">

Thursday, April 09, 2009

The City Budget, We Deserve Better!

                                    April 9, 2009

Hello My Friends,


 

Today, the Mayor passed his budget to the City Council and there were very big hits to two of the most important departments of our municipality, namely the teachers and the police officers.

As I stood at a community meeting Tuesday night at the Murphy School in Dorchester, I realized that our city is bleeding to death in political mess. The meeting was to discuss the future plans (shutdown) of the highly successful preschool program at that center. I listened to parents and community residents, people affected by the proposed changes and those just worried about the community impact.

Our communities are built upon the commitment of the city to provide certain services; education and safety are two of the most important. In the next few weeks you need to be vocal with your elected officials, namely the mayor and the council, however, we know from experience that many if not all of the councilors have ever balked at the budget.

I want to offer you an opportunity to make a change and elect someone whom will stand up to the mayor and to the other councilors for the sake of our neighborhoods. I am that person, and I would be honored to work for and with you to make real and lasting change in our city government.

I will use my seat to move our city towards being fiscally sound. I will work to eliminate the waste of city bureaucracy and patronage. I will demand that we make the focus of the councils work for the neighborhoods, not just in attending meetings and making speeches, but putting all my efforts into making real and lasting changes. And I will fight to lower the property taxes and make it a financially realistic goal.

I will do this because I believe that you, the residents of Boston should not have to worry every year about rising costs and services diminishing. We all deserve better.

Please consider supporting me in this battle for better representation in our council and for stronger neighborhoods for our city. I am Marty Hogan and I humbly ask for your support.

Thank you.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

This City Needs to Make Information Open to All

Today, I went to access the budgets for 2007-2009 on our city's web page at http://gis.cityofboston.gov/EGISSearch/Budget/CapitalProjectsSearch.aspx to make sure as a candidate for an important position, that is the seat of an at large councilor, I could know where we went wrong. It usually is a good thing to look at the actual numbers and see how we mismanaged our assets. So I click on the link to access the info and what to my wondering eyes did I see: "The page cannot be found". It is really funny that you can access everything else on this page and throughout the rest of the cityofboston.gov web site but these documents which are of great importance and which are to be able to be viewed by the public at anytime are missing. How Surprising!

So I ask you, the good people of our city to take a look and ask yourself, should we have access to this information and be able to make a sound judgment. I will fight for every Bostonian, to bring about a new and better web portal. We need to work to make our city government totally transparent and open our city hall to all of our neighborhoods. And I will do this for you, but I need your support! Please email me and let me know how you would like to see the city's web site in the future.

marty@votemartyhogan.info

 

Monday, February 02, 2009

Time for change:

I just read a story on BostonHerald.com in which there is a scathing report in which it is reported that the fire department's fleet of engines is seriously compromised with many of the trucks being repaired due to safety issues and others with ailing equipment. It is a sad day when in this a large city with billions of dollars being spend or mismanaged, we cannot afford to have the needed and necessary fire equipment reserves to protect our neighborhoods. It seems that the mayor and council have yet again mixed up the Needs with the Wants. It is far time that we stop electing do-nothing hacks and put someone on the council who will think of these issues during the budget process and stand up to the mayor and the mismanaged resources. We need to cut the fat and return the focus onto the Needs of our city.


 

    

 

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It's Now time for Change on the Boston City Council


Hello My Fellow Bostonians,


Are you tired of the status quo in city hall? All the posturing and backdoor political circus that doesn't make a bit of positive change in the lives of you and me, the residents that make up the city of Boston.


I ran two years ago to make a change. I endeavoured to show my fellow Bostonians that there is a way to get us out of the rut of political patronage. Our goal should be to elect members to the council that are above the politics as usual. I feel that I can be that for all Bostonians. We had a nominal victory in 2007 and with your help we will get to the council together and make real and lasting change for our generation and many to come.
In the coming weeks and months I will lay out my visions and ideas for our city, and how we all can be a part. I look forward to this journey!
I implore you to be a part of this change! I nor any other candidate can do it alone, I need your help and the city needs your help!


If you would like to be part of this change please contact us at info@votemartyhogan.info or by calling 617-412-9822.



Thank you!


Marty Hogan