NO DOUBT Tom Menino wishes he could just delete this entire week.
But though the Curious Case of the Quashed Communications comes at a bad time for the mayor, it should be instructive for voters. Menino has gone through much of this mayoral campaign assuring them that the city is well and properly managed.
“We’re more transparent than Saran Wrap,’’ he claimed earlier this year.
Make that Reynolds Wrap.
As the Globe has reported, Michael Kineavy, the mayor’s chief policy adviser (and political enforcer), has for years deleted e-mails in a way that precludes their retention on the city’s servers. That apparent violation of the state’s public records law makes a mockery of Menino’s transparency claim, even as it highlights the managerial weaknesses in this mayor and his administration.
True to form, Menino initially tried to dismiss the matter as much ado about nothing, saying it was merely part of the political “silly season.’’
“When you get 100 e-mails a day, you have to delete something,’’ he told WCVB-TV. “We’ve been doing it for years. It’s nothing new, and why is it that eight days before the election it becomes an issue?’’
It wasn’t until Bill Galvin, our no-nonsense secretary of state, ordered the city to secure Kineavy’s computer and hire an outside expert to attempt a retrieval of the missing e-mails that the mayor’s tune changed.
“I’ll cooperate with anybody, because this was an honest mistake made by the administration,’’ he said.
Honest or not, it’s a mistake City Hall has been warned about before. As the Globe’s Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack reported on Wednesday, last year Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants raised concerns about the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s failings in regard to e-mail.
So far, there’s no credible evidence this was done to cover up something. Yet at the very least, it’s another telling example of a City Hall that doesn’t measure up to modern management standards.
Nor is this the only such example. Recall that Galvin had to step in and supervise the city’s Election Department for two years after more than three dozen city polling places ran out of ballots during the 2006 election.
Other times, though serious issues have been brought to the mayor’s attention, the response has been sporadic at best. Exhibit A: the Boston Fire Department. Modern scrutiny of the department’s many problems started in 1995 with a comprehensive evaluation by the MMA Consulting Group. A Globe series in February of 1999 underscored that agency’s hidebound culture and costly practices. Reacting to the Globe series, the mayor appointed a special commission led by Kathleen O’Toole, which issued a critical report calling for sweeping change. Since then, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau has regularly prodded Menino on Fire Department reform. But despite some recent progress, over his extended tenure the mayor simply hasn’t shown the consistent long-term resolve required to reform a stubbornly resistant department.
Other times, it’s taken media scrutiny to get Menino to back away from bad policy. Only after the Globe zeroed in on it did Menino renounce an ill-advised 1998 agreement with South Boston’s powerbrokers that gave Southie a lopsided share of Seaport District linkage money and benefits in exchange for their support for building the new convention center there.
In fairness, the administration wins strong reviews for its financial management. Boston’s bond rating is the highest it’s ever been. And basic city services are well delivered.
Yet the fact remains that City Hall is far too murky. Important matters aren’t guided by clear procedures but rather according to the whims of a mercurial mayor. Further, as a manager, Menino is often more reactive than pro-active.
The e-mail controversy has brought some of those shortcomings into focus just days before voters go to the polls to select the two candidates who will face off in the final election. It’s a good reminder of the central question the final vote should turn on: Is the mayoral mixed bag known as Thomas M. Menino the right man to guide Boston into the second decade of the 21st century?
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. 
