A big-hearted champion of the vulnerable in society and for having a steady hand as the longest-serving auditor in Massachusetts history....
DeNucci took flak last summer when he awarded 5 percent pay raises to his staff at a time of state budget shortfalls, cutbacks, and wage freezes....
Related: Who's Auditing the Auditors?
One blemish on DeNucci’s career is a pending complaint by the State Ethics Commission. It says he directed his office in 2008 to hire his 75-year-old cousin for a $40,545-a-year job that did not exist and for which he was not qualified.
Related: Not One Honest Man in Massachusetts Government
But he is praised as a hero in my newspaper -- twice.
DeNucci’s lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, said state law gives constitutional officers the power to hire whomever they deem fit, as long as they are not members of their immediate family. “Joe is in a sense being scrutinized for a practice that was absolutely the norm under a statute that has not been changed since he took office,’’ Kiley said.
DeNucci has never been shy about playing the patronage game. “We all did it,’’ he said. “It was about helping people; some I knew, some I didn’t.’’
At WHOSE EXPENSE, taxpayers?
Also see: ‘One of the last of the good guys’
One he knew well was Leonardo Liotta, better known by his professional nom de guerre, Tony DeMarco, the former welterweight champion from the North End and a DeNucci boyhood idol. In 1983, DeMarco wanted to return to Boston after living for years in Arizona. DeNucci helped him land a job as a court officer at the State House.
“Hey, this is patronage,’’ DeNucci told a Globe reporter at the time. “I’m trying to help a friend.’’
He rues current attitudes toward old ways of politics. “Today,’’ he said, “it’s like it’s a crime.’’
Looting usually is -- unless it is done by banks or government.
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Also see: Bumping the Incumbent Auditors
MSM Monitor Left Feeling Blue About Massachusetts
Doesn't look like much of an improvement.
