Watching those who have isolated themselves, receive 6 figure taxpayer funded incomes along with taxpayer funded pensions and seek to suck the last discretionary dollar from the poor on the pretense that cleaning toilets for minimum wage is a future, the unfolding saga of Stan McGee defines the bone-headed decisions.
Guaranteed any agreement negotiated with the Mashpee Wampanoags will not serve the Commonwealth well.
The veneer of pretense slips to clearly reveal the pretense.
In addition to being the Governor's "point man" on developing the casino
legislation, including the carve out for Indian gaming preference in SE Mass, he
has been the lead person negotiating the compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag on
behalf of the Governor - as noted in the paper just the other day that when he
moved over to the Commission he was removed from that role... George Brennan is
the only one I know who caught that tid-bit.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120508/NEWS/205080334/0/rss04
"Jason
Lefferts, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic
Development, said Friday that McGee is being removed from negotiations with the
Mashpee Wampanoag on a tribe-state compact, even though McGee expressed an
interest in staying in that role. Lefferts said he was not sure when that
decision was made by the Patrick administration."
Now that McGee is back
in his job, it's not clear if he goes back to the negotiating tables with the
tribe or not - regardless, he was the architect of the compact (likely already
close to completion) and as such it should be thrown out if he continues to
decline to disclose what happened, state on the record that he didn't molest
that child (he's never actually denied it) and prove that neither he nor anyone
else in the Governor's office used their political influence to get the Florida
charges against him dropped when the arresting officers, state sex crime
investigators and victim's family all wanted the prosecution to go forward.
http://wampaleaks.blogspot.com/2012/05/inconvenient-distractions-for.html
Inconvenient “distractions”
for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission
UPDATE: McGee resigns from gaming post
BOSTON – Stan McGee’s controversial tenure as the interim executive director of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is over after three days on the job.
McGee resigned Wednesday night amid growing controversy over his appointment that included protests from child advocates and legislators. McGee was accused, but never charged, in 2007 in an alleged sexual assault on a 15-year-old boy at a Florida resort. In 2011, he reached a confidential settlement with the boy’s family.
“After much personal thought and given the growing distractions, I have decided that I cannot be effective in the job I was offered,” McGee said in a prepared statement released by the commission’s spokeswoman. “In order to allow the commission to get on with the important public business of job creation and economic development it was created to perform, I respectfully decline the offer that was extended to me to serve as acting executive director.”
Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby accepted McGee’s resignation, though he again praised the casino expertise he would have brought to the table. “In the interest of maintaining public confidence in the achievement of our mission, however, I concur with (McGee) that his serving in this role would impede the commission’s ability to accomplish its mission,” Crosby said in his prepared statement.
McGee’s announcement came after another day of public outcry over his appointment and a perception that the commission failed to do its due diligence.
McGee, a former Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Harvard Law School, was the administration’s expert on Indian gaming laws in the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. He helped craft Patrick’s casino legislation in 2007.
Crosby referred to McGee repeatedly over the past week as a “superstar.”
McGee did not respond to an email seeking further comment.
Just hours before the resignation, the governor’s office confirmed it never did an independent review of the sexual assault allegations against McGee. That contradicts comments made by Crosby on multiple occasions following McGee’s appointment by a unanimous vote of the commission May 1.
“This office does not conduct independent criminal investigations and did not conduct an investigation of this case,” Kimberly Haberlin, a spokeswoman for Gov. Deval Patrick, said in an email. “Law enforcement officials investigated the claims and decided not to press charges. As (McGee) was never charged with a crime, he was allowed to return from his leave of absence after that decision.”
As recently as Monday, in a letter to a state representative who raised questions about McGee’s hiring, Crosby wrote that the commission was satisfied that McGee was presumed innocent, in part, because of a review done by Patrick’s office. That letter came one day after The Boston Globe quoted unnamed sources saying no such review by Patrick’s office ever occurred.
Reached Wednesday night, Karen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for Crosby and the commission, had no immediate comment on the conflicting information.
Criticism of Crosby, specifically, and the commission, in general, had increased in recent days after Crosby acknowledged in published reports that his vetting process included reading press accounts of the case, but not interviews with prosecutors or anyone else involved in the case other than McGee.
Wednesday was a day of fast-paced developments that stemmed from the controversy.
At mid-day, state Rep. Daniel Winslow, R-Norfolk, announced that he had hired a private investigator to do an independent probe into McGee and his hiring. About an hour later, led by the Republican caucus, the full House approved an amendment calling for more thorough background checks of gaming commission employees.
“The commission’s failure to conduct due diligence in these circumstances is unacceptable and inexcusable,” Winslow said.
Reached Wednesday night by phone, Winslow said he still has concerns about McGee working in state government and said he is hopeful the Patrick administration will review the case before he is reinstated. McGee is expected to rejoin the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, which had loaned him to the gaming commission, according to Statehouse source familiar with the case.
At a Statehouse press conference Wednesday, Winslow said he planned to use campaign funds and donations to pay a retired state police detective $5,000 to do an independent investigation that he would share with the commission and Patrick.
Winslow, who provided copies of the civil complaint, referred to the detailed, graphic nature of the allegations, contained in the lawsuit, as “heartbreaking.” The Times has decided not to publish the sex acts alleged.
Winslow hired Robert Long, an investigator noted for his surveillance work against James “Whitey” Bulger, to travel to Florida and delve into the allegations – due diligence he said the gaming commission should have done.
A handful of state representatives stood with Winslow in a show of support.
Earlier in the week, Winslow had tried to convince the commission to hold off on McGee’s appointment until it could conduct an independent investigation. Crosby refused and, in a letter to Winslow, wrote that the commission has no investigators and McGee is presumed innocent.
Those comments prompted child sex abuse advocates to criticize Crosby and the commission and to call on McGee to unseal the confidential agreement he reached to settle a lawsuit brought by the boy’s family.
Though some described the hiring of Long as “political grandstanding,” Winslow, former legal counsel to Gov. Mitt Romney and a former district court judge, disputed that there is any partisanship at play.
“Voters sent me here to be a voice and a conscience and that’s what I have brought every day I have been a representative,” said Winslow, a first-term representative who voted in favor of the legislation authorizing three casinos and a slot parlor in the Bay State. “When something is not right, even if I don’t have the power to change it, I do have the power to say something.”
About an hour after Winslow’s press conference, the full House approved an amendment to a spending bill calling for more thorough background checks that avoid the appearance of impropriety. “The original gaming law outlined a reasonable and appropriate vetting procedure, but apparently that wasn’t enough. It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives now has to legislate common sense,” House Minority Leader Bradley Jones said in a prepared statement.
The amendment passed by a voice vote and is the clearest indication yet that confidence in the five-member commission is diminished. “I agree this standard is reasonable and necessary, given the demonstrated lack of due diligence with the commission’s first hiring of a key player,” State Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, wrote in an email after the vote.
House Republicans also called into question hiring a Patrick administration insider even for a temporary job with the gaming commission. Hunt called it a “conflict of interest” that is unacceptable for an independent authority.
Because the commission is the most powerful agency in Massachusetts, it needs to be above reproach, Winslow said. “It’s important that it be independent, that it be free from the sway of politics and because of that it’s that much more important that there be complete confidence in the integrity of the people appointed to the senior management positions.”
State rep hires private investigator to review allegations against director of gaming commission
BY JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
State Rep. Dan Winslow has hired a private investigator to look into assault allegations against the new acting director of the state gaming commission.
At a Statehouse news conference at noon, Winslow, R-Norfolk, said the commission failed to adequately look into the background of Stan McGee when it hired him to run the new gambling regulatory agency.
Winslow called the commission's action "unacceptable and inexcusable."
He said he has hired former state police Lt. Inspector Bob Long, who investigated the Whitey Bulger case, to look into McGee.
Long will be paid out of Winslow's campaign fund and from private donations, Winslow said. McGee was recently hired by the commission as it starts up its efforts to award licenses for three casinos and one slot-machine parlor.
McGee, an official in the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick, was arrested in Florida in 2007 for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
However, the charges were dropped for a lack of evidence.
The boy's family then filed a civil suit against McGee and that case was settled by both parties.
There have been calls for McGee to release the details of the settlement.
Winslow originally called for the commission to delay its hiring of McGee until more can be learned. Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby at the time responded to Winslow's request in writing by stating:
"The decision to settle a case requires the agreement of all participants in the lawsuit and is done for a variety of reasons that may or may not have anything to do with the underlying merits of the case.''
Gambling on McGee
The matter of the state gambling commissions’ hire of the accused but not charged Stanley McGee as interim executive director continued its weird non-linear path yesterday with McGee offering his resignation to Chairman Steve Crosby because his presence would be a “distraction” to the work of the commission. Which is true.
McGee is the Patrick administration aide who was accused of assaulting a 15 year old boy in a steam room at a Florida luxury hotel in 2007. According to the
Boston Globe, investigators believed the victim in his allegations against McGee, but the prosecutor declined to prosecute. McGee had been placed on leave by the Patrick administration during the deliberations and when the prosecutor announced his decision McGee was restored to his position, which included work on gambling issues.
Chairman Crosby, again according to the
Globe in an Andrea Estes story “Gambling panel didn’t delve into abuse case” on May 6, stated that Florida authorities had “investigated six ways from Sunday” and had concluded the charges were false. (Full disclosure: Chairman Crosby is on leave from his dean’s position at my school, UMass Boston, and I cheered his selection as chair of the commission in
Crosby and Building the Right Culture). Chairman Crosby disputes that he told the
Cape Cod Times that the commission itself had investigated the charges. As to any information Crosby could have received from the administration, according to Estes again, “In fact, the Patrick administration could not have told him the allegations were meritless, because it never looked into them, according to officials familiar with McGee’s employment history.”
If you want more ugly, try this from the Estes story:
A police officer who handled the case told the Globe last week that he “absolutely” believed the boy, who was curled up in a fetal position, shaking and crying after the alleged attack.
Why the prosecutor didn’t bring charges was the “$64,000 question,” he said. “Somewhere between Massachusetts and Florida . . . I don’t know what happened. It’s above my pay grade.
So here we have a well-connected, highly thought of, state official accused of an awful crime against a child. Investigators believe the alleged victim, the prosecutor declines to prosecute, no one in Massachusetts has any interest in looking into it further. Somehow “We took their word for it” doesn’t sound quite bulldog enough for a body charged with regulating the gambling industry.
Wednesday Republican Rep. Dan Winslow announced he would hire an independent investigator to look into the matter. Another Republican representative, Jim Lyons of Andover, called for Crosby to resign; Lyons’ press release confirms the sound judgment of parents who refuse to allow children access to the car keys.
Of course McGee gets the full benefit of the presumption of innocence. That’s for a criminal case. This is politics.
Chairman Crosby had already sought to delay the commission’s takeover of the regulation of racing in the state, arguing that the commission is behind on its main function of overseeing the creation of the casino industry. The McGee situation could only provide a further distraction and it needed to be put behind the commission.
Among the lessons that have always stayed with me from reading James Q. Wilson’s
Bureaucracy is the tendency of public institutions to “hunker down” in the face of bad news. The commission tried to hunker down and failed. Now the question is will McGee return to his post in the administration, or will be there be some inquiry into the events in Florida?
But wait! More idiocy was yet to come!
This time it was Republican state rep/self-promotional juggernaut Dan Winslow, who held a press conference to announce that he had hired a private investigator to look into newly-hired interim executive director of the gaming commission.
That would be Stan McGee, who a few years back was alleged to have assaulted a 15-year-old boy; charges were never brought. What some non-charges of that type have to do with McGee's ability to do this current job I'm not sure; why a state representative would hire a private investigator to look into a public official is also beyond me. (Winslow also put up a web site soliciting contributions to the cause.)
When I first saw the news of McGee's hire, back on May 1, I Tweeted "Full public rehab - getting good name back - does happen." I spoke too soon. By this evening McGee had given up and resigned before he began.
By Dave Wedge
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