Massachusetts Closed Door Meetings and Corruption

Many of our fellow Massachusetts residents have lost their homes because of massive tornadoes, while leadership on Beacon Hill ignores them and continues to meet with special interests.

House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo allowed Beacon Hill to be paralyzed during the last legislative session while he met with the Gambling Interests, behind closed doors and allowed them to write legislation that gave them everything they wanted.

Few have taken the time to read any version of that legislation - surely not the media, nor legislators who voted for it.

The media allowed itself to obsess about the smoking ban, yet nary a word was said about 24/7/365 FREE ALCOHOL which will make all of us innocent targets of drunken slot barn patrons.

Nothing was said in the media about the failure of the legislation to include an appropriate regulatory structure.

Nothing was said in the media about the failure of Beacon Hill to project the costs of not only the regulatory structure, but the additional personnel required in the Attorney General's office for the 'Crimes Bill.'

When last year's legislation was passed with NO debate, clearly lawmakers were more focused on getting home or getting on vacation and had not read the 'compromise bill' that contained pages of ERRATA - a polite word for mistakes, some of which contradicted other sections or changed the meaning and intent.

I attended many of those public hearings and there was little media presence - other than soundbites.

They were filled with Industry Cheerleaders who were allowed to speak without time limits, yet opponents were limited to 3 minutes. They were a sham!

Beacon Hill's conduct - public or behind closed doors has been appalling, accompanied by media silence.

It's time for a change!


Gambling debated behind closed doors
Critics say public left without a role
By Noah Bierman

Despite promises about transparency, often the most critical decisions on Beacon Hill happen this way, with little meaningful input from anyone outside the small circle of the State House’s top three leaders.

“The public’s entitled to more, particularly now,’’ said Scott Harshbarger, a Democrat, referring to the embarrassment caused by DiMasi’s conviction.

“If the only way you can do this is getting a deal behind closed doors, it strikes me as tone deaf.’’

While there have been no allegations of corruption related to the casino debate, Harshbarger echoed a critique made by others — that the DiMasi trial cast a spotlight on the pitfalls of concentrating excessive power in only a few hands.

Centralized authority provides special interests an opportunity for outsize influence, Harshbarger said.

But members of the general public, lacking knowledge of what is being discussed, have no way to tell their representatives their opinions. And even those representatives may be shut out of the process.

“It’s an outrage,’’ said Kathleen Conley Norbut, senior adviser for the interest group United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts. “If the decisions are only made by two people or three people, what’s the sense of having a Legislature?’’

Senator James Eldridge, an Acton Democrat who opposes gambling, said the Legislature has become more transparent in recent years, but that the DiMasi trial highlighted that there was still work to be done.

Illustrating the point, he said his only confirmation about the current gambling negotiations came from news accounts.


Speaker under scrutiny
Controversial casino debate on tap as ethics questions remain
By Chris Cassidy

“I think what came out in the DiMasi trial certainly underscores that certain corporate interests will try to use the system behind closed doors to try to get a special advantage,” state Sen. James Eldridge (D-Acton) told the Herald. “I think that same dynamic exists within the casino industry.”

DeLeo was one of several top lawmakers named in the Ware report, conducted by an independent investigator, which revealed widespread patronage in the beleaguered department. It found 58 percent of the 12 candidates DeLeo backed for jobs were ultimately hired, placing him amid legislators with the most success. He’s mentioned 41 times in the report by name.

All of this comes while state leaders prepare to iron out high-stakes legislation over casino gambling — a debate expected to heat up later this month and bring intense lobbying.

“What allowing casinos in Massachusetts would be is the government picking winners and losers in terms of where the casinos will be, where the racetracks will be,” said Eldridge, a gaming opponent. “That’s exactly the kind of dynamic that can get a legislator or other elected official in trouble. That’s very disconcerting to me.”

Thomas Whalen, a Boston University political historian called gambling “the most unsavory business around.

“To have the speaker still identify with it undercuts any position of morality, if you will, that he’s trying to stake out for himself on ethics,” Whalen said. “It just looks really bad.”