura Healey and her chief of staff Corey Welford had no electronic or written communication about/with Boston 2024 during the months of April and May according to what I was told in this request and a subsequent one (https://www.muckrock.com/foi/massachusetts-1/mass-agos-communication-with-boston-2024-re-transparency-18964/).

Please provide documents sufficient to show the staffer or staffers with responsibility for Boston 2024.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Jonathan

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 7, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.