Mayor Marty Walsh skeptical gaming was off table at lunches

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/07/mayor_marty_walsh_skeptical_gaming_was_off_table_at_lunches



LEGAL BATTLE: Massachusetts Gaming Commission members, from left, Gayle Cameron(not pictured ), James McHugh, Chairman Stephen Crosby, Enrique Zuniga and Bruce Stebbins listen during a meeting in May. The Herald has disclosed 100 hours of closed-door lunch meetings the panel claims did not involve discussions of casino issues.

Mayor Marty Walsh skeptical gaming was off table at lunches
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Jack Encarnacao

Mayor Martin J. Walsh is voicing skepticism that more than 100 hours of Gaming Commission closed-door meetings — disclosed by the Herald yesterday — did not involve discussions of casino issues.

The Herald front-page 
review of panel members’ public calendars dating to 2012 uncovered weekly private “commissioners’ lunches,” “agenda planning sessions” and other secret meetings. The panel claims no records were kept on topics discussed, but said members avoided “any matter that constitutes public business within the jurisdiction of the commission.”

Walsh, who is locked in a pitched legal battle with the commission over its Wynn Resorts casino license in 
Everett, wasn’t buying that.

“I think that around the 
issue of gaming, we have to be very transparent,” the mayor said. “I’m sure they have time to sit down and talk about non-gaming 
issues, but I think with the amount of interest in gaming, it’s very difficult for me to understand that they would not have a conversation about gaming.”