In the power struggle over probation between the three branches of state government, the Massachusetts Senate is siding, at least for now, with the judiciary.
Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem of Newton, the chair of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said senators have agreed to approve budget amendments this week that would restore judicial oversight over probation, an agency that currently operates with unusual independence within the court system.
Creem said she filed amendments containing some of the changes last week, but support grew for even more action at a Senate caucus today. The caucus was held one day after the Supreme Judicial Court placed Commissioner of Probation John J. O’Brien on paid administrative leave and appointed a special counsel to investigate hiring practices at the agency. The court’s action was in response to a Boston Globe Spotlight Team story that portrayed probation as a “private employment agency for the well connected.”
O’Brien, as the
Globe and
CommonWealth have reported, hired a number of politically connected people and family members, including his daughter. Probation employs more than 2,000 employees, a third of the court system’s total.
Creem said senators agreed to impose a five-year term limit on the commissioner of probation. They also agreed to give Robert Mulligan, the trial court’s chief justice for administration and management, joint authority with the probation commissioner to hire, fire, discipline, and promote employees. Mulligan will also be given the power to transfer up to 5 percent of probation’s $160 million budget to other parts of the judiciary to cover budget shortfalls, Creem said.
Creem indicated the Senate was united on the issue. “They’re pretty angry today about the whole situation,” she said at a press conference near the Senate president’s office.
The amendments effectively undo a series of actions taken by the Legislature to insulate probation from judicial oversight. For example, the probation commissioner had a six-year term limit until 1993, five years before O’Brien took over the post. Creem said doing away with the term limit gave the commissioner a life-time appointment. Judicial oversight over probation hiring and spending was also removed by the Legislature in a series of budgets over the last several years.
Creem said she plans to also call for the creation of an 11-member task force headed by Attorney General Martha Coakley that will be charged with recommending whether probation belongs in the judiciary or should be moved to the executive branch, as Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed. Creem noted no legislators, who have been accused of using probation as a patronage haven, will serve on the task force although each chamber can appoint an expert member to the panel.
She declined comment on whether the Legislature’s tendency to micromanage the finances of probation and the courts violated the separation of powers between the three branches of government. “I am very supportive of an independent judiciary,” she said.
Meet the Author
Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Meet the Author
Senior Investigative Reporter, CommonWealth
About Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan is now retired. A veteran of the Boston newspaper scene for nearly three decades. Prior to joining CommonWealth, he was editorial page editor of The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, a part of the GateHouse Media chain. Prior to that he was news editor at another GateHouse paper, The Enterprise of Brockton, and also was city edition editor at the Ledger. Jack was an investigative and enterprise reporter and executive city editor at the Boston Herald and a reporter at The Boston Globe.
He has reported stories such as the federal investigation into the Teamsters, the workings of the Yawkey Trust and sale of the Red Sox, organized crime, the church sex abuse scandal and the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the State House, state and local politics, K-16 education, courts, crime, and general assignment.
Jack received the New England Press Association award for investigative reporting for a series on unused properties owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and shared the association's award for business for his reporting on the sale of the Boston Red Sox. As the Ledger editorial page editor, he won second place in 2007 for editorial writing from the Inland Press Association, the nation's oldest national journalism association of nearly 900 newspapers as members.
At CommonWealth, Jack and editor Bruce Mohl won first place for In-Depth Reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors for a look at special education funding in Massachusetts. The same organization also awarded first place to a unique collaboration between WFXT-TV (FOX25) and CommonWealth for a series of stories on the Boston Redevelopment Authority and city employees getting affordable housing units, written by Jack and Bruce.
About Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan is now retired. A veteran of the Boston newspaper scene for nearly three decades. Prior to joining CommonWealth, he was editorial page editor of The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, a part of the GateHouse Media chain. Prior to that he was news editor at another GateHouse paper, The Enterprise of Brockton, and also was city edition editor at the Ledger. Jack was an investigative and enterprise reporter and executive city editor at the Boston Herald and a reporter at The Boston Globe.
He has reported stories such as the federal investigation into the Teamsters, the workings of the Yawkey Trust and sale of the Red Sox, organized crime, the church sex abuse scandal and the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the State House, state and local politics, K-16 education, courts, crime, and general assignment.
Jack received the New England Press Association award for investigative reporting for a series on unused properties owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and shared the association's award for business for his reporting on the sale of the Boston Red Sox. As the Ledger editorial page editor, he won second place in 2007 for editorial writing from the Inland Press Association, the nation's oldest national journalism association of nearly 900 newspapers as members.
At CommonWealth, Jack and editor Bruce Mohl won first place for In-Depth Reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors for a look at special education funding in Massachusetts. The same organization also awarded first place to a unique collaboration between WFXT-TV (FOX25) and CommonWealth for a series of stories on the Boston Redevelopment Authority and city employees getting affordable housing units, written by Jack and Bruce.
Readers who have information can contact Jack Sullivan at CommonWealth at jsullivan@massinc.org or call him at 617-224-1623.
