Newsworthy Issues

“Governing in Darkness: Part 3,” HorizonMass, August 29, 2024

“Governor’s Council races by the financing,” MASSterList, August 22, 2024.

“Get to know the Governor’s Council. It might stir you to act.” Boston Globe Letters to the Editor, August 22, 2024.

“Mara Dolan for Governor’s Council,” Boston Globe Editorial, August 16, 2024

“Governing in Darkness: Part 2,” HorizonMass, August 14, 2024

“Governing in Darkness: Part 1,” HorizonMass, June 25, 2024.

“Challenging the Governor’s Council,” The Primary Source, Globe Opinion newsletter.

“Gov. Healey Chairs Council,” State House News Service, June 5, 2024

“Massachusetts Governor’s Council candidate served time in federal prison on drug distribution conspiracy charge,” The Boston Herald, June 5, 2024

“Council Concerned By Healey Pardon Request,” State House News Service, June 4, 2024

The Governor’s Council has through the years been called such derogatory terms as “clown committee.” The problems presented by these elected officials include:

  • bad behavior towards each other and the public
  • back-room deals 
  • lack of transparency including no posting of rules or procedures for the public and no published meeting minutes
  • lack of diversity on the council, a manifestation of structural racism of the council.
  • uncontested elections
  • conflicts of interest

Bad behavior toward each other and the public

—“On this year’s primary ballot: a battle that may bring big change to the obscure but drama-prone Governor’s Council”  The Boston Globe August 20, 2022

“This past April, Devaney and Councilor Terry Kennedy got into a heated dispute over who assaulted whom with a dime. According to the State House News Service account of the incident — a deadpan tour de force — Devaney said Kennedy threw the dime at her. Kennedy said he merely gave Devaney the dime as a joke — because she had called a reporter to “drop a dime” about the fact that the council had stopped livestreaming its proceedings — and that Devaney then threw the dime at him. “It wasn’t a curling iron this time,” Kennedy joked, referring to a 2007 assault and battery charge against Devaney for allegedly throwing a bag containing a hair tool at a store clerk.”

—“Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council Inflames Parole Board Hearings” DIGBoston June 20, 2022

“Duff several times interrupted Lisa Berland, a member of the citizen’s group Parole Watch (in which this reporter participates). Berland detailed the expertise needed on the board from her observations while attending more than 35 parole hearings for those with life sentences (the only ones open to the public). Duff made dismissive statements, and quipped ‘You’re not telling us anything we don’t know. … We know more than you … [you’re] kind of taking up time.’ . . . Questions that seemed more appropriately directed at the candidate were often aimed at witnesses.”

—“Governor’s Council Fades to Black” Boston Globe editorial, April 4, 2022

“Truth be told, the Governor’s Council has often provided considerable fodder for those who believe it has outlived its shelf life as a way of confirming judicial nominees (it also votes on pardons and commutations and approves spending warrants). Its feuding has sometimes reached comic-opera proportions. . . At a 2017 hearing Councilor Robert Jubinville called Ferreira a “bootlicker” and a “rubber stamp. Hurley accused Councilor Marilyn Devaney of raining ‘terror’ on the council.”

Back room deals

—“Oft Overlooked Panel Drawing New Scrutiny” Boston Globe Feb. 22, 2011

“Former Boston mayor and governor James Michael Curley famously called it a “hock shop,’’ because members demanded favors or cash in return for their votes. Governor Michael Dukakis fought with the council when its members refused for months to schedule hearings for his judicial nominees. At the time, one councilor, Joseph A. Langone III, had served six months in federal prison for assaulting a federal officer. He promised to “bury’’ a judicial nominee who he believed had written the sentencing memo that led to his incarceration, and he claimed during her failed confirmation hearing that she “hates Italians.’”

Is it ethical for councilors vote on appointments of other councilors? The Council confirmed the appointments of Councilors Jen Cassie and Robert Jubinville as clerk magistrates. In the following YouTube video see the Governor’s Council’s December 27, 2022, meeting at 3:50 minutes where Marilyn Devaney claims there’s a conflict of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckcrk7O9soA 

Lack of transparency

—“Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council Inflames Parole Board Hearings” DIGBoston June 20, 2022

“As soon as Laura Berland Wyman got up to testify in support of Dr. Maryanne Galvin, the chair of this part of the meeting, Councilor Ferreira, issued a rule that she was to keep her testimony to two minutes.

Devaney interrupted, ‘Since when do we have this rule?’

Ferreira responded, ‘Since I’m the chair.’”

—“Oft Overlooked Panel Drawing New Scrutiny” Boston Globe Feb. 22, 2011

“State Senator Bryan A. Joyce has filed numerous bills to eliminate the Governor’s Council and give senators the power to approve judges. ‘They might have served a valuable purpose in 1628,’ he said. ‘They don’t in 2011, other than to provide a small group of people with a government sinecure.’

But alternatives may be no more popular. In many states, judges stand for election, collecting donations from lawyers and campaigning on street corners. Other states follow the federal system, confirming judges through the senate.”

Other issues mentioned in the above article:

  • Other state officials don’t attend Governor’s Council meetings.

  • Voting records are not readily available.

—“Governor’s Council Fades to Black” Boston Globe editorial, April 4, 2022

“In March, the council returned to the good old, bad old days of meetings in their cramped chambers with sessions open only to those who can find their way to Room 360 at the State House.”

“If ever there was a group of politicians who could benefit from the bright light of day — the kind of transparency that livestreaming provides — it is this little known but important layer of government. Perhaps that’s just the point. Most of the councilors like things just as they are — or were pre-pandemic. In obscurity there is electoral advantage.”

“At their most recent meeting, Devaney demanded a vote on restoring the livestreaming but never got a second to her motion. Asked by State House News Service about the streaming controversy, Councilor Eileen Duff replied, ‘I’m really not discussing it. I seriously think Councilor Devaney is mentally ill.’”

All councilors except Marilyn Devaney fought against resuming livestreaming but she went to the HERALD and the policy was reinstated by the Lt. Governor.

Lack of diversity on the council

Since the inception of the Governor’s Council in the 1600s, there has been only one Councilor of color who served for one two-year term; despite the fact that the Council wields enormous power over the criminal legal system.

—“Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council Inflames Parole Board Hearings” DIGBoston June 20, 2022

“As part of her obvious support of [State Republican Representative] Kelcourse’s nomination to the Parole Board, Eileen Duff commented at one point, ‘I never thought in my wildest dreams I would say this, but we don’t have a white guy on the parole board.’”

Governor council races are typically uncontested in the general election

In the 2020 election, there were no Republican challengers in any of the 7 Governor Council races.

—-“Council seats field no challengers”  Salem News Oct. 31, 2020

Questions on conflicts of interest

  • Councillors who are lawyers with practices may very well appear before judges they have confirmed.
  • The council voted on the clerk magistrateship of Robert Jubinville although he was a councilor at the time (see above); the Council also voted on confirming Jubinville’s daughter to be a judge, while he was on the council.