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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, DECEmbEr 19, 2025 Page 17 Beacon Hill Roll Call Volume 50 -Report No.50 December 8-12, 2025 Copyright © 2025 Beacon Hill Roll Call. All Rights Reserved. By Bob Katzen T HE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll call votes in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports local representatives’ roll call attendance records for the 2025 session through December 12. The House has held 116 roll calls in the 2025 session. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each representative voted and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record. Oftentimes a representative is not able to attend only one or two sessions during which roll calls are held, but since there are sometimes multiple roll calls on each one of those days, the number of roll calls they missed can be high even though they only missed one or two sessions. Eighty-eight (55.3 percent) out of 159 representatives did not miss any roll call votes and had a 100 precent roll call attendance record. Seventy-one (44.7 percent) out of 159 representatives missed one or more roll call votes. The representatives who missed the most roll calls are Reps. John Lawn (D-Watertown) and Marcus Vaughn (R-Wrentham) who each missed 22 roll calls (81.0 percent roll call attendance record). Rounding out the top 15 representatives who missed the most roll call votes are: Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) who missed 20 roll calls (82.7 percent roll call attendance record); Christopher Flanagan (D-Dennis); Judith Garcia (D-Chelsea); Richard Haggerty (D-Woburn); Mary Keefe (D-Worcester); Chynah Tyler (D-Roxbury; and Thomas Walsh (D-Peabody) who each missed 19 roll calls (83.6 percent roll call attendance record.) Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge) and John Gaskey (R-Carver) who each missed 18 roll calls (84.4 percent roll call attendance record.) Patrick Kearney (D-Scituate) who missed 16 roll calls (86.2 percent roll call attendance record); Tram Nguyen (D-Andover); and Joseph McKenna (R-Sutton) who each missed 15 roll calls (87.0 percent roll call attendance record). Lisa Field (D-Taunton) who missed 15 roll calls (72.2 percent roll call attendance record). Rep. Field won a special election to fill a vacant House seat. She has only been a representative for 54 roll calls, not all 116 roll calls, and therefore her percentage of roll calls attended is different from Reps. Nguyen and McKenna who both also missed 15 roll calls but have been in office for all 116 roll calls. Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted all 15 representatives and asked them why they missed some roll calls: Eight representatives did not respond last week to repeated requests asking them to explain their absences. They are Reps. John Lawn, Marcus Vaughan, Christopher Flanagan, Mary Keefe, Chynah Tyler, Tom Walsh, Patrick Kearney and Tram Nguyen. Seven representatives responded either last week and/ or when they were asked the same questions in August, when they were also among the representatives who missed the most roll calls. Nicholas Boldyga did not respond last week but responded in August: “A couple of days were missed due to health-related issues in my immediate family. My responsibilities as a father of three young children came first on those days. Unfortunately, unlike the Senate that allows for fully remote participation on all levels, House rules make it difficult to even vote remotely.” Judith Garcia responded in August and last week with the same statement: “I missed two days due to illness and two days on official business with the Chelsea delegation, participating in the National All-America City competition in Denver, Colorado, which Chelsea won. One of those four days included 13 roll calls, so it’s important for readers to know that multiple roll calls in a single day do not equal multiple absences.” Richard Haggerty responded in August and last week: In August, he responded, “I missed a single day of voting this session on February 6, 2025, when I was unfortunately not able to attend a session due to a family commitment.” Last week he responded: “I have submitted statements of support for each piece of legislation the House passed to the House Clerk’s Office after missing four engrossment votes this session due to a family commitment.” Marjorie Decker responded last week: “The votes I missed were due to family emergencies, and I sent a letter to the House Clerk’s stating how I would have voted for each of the two formal sessions I was not able to attend.” John Gaskey responded in August and last week: In August, he responded: “[Thirteen roll calls] were on the same day. I was out of town and unavailable. [Three more roll calls] were on the same day [that I was] involved with a delicate constituent issue and chose not to attend, determining it was more important to assist constituents in need than to throw a ‘No’ vote at something I don’t think should be legal.” Last week he responded, “The question has no context and is without merit.The way voting happens, as you know, missing one day has the potential to make it look like a legislator … has missed 20 percent of votes taken.That being said, I answered this question earlier in the year and since, not sure if I missed anything or not.If I did, it’s likely because of personal reasons.” Joseph McKenna responded last week: “I missed a formal session due to a long-scheduled family trip where I visited immediate family from across the country who I see very infrequently. Though I only missed one day of session, it unfortunately was budget veto override voting, so [it] was a day with the highest number of actual individual votes. Unfortunately, leadership’s ongoing strategy of not scheduling formal sessions until late the Friday before, and further in holding the session agenda until the day before, makes it impossible to avoid such unforBEACON | SEE PAGE 18 Savvy Senior by Jim Miller How to Prepare Your Online Accounts Before You Die Dear Savvy Senior, I recently had an estate plan drafted, including a will, power of attorney and advance directive, but I’m not sure what to do about all my online accounts – email, banking, and social media. What can I do to make sure my family can access what they need and protect my digital information after I’m gone. Almost 80 Dear Almost, In addition to creating an estate plan, you should also make a “digital will” that lists all your online accounts and login information. This will help your loved ones access your electronic devices and online accounts more easily so they can manage your electronic affairs, according to your wishes, after you’re gone. Montana State University offers a Digital Assets Inventory Worksheet (see Montana.edu/ estateplanning/digitalsssetsworksheet.pdf) to help you get started. Or consider purchasing a “password book” on Amazon for a few dollars. This will let you record and organize your online account information alphabetically. Here are a few other tips to help you prepare your digital life for your survivors. Apple: If you’re an iPhone, iPad or Mac user, you should nominate a “legacy contact” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. This is a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system. iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks need macOS Monterey 12.1. For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device. You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF. Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on – including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account. Google: Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager (see Support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546), which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account. When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait – from three to 18 months – before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people. You can choose what types of data they can access – including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos. There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline. Facebook and Instagram: If you’re on Facebook or Instagram, both of which are owned by the parent company Meta, you can have your accounts either memorialized or deleted after you die if the companies get a valid request from a family member or friend. See Facebook. com/help/1111566045566400 o r H e l p . I n s t a g r a m . com/264154560391256 for details. Meta also strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after your memorial accounts – see Facebook. com/help/1070665206293088. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also must have a Facebook account. Passwords: If you use a password manager – a service that creates, saves and manages passwords for all your online accounts – see if it has an emergency access feature. Some services, like Keeper, Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access your keys in case of an emergency or death. Send your questions or comments to questions@savvysenior.org, or to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.

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