Yoon: “BRA Undermines Public Trust in Government”
City Councilor Calls for Full Public Review of BRA’s Pension System

April 28, 2009

BOSTON – City Councilor at Large and mayoral candidate Sam Yoon today called on the City to conduct a full public review of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA’s) pension system.
“This is an issue of public trust in government,”said Yoon. “The BRA has hidden behind the appearance of being an independent authority to avoid full disclosure and accountability. It is unfortunate that it takes an instance of pension abuse to put pressure on the BRA for financial transparency.”

The request comes in light of the Boston Globe’s revelation that longtime BRA official Paul McCann was earning a consulting fee from the agency that exceeded the pension he was collecting.

Additionally, Yoon is calling for a citywide investigation into all retired municipal workers who have consulting contracts with the City while earning a pension.

“We have to know if the McCann contract is an isolated situation, or if we have a full-blown epidemic,” said Yoon. “If we want to have an honest and open discussion about our budget, we need to see if there are instances of pension abuse and unnecessary consulting contracts that we can eliminate.”

Yoon has previously contended that the BRA has not been adequately open about its finances. The agency has yet to reply to requests from last Wednesday’s hearing of the Council’s Ways and Means Committee for a number of documents from the agency, including a listing of all land previously owned by the City of Boston, compensation paid to the City, and the current status of the projects.