Last summer Turnpike Authority officials said Amorello had changed the agency’s sick leave policy on July 5 — five days before a tunnel collapse killed 38-year-old Milena Del Valle of Jamaica Plain. But Carlisle said yesterday that a review of the authority’s computer records and interviews with staff show that although the policy document is dated “07/05/06,” Amorello finalized and circulated the policy on July 17 .
The ethics law prohibits public officials from taking action in their official capacity in matters in which they have a financial interest, and from benefiting as a private citizen from prior decisions they made as public officials.
Even if Amorello is innocent (and remember this is a guy who installed 128 secret surveillance cameras in the MTA offices), he is a case study in the potential for corruption in our quasi-independent authorities. There is little or no way to check their power. Unelected, there is no simple way to get rid of the people who work there.
One man and one committee in meeting, locked in mortal embrace. Their mission: accountability. His motivation: greed. A disease all too prevalent among the quasi-independent authorities of the Commonwealth. Case in point: Matt Amorello, former denizen of the Twilight Zone.