The BRA's acting director hopes a new policy requiring the agency to hold public meetings and a 10-day open comment session before giving away any city-owned land will help restore some of the credibility it lost in the backlash over last fall's secret dealings that gave the Red Sox rights to use Yawkey Way forever.
"The public should have had an opportunity to scrutinize the deal and comment on it before it was presented to the board for action," Boston Redevelopment Authority chief Brian Golden told the Herald yesterday. "That is what this policy does. If we are going to convey an interest in public land, there must be a public process. … We think it is absolutely essential to the long-term credibility of our agency and the legitimacy of our decisions. That's what really hangs in the balance."
Golden said a new edict adopted Thursday by the BRA board will greatly increase transparency and prevent what happened in September, when the agency kept the public in the dark on the terms of its deal with the Red Sox up until just before the board's vote on the $7.3 million pact. No public forum was ever held.
The board also approved a disclosure policy that requires developers to divulge the names of all investors — to "1/10th of one percent" — involved in their projects. Another measure will require developers seeking "Public Development Area" designations, which allows them to skirt zoning regulations, to provide community benefits.
"They appear to be trying to institute policies where there weren't any," Matt Cahill, head of the Boston Finance Commission, a watchdog agency, said of the new policies. "That is a step in the right direction."
Golden served as secretary and executive director of the BRA at the time of the Yawkey Way deal but said he — and most other BRA staff — was cut out of the Sox negotiations because they were handled exclusively by then-BRA chief Peter Meade and chief of staff Jim Tierney.
Tapped by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to lead the BRA and carry out his mission of creating greater transparency and accountability at the agency, Golden has publicly criticized the sale that gave the Sox permanent rights to close Yawkey Way on game days and concert dates for as long as the team plays at Fenway Park, calling it a "bad deal" for taxpayers. The contract also gave the Sox the air rights below its pricey Green Monster seats on Lansdowne Street.
On the disclosure policy, Golden said citizens have a right to know the investors in projects in their neighborhoods, and the agency needs to know as well to prevent conflicts of interest among its staff and board members. Failure to comply could result in the agency rescinding its approval of a project, said Enrico Lopez, the BRA's policy director who drafted the three policies.
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