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Posted in policy –
BOSTON, MA, November 18, 2024 — In MassLandlords v. City of Boston, Suffolk Superior Court informed the parties late Friday of the court’s intent to issue a sweeping order against the city to provide all digital records through March 15, 2022 containing the phrase “rent stabilization advisory committee” and associated acronyms (e.g., RSAC).
This case is building towards the first ever enforcement of the “money in politics” lobbying disclosure laws that took effect in Massachusetts in 2011.
Some for-profit and nonprofit developers on the committee are believed to have engaged in unlawful, unreported lobbying to corrupt public policy towards private interest, in some cases using public funds and tax exemptions.
The committee proposed a return to the rent control boards of the 1970s, repealed by voters in 1994 and near-universally recognized by economists as having contributed to housing scarcity, disparate impact on the basis of race, and price increases in exempt properties. The proposal would have indirectly exempted some committee members’ and their organizations’ properties.
Such a corrupt regime would have made it difficult or impossible for existing rental housing to operate, forcing a wave of sellouts to RSAC appointee organizations. The RSAC’s bill was stopped by the state legislature.
The city has so far resisted public records requests for over two years. It has provided thousands of pages of largely off-topic documents, discouraging MassLandlords’ lawful request. MassLandlords seeks to shine a light on how these committee members were picked in order for the public to understand the influence of campaign donors and unreported…
