Massachusetts: House Cleaning Required #1

The Deaf of Beacon Hill who fail to hear public cynicism over jobs poorly done march ever forward to create more Hack jobs in a BLOATED REGULATORY BUREAUCRACY to regulate an Industry known to corrupt, as it has in other states.

House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo who has held the People's House hostage to his obsession to reward the Gambling Industry in his own district, is neck deep in the Probation Dept. scandal:


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.

Not to miss out on the public gravy train, the son of state Representative John Binienda filled a Hack job in the Alcoholic Beverage Commission that has already cost the Commonwealth $324,000 in settlement costs.

From his state listing:
John J. Binienda Representative, D Worcester

When Republicans proposed Reforms that would have included a requirement that LOBBYISTS wear badges, this was Rep, Binienda's response:

From: Massachusetts Corruption

Recently, Republicans proposed reforms.

This is a Democrat's wrong headed response:

Representative John J. Binienda, a Worcester Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 1987:

On Wednesday, Binienda, who heads the House Rules Committee, called the proposal revolting and went on to make the historical analogy.

Hitler, during the concentration camps, tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn't, and that's something that I just don't go along with, Binienda told State House News Service for an article posted yesterday.


His subsequent apology:
Rep. John Binienda issues apology for comparing name badge proposal to 'Nazis'


One must wonder if Rep. Binienda doesn't want the LOBBYISTS flooding his office to be noticed.

It should be noted that House Speaker "Racino" DeLeo rewarded obedience with Chairmenships - extra pay, larger offices, bigger staffs.

It's time for House Cleaning and it shouldn't stop at the Alcoholic Beverage Commission.



Only relatives need apply? Beverage board is a disgrace

MANY GLOBE readers surely choked on their coffee last week upon learning that the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission had once cited the need to engage in political patronage as a reason why it didn’t hire a 57-year-old African-American veteran. The story in Monday’s paper confirmed what public agencies almost never admit: that some jobs funded with taxpayer money are reserved for cronies and hacks.


The veteran in question, a man named Ronald Bridges, filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination when the alcohol agency passed him over for jobs in 2001 and 2002. In the legal wrangling that followed, the agency offered an astonishing defense: According to MCAD documents, the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission asserted that the two positions available had gone to relatives of state legislators. Had they not, the commission insisted, the Legislature wouldn’t have provided the money for them in the first place. And sure enough, the jobs went to the son of state Representative John Binienda and the brother of then-Representative Paul Kujawski.

What’s striking - and infuriating - about this case is the alcohol commission’s insinuation that it had no other option. But a position that can only be filled by an elected official’s relative is one that shouldn’t exist to begin with.

This isn’t just a moral outrage. It’s also costly to the state, which ended up settling the Bridges case in 2009 for $324,000. Meanwhile, today’s patronage hires - who may remain on the payroll decades after their patrons - create a difficult situation for tomorrow’s officials. The state’s current probation commissioner, for instance, has to run a department with scores of people who were brought on for political reasons.

New state treasurer Steve Grossman, whose office now oversees the alcoholic-beverages commission, is in a similar position. He doesn’t intend to find out how many employees were patronage hires and says he’ll give all employees a chance to prove themselves. He also says the treasurer’s office will not accept “recommendations’’ from legislators and other elected officials unless they’re in writing.

Better policies like these should help. But avoiding ugly spectacles like the one at the alcoholic-beverages commission also takes restraint from legislators, who should know their proper role, and a measure of determination on the part of public agencies. Public agencies have many obligations, but kowtowing to legislators by hiring their relatives can’t be one of them.