Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone through his spokeswoman, Lucy A. Warsh, has failed to cooperate in a timely fashion with reporters from this paper working on stories ranging from new highway signs to new parking meters. Warsh has recently refused to allow a reporter from the paper to accompany a city worker reading meters, telling the reporter she did not trust him.

One specific request for information about tobacco enforcement in the city, which Warsh dismissed as not being real news, has lanquished for nearly one year, despite being re-submitted twice.

The city has also been late responding to formal Freedom of Information requests by the paper.

The mayor has decreed in writing that no city worker may speak with The Somerville News without permission. Thus unless interviews are co-ordinated through Warsh the worker faces adverse action for answering the reporter’s questions.

The Somerville News is committed to reporting on city government despite the Mayor’s hostility to a free press.