This image was originally published in The Boston Phoenix in 2009, where Chris Faraone, founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) and editor of DigBoston, wrote his great exposé on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council which he called the “clown committee.”

Sadly this institution still often seems absurd in its wheeling and dealing. However, it has a very important job that I am guessing is 100% unclear to more than 75% of Massachusetts residents. “Under the 1780 Constitution the Council (known variously as Executive Council or Governor’s Council) serves as an advisory executive body”…to “advise the governor on all of his judicial and quasi-judicial officers.” This includes judges, clerk-magistrates, public administrators, members of the Parole Board, Appellate Tax Board, Industrial Accident Board and Industrial Accident Reviewing Board, notaries, and justices of the peace. Often, as Faraone wrote, the council is “little more than a ceremonial eight-member rubber-stamp and favor-bank headquarters for political beauty contestants.”

This is has never been more true now, since Governor Charlie Baker took over the reins of the State. Baker’s approval rate for his several hundred nominations between July 2015 and Oct. 9, 2019 is 100% (and one withdrew), according to George Cronin who kept meticulous records in the Governor’s Council office, and was Administrative Secretary from 1982-2019. I spent hours in that office and learned that no other governor has had 100% approval rating of their nominees. Per a 2004 Statehouse News article, in nineteen months, the Council nixed four of Gov. Mitt Romney’s nominees, and that was considered unusually high. Weld and Celluci too had nominees rejected.

This raises questions about a Governor’s Council that is too tied to Baker and its condoning of patronage hires. 

Patronage concerns reared their ugly head recently on September 18, when Jen Caissie, who at the time was still a member of the Governor’s Council, had a hearing before the Council for the position of Dudley District Court’s clerk-magistrate. Per Mary Markos at The Boston Herald, Caissie (approved in a 5-2 vote) was “the third clerk-magistrate candidate with close ties to Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to land a lifetime appointment to a job that pays more than $152,000 per year….The Baker-Polito administration has come under fire for recent appointments including Shrewsbury Police Detective Lt. Joseph McCarthy Jr., who coached Polito’s son in youth football in their hometown, to the Westboro District Court clerk-magistrate job earlier this month, as well as Sharon Shelfer Casey, Polito’s college friend and former executive director of the Judicial Nominating Commission, who landed the top clerk’s post at Cambridge District Court in May.”

Doesn’t this seem like a conflict of interest? asked Councillor Marilyn Petito-Devaney, in a prepared statement that she read, questioning why Caissie didn’t resign before she came before the Council. She also raised the timing of Caissie’s husband’s drunk driving charge being transferred from Dudley to Palmer District Court to avoid a “conflict of interest,” wrote The Herald. Devaney voted No. Councillor Robert Jubinville, who also voted aginst the nomination, said, “It’s the perception as an appointed official that the public has of the council. And, through no fault of your own, you follow a string of appointments that have been controversial.” These comments can all be found on public citizen volunteer Patrick McCabe’s website where he records Council hearings and makes recordings available to the public (why doesn’t the State keep records that are posted online?)

Which governor’s councillor will be offered the next juicy appointment? This kind of rubber stamping is what turns off so many people to politics. And it raises questions as to why we are not holding information sessions and strategy planning to see that our councillors don’t approve every nomination that comes before them. 

Governor’s Councillors. I am repeating below what I wrote here:

From Wikipedia: “The Council is composed of eight councillors and the governor or lieutenant governor, who presides over the Council. The Massachusetts Constitution specifies that “the governor, and in his absence the lieutenant governor, shall be president of the council, but shall have no vote in council: and the lieutenant governor shall always be a member of the council except when the chair of the governor shall be vacant.”^[4]

The eight councillors are elected every two years, one for each of eight councillor districts, residency in the district is not a requirement. The council membership was originally non elected appointment by the governor. The state constitution upon the prompting of the American Party (Know Nothings) in 1854 was changed to make the council an^[5] elected position open to all state residents.^[6] The Governor’s Council districts are specially composed. Each district consists of the entirety of five contiguous Massachusetts Senate districts.”

Now that Caissie’s seat is vacant, the Massachusetts Consitution says: 
 “If a seat on the Council becomes vacant, the General Court may, by concurrent vote, select some person from the relevant councillor district to fill the opening.[8] If the General Court is not in session, the Governor may select the new councillor, with the advice and consent of the existing Council.”

So, Massachusetts, maybe the best idea is stay on top of our councillors. After all, we are paying their salaries at $36,000 a year to track the nominees and show up on Wednesdays for hearings and the votes. The meetings of the Council are all announced online and are open to the public. Maybe we should hold them accountable?________________________________________________________________________

Other worthwhile reads on the Gov. Council: from Esquire, “a relic of colonial government that now functions as a job-lot store for second-to-fifth-rate politicians.” And from Yvonne Abraham in the Globe: “Judges should be vetted by people who manifest something closer to the qualities we expect of our public leaders: Members of the state Senate, for example, or perhaps elementary school children.”