If you showed up for the Massachusetts Board of Respiratory Care’s January meeting in Boston, you might have found yourself alone.
For a fifth straight month, the meeting was canceled.
The problem? The board, which oversees thousands of workers who help patients with breathing problems, couldn’t muster the minimum of four members needed to conduct business because it had so many vacancies.
As recently as January, the seven-member board had just three members — one short of the minimum for a quorum. And one of the three was a holdover whose term officially ended in 2008 but remains on the board because he was never replaced.
“It was certainly frustrating,” said former longtime board member Armand Riendeau, who said the vacancies forced the board to repeatedly put off reviewing complaints against workers and other matters. “We recognized that our job was to protect members of the public and we didn’t have enough members to do what we needed.”
Massachusetts is facing a little noticed breakdown in democracy.
In the most Democrat of democracy's states?
More than one-third of seats on state boards and commissions are either vacant or occupied by people whose terms expired months or years ago, according to a Globe review last week. In all, the Globe counted 919 vacancies and 867 holdover members on nearly 700 boards that oversee everything from a cranberry research center to a commission studying postpartum depression.
“It’s very discouraging and embarrassing,” said former state inspector general Gregory Sullivan, who now works as research director at the Pioneer Institute in Boston. “It’s a bad reflection on state government that it’s not being taken care of.”
Part of the problem is the sheer number of boards in Massachusetts. Legislators often start special commissions as a way to study complicated issues or show interest in a topic, and they sometimes launch new boards at the request of industries that want to regulate their own. But state officials are often slow to eliminate boards that are no longer needed.
There mu$t be $ome pay involved. That is why they are not di$$olved.
As a result, Massachusetts has significantly more boards and commissions than other states its size.
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Though the mission of some boards seems narrow — one meets once a year to hand out an award — many do important work of advising the administration and lawmakers. They police licensed businesses and professionals, and oversee billions of dollars in government spending at major agencies, including the University of Massachusetts system and the state Department of Transportation.
Then what are state regulators doing? Partying down?
When one of these boards stumbles, it can have major consequences.
The state pharmacy board, for example, was blamed for failing to close a compounding pharmacy whose tainted steroids allegedly killed 64 people.
See: Compounding Conundrum
Related: $100 million agreement close in meningitis outbreak case
Seems like a $lap on the wri$t tom me.
The Globe later found the 11-member board met at least twice without a quorum in recent years and had a member who worked at one of the pharmacy’s sister companies. Today, the board has two vacancies and one holdover member.
Related: Quorum Conundrum
Likewise, Easton’s housing authority board lacked the votes to fire its executive director because the governor’s office failed to appoint the crucial, tie-breaking member for seven years. Two board members tried unsuccessfully to remove Susan Horner as director because of concerns about her frequent absences and a declining condition of the organization’s apartments, but they needed a third vote. Horner finally resigned in 2010.
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Helping the Homeowner
Staff in the governor’s office — which is responsible for the bulk of appointments to state boards — said they are working hard to restock the boards with 452 appointments or reappointments in the pipeline. The office recently filled two of the four vacancies on the respiratory care board, allowing the board to start meeting again in February.
But officials in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration say they also face a constant flow of resignations. The vast majority of board positions are unpaid and often require members to attend long meetings during business hours. Last month’s pharmacy board meeting started just after 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday and lasted past 5 p.m.
Oh, what a shame they have to put in a full day, and it doesn't say they are all unpaid.
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Sorry, readers, but I got bored with the rest.
