Boston 2024’s latest headache: City council subpoenas
In June, Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson asked for documents from Olympic bidding group Boston 2024. Boston 2024 CEO Rich Davey said he could not promise he would provide them.
Last week, Jackson again asked for the documents, setting a Friday deadline to receive them. Late Friday afternoon, Davey wrote to Jackson declining to do so.
On Monday, Jackson upped the ante. He wants to subpoena the documents from the Olympic hopefuls.
Jackson hopes to see two chapters of Boston 2024’s original bid book submitted late last year to the United States Olympic Committee, which helped the USOC select Boston as the nation’s bidding city.
The bidding group in January provided the public with a redacted version of the documents. One of the chapters addresses the proposed budget for the games, and the other addresses the political and public support behind the bid. The full versions remain to be seen.
Boston 2024 says the unedited chapters contain proprietary information it cannot share, and that the old bid is no longer relevant since it published an updated “2.0’’ bid in June. Jackson says it’s important to see what the USOC was told to help them choose Boston, and that the only way to compare Boston 2024’s old plan to its new plan is to see the old plan in full.
“I am disappointed that Boston 2024, a group of individuals who no one has elected, would make financial promises, commitments and speculations on behalf of the city of Boston and have the audacity to tell us it is none of our business,’’ Jackson said in a statement Monday.
Jackson filed the order for subpoena Monday morning. He would need a majority vote from the city council to make it happen. City Council President Bill Linehan has not set a date for a hearing on the issue, according to Jackson spokesman Arturo Natella. Linehan declined to comment.
Subpoena power has recently become a more common tool for Boston councilors. Jackson last year led an effort to subpoena Boston University President Robert Brown for testimony before the council.The Boston Globe reported last year that the council used or threatened to use its subpoena power three times in 2014. It had only used it twice in the previous 34 years. On the rare occasions they have occurred, city council subpoenas have usually sought testimony rather than documents.
Jackson is not the only councilor in the Boston area seeking the documents through subpoena. In nearby Cambridge, City Councilor Nadeem Mazen has also said he plans to try and subpoena the same two bid chapters Jackson is after.
Boston 2024 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, the group said this of Jackson’s request for the documents: “Boston 2024 has released its entire 2.0 plan to the public, which was created after months of public meetings and extensive input from community, business and elected leaders, as well as Olympic planning experts and athletes.’’
Boston’s Olympic bid: The major players
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