Greenway Chief Disputes Herald Probe Into Park’s Spending

By Adam Ragusea (@aragusea)
Jan 25, 2012, 3:40 PM
12 Comments

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(Courtesy: Flickr/gconservancy )

The front-page headline on Wednesday’s Boston Herald read: “OUR LITTLE SECRET: Greenway Chief’s Salary Spin.”

Inside, the story cited six-figure salaries for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy director, Nancy Brennan, big bonuses even in recession years and eye-popping expenses for maintaining Boston’s marquee urban park.

All in all, it was a screamer of a story, that we thought – at first – was a great piece of investigative journalism. But then, we called Nancy Brennan for comment.

Guest:

Nancy Brennan, director, Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy

Freda G

Why does the media (by which I mean the Globe & Herald) always bash the Greenway? Thanks to the State & the City more money has to be raised for a premier park than in any other city in the nation.

Charles C

The Greenway is run by a board of political hacks. Their only real goal is to lap up as much graft as they can before someone shines a spotlight on their greed and forces them to run off into the dark like rodents raiding an unguarded pantry. Brennan is just one more of those stereotypical hacks we suffer, and only occasionally discover, living high off the hog and contributing next to nothing for her undeserved salary and “bonuses”.

Viva la feeding trough.

Anonymous

This is so corrupt that they should rename it the Billy Bulger Greenway.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Timo-Kuosmanen/100003198737375 Timo Kuosmanen

Not a word about THE ISSUE, her attempt to deceive the public about her salary? Poor journalism, Meghna and Tony.
fred burford

Was Nancy Brennan sitting in Meghna’s lap or Anthony’s while answering the questions? What a puff piece interview. Why is the state paying for a Greenway publicist when Nancy has WBUR?
MAtaxpayer

Are you kidding me! Is this interview a paid advertisement! They never asked her about the email she accidentally to the Herald concerning her salary. Hmm if she did’t think her compensation was over the top then why does she need to bother asking her publicist.

Meghna Chakrabarti

MATaxpayer, Fred, and Timo -

Thanks for your feedback. It’s never my intent to deliver any kind of puff piece at all. Not ever.

But, I’ve been thinking about this, and I’d say you’re right. At first, I felt the email Brennan sent was beside the point. And, I did ask her about her salary and her bonuses. But, I take your point – I should have been more direct.

However, I also wonder: Aren’t you also disturbed by how wrong the Herald got some of the numbers in its original story? Doesn’t that also bother you?

Thanks again for the close listening and feedback.

http://twitter.com/BrunoPortNews Bruno Matarazzo Jr

The Herald didn’t wasn’t able to interview Nancy Brennan as you were so the information the Herald reporter had was limited to what was available in the 990 forms from 2010.�
Also, the $300K per acre was figured out — using simple math — by taking the Greenway’s total budget and dividing it by 15.

http://twitter.com/aragusea Adam Ragusea

Bruno, according to Brennan (the Herald reporter didn’t return our emails), Brennan did talk to the Herald, at great length, including a powerpoint presentation. Also, the Herald reported that 300k per acre as the Greenway’s maintenance budget. It’s not. As you point out, it’s their TOTAL budget, which includes money for programing, etc.

http://twitter.com/BrunoPortNews Bruno Matarazzo Jr

A powerpoint presentation?! I highly doubt that and if it’s true, no wonder the Herald went after that. Subjecting someone to a Powerpoint should be considered torture.

NorthEndWaterfront.com

This isn’t new … but the questions still remain … here is how we got here and where we are going:
http://northendwaterfront.com/2012/01/greenway-conservancy-exposed-we-knew-that-but-thanks-herald/
Ned_Flaherty

In 2009, Massachusetts state parks cost about $222/acre, Boston city parks about $6,818/acre, and the Greenway about $700,000/acre.

Greenway maintenance costs are not “in line with” other contemporary urban parks, as Director Nancy Brennan wrote to State Secretary Richard Davey last week.

The data that settles this question is not contained in any public records, and so is available to no one, because the Conservancy is a private corporation, answerable to no one. It discloses only what it wants, and only when it wants.

Director Brennan wrote to Secretary Davey last week that the Conservancy “works with MassDOT . . . to develop reports . . . that comply with applicable public records laws.” But the Conservancy is private, so no public records laws apply.

Since no “applicable” laws exist, none of the associated reports that Brennan mentioned exist, either. What she wrote is meaningless, and it deceives the average reader into thinking that the Public Records law is being complied with, when, in fact, the Conservancy is exempt from it altogether.This is why the private Conservancy corporation needs to be dissolved, and replaced with a true, public agency that is subject to all state accountability laws (Public Records, Open Meetings, etc.).

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Greenway Chief Disputes Herald Probe Into Park’s Spending