“DAILY STATE HOUSE SCHEDULE – TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2009
(Schedule updated regularly.)
GOV. DEVAL PATRICK
12:00…..Swears in Thomas McGuire Jr. as an associate justice of the Superior Court…..441 North Main St., Fall River
7:00…..Gov. Deval Patrick holds a meeting that his political committee has termed “critical.” The invite-only sit-down was announced Friday as Patrick headed into the weekend with important bills before him. “In the coming days, the Governor will be making many, crucial decisions about the future of our Commonwealth, including major reforms to our transportation system and ethics laws, as well as our budget, which faces numerous challenges because of the global economic crisis,” said the invitation. “He has called this meeting to obtain your input and guidance regarding the difficult decisions ahead.”….The Somerville City Club, 20 Innerbelt Road, Somerville”
Someone asked me if I knew where they could find this invitation list of advisors, but I did not know. In keeping with the governor’s desire for transparency, can we please get a complete list of those invited to this critical policy and decision making meeting? Can you post it here? If these people have been chosen by the governor to help him develop important policy, it would be good to let people know who they are… Have any BMGers been invited and are you planning to attend?
I am unclear as to whether this meeting is political or governmental …a campaign event or governing…which ever, it may not be helpful to move the governor’s poll numbers because it is understandable that the public is perplexed by the group-grope style of leadership that comes off as indecisive and shaky.
Some people just want the governor to make a decision, stick to it and convince everyone that it is the right decision… make a strong case…don’t appear to wait for committees (either campaign or civic engagement events) to come up with a watered down compromise position that pleases no one…don’t give the public the impression that that is what is happening…leaders lead.
One problem with sitting on non-profit boards, and being duty-driven is that, most of the time, if I have already given my word to be somewhere, I keep my word even when I suddenly “could” be at another event that may be more critical. Tonight was a Middlesex County Bar Association Board meeting – and our president’s father just died last week, and, well, first commitments held.
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p>Also, given the nature of the e-mailed invite, I would prognosticate that at a minimum, anyone who was part of the “kitchen cabinets” a year or two ago was invited.
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p>I believe, too, that our Governor regularly reads BlueMassGroup as do many in his staff [for example, I received a facebook message thanking me for my first person report on the Arlington Town Hall from Deval Patrick’s staff].
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p>So while I do not receive State House News and currently have no access to it [way too expensive! at least for me at aboutg $2400 a year] I did know about this meeting.
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p>One reason for the meeting, by the way, is that an Ethics Reform bill of some variety was passed tonight, but actually I haven’t read it yet so other than saying:
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p>1. Have Open Meeting Laws apply to the legislative branches as they do to town & city governments;
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p>2. Have Open Meetings Laws apply to the legislative branches as they do to town & city governments;
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p>3. Bring back cable coverage of the State House;
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p>4. Have open debate, not closed caucuses in room 348 –
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p>….but what is in that bill is in that bill at this point….
Amber: You said: “One reason for the meeting, by the way, is that an Ethics Reform bill of some variety was passed tonight…”
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p>I can find no mention of an Ethics Bill passing…what is your source?
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p>My posting was asking for the invite list for this critical invitation only sit down meeting…you apparently got an invite…do you know who else did? Are you an advisor to the governor on policy?
To answer your questions as best i can, and try to avoid appearing to be what I am not:
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p>1. Representative Clark and Senator Flanagan posted about the passage of an ethics bill, and debate on it yesterday on facebook last night – that is how I know about THAT and it may well be on the “floor” in both houses today – it seems something came out of Conference Committee on the Ethics Bill last night.
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p>2. I don’t know if yesterday’s meeting with the Governor and invitees was “critical” or not, and if the e-mail I received [which I forwarded to David & Charley] is a sample, it was a broad invite but to e-mails of folks who have made themselves available in other civic engagement forums. It sounds like more than a hundred were invited, maybe several hundred, but it really was – at least for me – short notice and my commitment to keeping my word often means short notice will preclude my involvement.
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p>3. I am NOT “an advisor to the Governor” [not on any staff, not paid to advise anybody, no title] but I am out spoken, and regularly publish here, in the Herald, in the Globe, in the WTG, and so forth, and am not shy about sending letters, making calls, whoing up when I can, e-mailing and faxing. For example, when the CJAM unilateraly eliminate the role of Guardian Ad Litem for Education on 11/14/08 with only 24 hours notice to all the Guardian at Litems, I published an open letter to the Gov. online, and also sent hard copy packets to critical folk, and faxed that packet to 70 legislators – on my own dime. One of my personal internal “mantras” is “Who will speak for the kids”
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p>Sometimes I receive direct notice, as with the e-mailed invite, and sometimes it is being “on vedette” and paying attention, whether on facebook, certain blogs, hard copy press, my own network.
As opposed to the whos of Whoville.
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p>and guardian ad litem
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p>What is your source for this statement? I don’t remember seeing a poll asking people about “group-grope style of leadership” so I’d be curious to see it.
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p>Also, how do you know this?
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p>In the interest of transparency, you should reveal who these “people” are.
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p>Okay, now that I’ve finished ribbing you, I will admit it’s clear to me that you are expressing your own opinion, but masking it as “the public” or “some people” — am I wrong?
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p>Let me make a couple of observations and then share some opinions.
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p>Observations: this was a political meeting. I was there. I saw several BMGers there, as well, though mostly it was people who have been long-time supporters of the Governor and many of them helped to get him elected. This is the 3rd or 4th such “group grope” I’ve been to with Deval this year.
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p>Opinions: “The public” likes this style of leadership. This is how Deval ran his campaign, and he received a majority of the votes in a 3-way race. That’s an opinion poll that’s on the record.
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p>Do you really want a “leader” who doesn’t consult with people, but makes “executive decisions” in a vacuum? I think that’s called a dictatorship. Deval’s style, it seems to me, is to collect information from as many people as possible, and then to make up his mind based on what he has learned. In other words, what he does is
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p>Or, at least he tries to convince a majority of people. As you point out, no decision will please everyone. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses. I certainly don’t agree with everything he’s done or advocated. Still, I really like his open style of governing. I call that real leadership, and I’m proud to be one of his supporters.
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p>We all know, and I think Deval would be the first to admit this, that there is room for improvement. So, please make some suggestions. We’re all ears.
I also prefer this open, inclusive, willing-to-discuss leadership style.
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p>Gov Patrick makes his own decisions, but is caring enough to listen before pondering and deciding. I like this style myself.
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p>Agreeing to disagree is a stance that I find comfortable – being my friend doesn’t require agreeing with my opinions and positions. Guess that might mean that at the age of 60 I am a grown up – whatever that is.
Yes, Deb, you and I have had our disagreements, but as the saying goes, “we can disagree w/o being disagreeable!”
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p>I certainly consider you a friend, and even when we are on opposite sides of an issue, I respect the passion that informs your opinion.
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p>I have many friends who are “differently winged” and one of them likes to say, “we learn nothing when we agree, we only benefit when we exhange ideas” or something to that effect.
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p>One of the glories of this country is our right to speak our minds, and to disagree with each other and with our government officials. Recent events in Iran have reminded me of how precious that is, and not to be taken lightly, or for granted.
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p>Be well!
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p>MFW