Councilor Wants City's Checkbook Online

Boston City Council President Stephen Murphy would like to put Boston's checkbook online for all taxpayers and citizens to view.

During Wednesday's City Council meeting, Murphy said, "The city of Boston has some information on the web, but it isn't easy to access. We should bring forward the IT people, the city auditor, city treasurer, and finance department to work on this within the next year so any citizen and taxpayer can see what we do.

"For example, how many lightbulbs we buy, and where do we get them? Who is doing the contracts on waste management? And how much are we spending on the all important topic of school busing?"

District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson supported the idea, "When we use the words 'the budget,' that piece of paper lives as the dollars and cents of the people. Really what we're pushing for is increasing transparency. Add my name to this... (I) would like all aspects of government to open their books to show the people of Boston and Massachusetts what they're doing." 

A hearing for resolution will be scheduled at a later date. 

Other orders of business were:

• District 1 City Councilor Sal LaMattina had proposed a resolution encouraging Boston residents to reduce meat consumption by participating in "Meatless Mondays." While this was not mentioned during the weekly meeting, his office said that it would be discussed during next week's meeting.