On Thursday morning a little before 7:45 a.m. I walked into the Rox Diner to meet up with West Roxbury's elected officials. 

I won't tell you who was late after sleeping past his alarm (but I can tell you that I don't blame that politician, after all, journalist hours are more in the p.m. than the a.m.). 

The group included City Councilor John Connolly - the finder of expired food in Boston Schools. Thankfully, the Rox Diner has a reputation for being clean (I've never heard otherwise), so I didn't need to worry about Connolly shutting the place down. Seriously though, how gross is it that our schools may have been serving food past their expiration date? Or even receiving food from the USDA past expiration date?!

But I digress... State Rep. Ed Coppinger was there and ordered an omelet and coffee. West Roxbury's District Councilor Matt O'Malley ordered a bowl of fruit and two iced coffees (and also wore a snazzy suit that he said he got on Overstock.com - thanks for the tip, Councilor!).

State Sen. Mike Rush is out of town being trained with the Navy Reserves before being deployed to the Middle East - so his Chief of Staff John Regan, and Director of Constituent Services Ann Cushing, attended the breakfast to discuss local issues.

Oh, Cushing just had coffee, Regan a bagel with cream cheese, and I forgot to mention that Connolly had three scrambled eggs and some rye toast. I had a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice (the drink of the liberal elite media) and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. 

Down to business. Coppinger had organized the meeting to be "looping everyone in together" so the local elected officials could work together in issues all across the board.

For future meetings, Connolly said he and O'Malley would  bring a list of trouble properties in West Roxbury for Rush and Coppinger's offices to help out. 

The group discussed a set of old stone stairs that connects pedestrians to Washington Street from Overlook Road in the Grove area - and how they are crumbling, but it is unknown who owns the stairs - the city or a private individual.

O'Malley commented about how he had been working with the MBTA to improve their snow removal efforts in West Roxbury - and gave them a C- as a grade this winter.

Always looking forward, Connolly asked Regan about capital projects in the state's budget. He also asked about Chapter 70 figures, which is education funding. 

The simple low-key breakfast meeting was the first of what will be a regularly monthly meeting for our West Roxbury elected leaders. Regan said that he would send out an agenda before their next meeting to discuss zoning issues, as zoning heats up more after the snow melts. 

To see this simple meeting made me happy because I'll be honest - this meeting probably wouldn't have happened two years ago with some of our previously elected officials. I'm glad to see West Roxbury's elected officials working with each other - and you should be, too.