Ray Mariano: Healey gets one personnel decision wrong, one right

Gov. Maura Healey seems to have a knack for upsetting people at both ends of the political spectrum.

Healey’s more moderate policies and decisions have disappointed and even angered many progressive Democrats. And Republicans, well, I’m not certain a Democratic governor could ever do anything to make them happy.

True to form, Healey’s recent personnel decisions have plenty of people, on both sides, complaining.

Changing the rules

Existing personnel rules prohibit anyone from receiving a full salary for a state job while also receiving a state pension. It’s called double-dipping. Those with a state pension can work at a state agency for up to 1,200 hours in a year (about 23 hours a week) or may put their retirement on hold while they take a full salary. So, a part-time salary and a pension are allowed. But a full-time salary and a pension are not.

Those rules were suspended during the pandemic, when the state and almost every other employer couldn’t find people to fill critical openings in their organization. But that suspension ended last year.

Recently, Healey used an outside section of the state budget to exempt the position of executive director of the state’s Municipal Police Training Committee from the double-dipping rule. The MPTC is charged with establishing training standards for all municipal police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the state.

The governor’s office defended the special deal, saying that there was “significant benefit to having an experienced leader” at the helm of the agency. They also cited the “unique needs” of the MPTC.

What the governor’s office didn’t do was explain why they would give a special exemption to someone who, as head of the agency, according to published reports, managed to get the MPTC into two separate scandals that bring the executive director’s management and judgment into question. The first of those scandals led to others being indicted on charges of fraud and corruption. The second led to someone being fired and another being demoted.

In a letter to state lawmakers, the state’s Inspector General blasted Healey’s action, saying that it leads the general public to the conclusion that “it’s who you know” that counts and that “it gives government a really, really bad flavor.”

The current executive director served as police chief in Woburn and currently serves the town as a member of its city council. His public pension is $123,187 in addition to the $149,955 he receives as executive director of the MPTC. He also gets $12,000 as a city councilor.

Healey’s not the first to try to exempt this position from the double-dipping rule. The House tried twice previously and currently had a bill filed for this year to exempt the position.

None of this makes any sense. I have no doubt that the executive director’s position requires someone who is highly trained and experienced. I also have no doubt that there are any number of qualified people who could handle the responsibilities. Beyond that, this is a slippery slope that will undoubtedly encourage others to try and slide down that same slope.

This sweetheart deal has a foul odor.

State Supreme Court

In 2007, Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Devaney described Gabrielle Wolohojian as a “model candidate” for a position as an associate state Appeals Court judge and hoped that there would be more like her nominated.

Now, after roughly 16 years on the Appeals Court and after being recommended to the governor by a five-member vetting committee and the 27-member Judicial Nominating Commission, Healey recently nominated Wolohojian to an open position on the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.

Wolohojian has degrees from Rutgers, a Ph.D. from Oxford University and a law degree from Columbia. She’s received rave reviews for her work in the private sector, for her pro-bono work and for her work as a member of the state’s Appeals Court, where she sat in on 2,700 appeals and wrote 900 opinions. By any standard, she’s exactly the type of candidate that you would want to see elevated to an open seat on the state highest court.

The salaries for the two positions are similar with the current Appeals Court salary at $213,924 and the Supreme Court salary a bit higher at $226,187.

Even Republicans are forced to admit that Wolohojian is highly qualified. There appears to be only one problem with her résumé: She and Healey were domestic partners for more than a decade. That relationship ended about five years ago, but to some it is a disqualifier.

In nominating her, Healey wrote, "There is no one more prepared to join the Supreme Judicial Court.” Relative to their former relationship, she wrote, “I don’t want the fact of her prior relationship with me to deprive the commonwealth of the most qualified person for the position.”

I understand that the optics here aren’t the best and that skeptics will assume the worst, but Wolohojian shouldn’t be either punished or benefit from her previous relationship.

To avoid the appearance of a conflict, The Boston Globe editorialized that Wolohojian would have to consider recusing herself on some or all matters before the court that involve the governor. That’s preposterous. As a member of the Appeals Court, Wolohojian has and would continue to make decisions on numerous cases in which the governor and state government were involved. This would be no different.

Ultimately, the Governor’s Council will hold a public hearing to consider Wolohojian’s nomination and ask all of the questions relevant to the position. Who she lived with in the past shouldn’t be one of them.

Email Raymond V. Mariano at rmariano.telegram@gmail.com. He served four terms as mayor of Worcester and previously served on the City Council and School Committee. He grew up in Great Brook Valley and holds degrees from Worcester State College and Clark University. He was most recently executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority. His column appears weekly in the Sunday Telegram. His endorsements do not necessarily reflect the position of the Telegram & Gazette.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Ray Mariano on Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey staffing decisions