Gee, I was raised to believe it was at the pleasure of the voter. Silly me!
"DeLeo, facing fire, tightens grip on power; 2 potential rivals in House sidelined" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff / January 29, 2011
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, under fire for a patronage scandal at the state Probation Department and facing two ambitious deputies jostling for their own power, tightened his grip on the House yesterday, sidelining would-be successors and promoting loyalists who had helped advance his gambling agenda....
Related: Nothing Has Changed in Massachusetts
You deserve it, Massachusetts.
DeLeo’s shake-up adds to a palpable sense of unease in the corridors of the State House....
Well, which is it, Globe?
The anger and uncertainty back again, or has it just been there all along and getting worse by the day?
House members said privately that DeLeo was sending a message that he intends to remain in power and will not tolerate back-room jockeying for his seat.
And not one person in that chamber will defy him.
But DeLeo, emerging from a closed-door caucus where he announced his leadership changes, denied that....
Like all dictators, DeLeo also a LIAR!
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Do you really care who is out and who is in, readers?
Let's add a Sunday Globe Special to the mix:
"The speaker’s words — and his ways; DeLeo vows to battle patronage, but he sponsored many for probation jobs" by Andrea Estes and Scott Allen, Globe Staff / January 23, 2011
Now, after a devastating independent counsel’s report that portrays the Probation Department as a bastion of politically wired hiring and promotions, the speaker has emerged as an antipatronage reformer....
But DeLeo is an unlikely antipatronage crusader.
Marisa Cogliandro-Vaughan is one of at least 12 job candidates DeLeo’s office recommended to Probation Commissioner John J. O’Brien between 2004 and 2007, according to Probation Department records, including seven campaign contributors and DeLeo’s godson, now the state’s youngest chief probation officer.
Yeah, didn't you know state government was a jobs program for family and friends while the tax loot is given to well-connected corporations, banks, and other agenda-pushing causes (like a bike program)?
A Spotlight Team review found that seven other major DeLeo campaign donors have been hired or promoted in the Probation Department since 2005, though there is no record that DeLeo actively promoted them.
And DeLeo showed no appetite for reform as recently as Nov. 1, when he testified that he had done “nothing’’ to investigate whether legislators violated ethical standards in the five months since O’Brien was suspended amid allegations that he systematically hired politically connected job candidates even when they were unqualified. DeLeo recalled only one brief conversation with his then-deputy, State Representative Thomas M. Petrolati, regarding revelations that more than 100 of Petrolati’s campaign contributors work at Probation.
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Boston Globe Probation Violation
Yeah, I shouldn't even be reading them.
“I didn’t look at it so much as an ethical issue,’’ DeLeo told independent counsel Paul F. Ware Jr., according to a transcript obtained by the Spotlight Team....
“What I looked at it was an issue wherein a representative, again in terms of trying to help a constituent, you know, made a recommendation for a job . . . I’m not sure if that falls under any of our ethical rules as being not proper.’’
In the same interview, DeLeo said he considered O’Brien a friend, though they did not socialize, and that he enjoyed bantering with him about football at Boston College, where O’Brien played in the late 1970s....
Sigh.
Who gives a f*** about the banter over football at BC?!!!!!!!!!
From 2005 to 2009, DeLeo’s committee consistently gave the Probation Department more funding than the Administrative Office of the Trial Court requested, Ware found, a total of $25 million in extra funding over the four years.
Good thing you didn't need that money for cops, firefighters, teachers, and schools, taxpayers.
Now you know why Massachusetts has so many stupid laws; it's a way to keep family and friends employed!
In 2008, the extra money fueled the hiring of 60 new probation officers, including the daughter of a leading DeLeo campaign donor as well as people connected to DeLeo’s legislative allies.
But he knew nothing, nothing! A Sergeant Schultz for a Speaker!
In his testimony to Ware, DeLeo said he did not recall approving the extra funding, and he had no specific explanation for why his committee approved additional money above what the court system requested. “Budgetary matters are very fluid,’’ he said, noting that commissioners frequently want more money than their superiors request....
As if they always get it.
In the same interview, DeLeo said he considered O’Brien a friend, though they did not socialize, and that he enjoyed bantering with him about football at Boston College, where O’Brien played in the late 1970s....
Sigh.
Who gives a f*** about the banter over football at BC?!!!!!!!!!
From 2005 to 2009, DeLeo’s committee consistently gave the Probation Department more funding than the Administrative Office of the Trial Court requested, Ware found, a total of $25 million in extra funding over the four years.
Good thing you didn't need that money for cops, firefighters, teachers, and schools, taxpayers.
Now you know why Massachusetts has so many stupid laws; it's a way to keep family and friends employed!
In 2008, the extra money fueled the hiring of 60 new probation officers, including the daughter of a leading DeLeo campaign donor as well as people connected to DeLeo’s legislative allies.
But he knew nothing, nothing! A Sergeant Schultz for a Speaker!
In his testimony to Ware, DeLeo said he did not recall approving the extra funding, and he had no specific explanation for why his committee approved additional money above what the court system requested. “Budgetary matters are very fluid,’’ he said, noting that commissioners frequently want more money than their superiors request....
As if they always get it.
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"Revere hired DeLeo cousin despite no-shows" by Andrea Estes and Scott Allen, Globe Staff / January 23, 2011
YOUR TAX DOLLARS at WORK!
Joseph DeLeo struggled with a basic requirement of his job: showing up. Twice in 2003, he missed weeks of work as a Boston Municipal Police officer due to what he said were workplace injuries, returning only when doctors determined he was fit to work and his insurance benefits were cut off. Four years later, in 2007, the city terminated DeLeo from a security guard position for excessive absenteeism.
So when the Revere Police Department had a job opening in 2007, the officer who oversees applicant background checks, Captain Michael Murphy, recommended against hiring him.
But DeLeo liked to talk about his not-so-secret weapon: his cousin was state Representative Robert A. DeLeo — then chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — whose district includes part of Revere.
Joe DeLeo’s immediate family donated $1,000 to Representative DeLeo’s campaign just weeks before he was fired from his Boston job on May 4, 2007. By May 18, Revere Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino had hired Joe DeLeo, saying no one else applied for the job.
“It’s curious, and I’m sure it’s galling,’’ said Murphy. “These are highly coveted jobs, and we should always look for the best candidate . . . I didn’t think [Joe DeLeo] was an ideal candidate.’’
Ambrosino insists that Robert A. DeLeo, now speaker of the House, did not contact him about Joe DeLeo. The mayor said he was just following civil service procedures, which required him to give laid-off police officers the first chance. His office notified 29 laid-off Boston Municipal police officers about the job, he said, and Joe DeLeo was the only one who came to Revere to formally apply.
“It wasn’t a matter of me considering other candidates,’’ Ambrosino said in an interview. “We have one opening, there was one guy on the list, we’re hiring him.’’
But several laid-off police officers who were notified about the job said they would have applied — if they didn’t think the job was wired for DeLeo. Many of them were doing low-paying work as security guards while the Revere job paid DeLeo $71,000 in 2009.
“Even Joe knew who was going to get hired. It was like, ‘Don’t waste your time filling out a 22 to 30 page application,’ ’’ said former Boston Municipal police officer Ulric “Rick’’ Alfred Jr., who said he got a postcard notifying him about the Revere job but chose not to apply because Joe DeLeo had the inside track. Alfred is still looking for a police job almost four years later.
Speaker DeLeo declined to comment on his cousin. Joe DeLeo did not respond to three requests for comment.
DeLeo’s hiring hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the city. Revere police said DeLeo has been suspended from the force twice for disciplinary reasons. He has been banned from working security details at the local International House of Pancakes after an argument with another police officer in the parking lot. And the police chief of the town where Joe DeLeo lives, Mattapoisett, said she twice asked Revere Police Chief Terence Reardon to speak to DeLeo after neighbors complained to her that he was verbally harassing them.
Hey, he's above the law because his cousin Bobby is speaker, so there!
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Related: DeLeo and His Dad
Yeah, (boo-hoo) Deleo takes care of family.
Thank you, taxpayers.
A look back at the last guy:
"Judge upholds charges against DiMasi; Defense cited Enron case in bid for dismissal" by Andrea Estes, Globe Staff / January 29, 2011
Former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and his codefendants will stand trial in late April on a slew of charges, including wire and mail fraud, extortion, and conspiracy. They are accused of colluding to steer two multimillion-dollar software contracts to Cognos, a Burlington company, in exchange for cash, including $57,000 allegedly funneled to DiMasi through a middleman.
See: The Three Stooges of Massachusetts
Not funny, readers.
Defense lawyers said they were disappointed but predicted they will prevail when the case goes before a jury.
“The judge has ruled,’’ said DiMasi’s lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley. “I disagree with the judge, but that’s for later.’’
He added, “I’m planning to win at trial.’’
If convicted, DiMasi faces up to 20 years in prison for eight of the nine charges against him....
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Related: DiMasi, codefendants to seek dismissal of charges
DiMasi trial to proceed after judge refuses to toss key charge
The reason Sal the Scum is gone is because he opposed gambling.
Also see: DiMasi's Leftovers
You See DeLeo, I See DiMasi
The Perils of One-Party Politics: Speaker's Shoes
The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
