[Probation] is ostensibly a division of the trial court but, thanks to the Legislature, operates with unusual independence…. In 1993, five years before [Probation Commissioner John] O’Brien was appointed, the Legislature eliminated the six-year limit on the term of the probation commissioner. In 2001, the Legislature gave O’Brien the exclusive power to hire and fire within his agency, eliminating the need for him to win [trial court Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert] Mulligan’s approval for personnel decisions. More recently, the Legislature has allowed Mulligan to move funds between trial court departments to deal with budget shortfalls. There was one exception, however: probation funds could not be touched.
The Legislature has also been generous with funding for probation. According to the Court Management Advisory Committee, a group that advises the trial court on management strategy, the probation caseload was basically flat from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2008, while the agency’s staff increased by 10 percent and its budget went up 18 percent.
I mean, this is crazy, isn’t it? The lege keeps rewriting the rules for probation, making it basically an independent fiefdom inside the trial court, and then uses it as a dumping ground for all of its relatives who need jobs. No wonder people came out in droves to vote for the guy who wasn’t part of the existing power structure on Beacon Hill. (By the way, Senator, isn’t it time you got that website up?)
One particular probation job – that of one Stephen Anzalone, whose father, sister, and two cousins also work at probation – has ended up in court, pitting Anzalone against Mulligan, who tried to rescind Anzalone’s appointment. CommonWealth has this gem from the court papers:
As Mulligan’s attorney says in an SJC brief, “(Mulligan) had ample discretion under the personnel standards to have determined, once he had learned how many relatives were already employed, that ‘enough is enough.'”
Enough is, indeed, enough. Governor Patrick has the right idea: move probation into the executive branch where it belongs anyway, and clean it the f&@% up.
“He’s my cousin, OK?” is not OK. This kind of thing is where the Big Dig Culture came from; it’s why Scott Brown won; and it’s why things could be really ugly this November if we aren’t proactive.
Excellent post. Now you are getting to one of the main reasons that Scott Brown won, and like a recovering alcoholic you are admitting that there is a problem.
We have been railing against hackery like this long before you had ever heard of Blue Mass Group. It’s a big part of why we started the blog.
immediacy of concern: “”He’s my cousin, OK?” is not OK. This kind of thing is where the Big Dig Culture came from; it’s why Scott Brown won; and it’s why things could be really ugly this November if we aren’t proactive” If I’ve missed it in the past, my stupidity and I’ll stand corrected. I like these words, though, very much.
type “hackocracy” or “hack” or “hackery” into the BMG search tool. (It’s in the left-hand sidebar, below “Active Users” and above the Flyerboard.) You will bring up lots of posts, including some dating back to 2004 and 2005, shortly after BMG was started. Just one example.
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p>Also, when the legislature was debating whether to eliminate the
hackSuffolk County holidays last year, I was banging the drum for the position that eliminating those holidays was the true progressive stance. Lots of folks disagreed with me, and predictably, the holidays remain. But I still think I was right.<
p>We haven’t yet succeeded in our ongoing quest to oust the hackocracy from power, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been trying! đŸ˜‰
about the convention and what it takes to get on the ballot.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s clearly not easy to get to the convention, nevermind trying to open the playing field once you get there.
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p>For all of the people who cry that no-one wants to get involved in politics anymore, I would say that shutting people out in such a way is probably a big reason why.
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p>Which is all the more reason to give KUDO’s to people like Grace Ross and Ed O’reilly. People with the courage and determination to try to hurdle the 50 foot barriers.
I found the same shutting out when I joined the Republican party last summer. It seemed that everyone wanted to keep control of their little feifdoms. With my big mouth opening communication lines, the Republican party is finally waking up.
Be honest and ask yourself what the reaction would have been if Edgar or myself wrote this diary? We would have been ignored or attacked as being mouthpieces for Howie Carr. Howie has been publishing these types of stories forever and other than his loyal listeners nobody seems to care. We hear the “Oh so because so-and-so is in the Lege, their sister/mother/brother… can’t work for the state…”
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p>This is a huge problem for people who are trying to repair the image of the government. People like Scott Brown can grab issues like this and remark about “it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know…” and get people to vote for him.
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p>Great diary but trying to come off as this is how you have always felt is like Obama saying he always wanted to keep Gitmo open.
Perhaps it’s the way your write diaries as you cannot write them without taunting.
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p>Edgarthearmenian has written a single diary about an issue about which he has thought a lot.
you are lying. I don’t know whether you are doing so out of willful ignorance or out of malevolence, but you are lying all the same.
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p>The three of us who run this blog have taken a strong stand against hackery in our own party since day 1 — long, long before you ever graced us with your presence. I’m not going to bother to dig up the links to prove it — you can do that yourself by following the simple instructions I left upthread.
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p>Responsible advocates for right-of-center positions are, and always have been, welcome here. Liars are not.
…to compare these two posts:
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p>Here’s JohnD claiming to have advocated against employers who hire illegal immigrants:
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p>
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p>and here he is bragging on having hired illegal immigrants:
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p>
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p>It’s not just that his argument changed to justify his latest taunt, it’s that details of his life story changed.
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p>It is funny that in one version of the argument, illegals are taking jobs from Democrats, since only Democrats hold low paying jobs…
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p>
I might be wrong about what I said but that doesn’t mean I am lying. I have not seen any worthy consideration of people here condemning the hackery and nepotism on Beacon Hill, at least not since I have been here. So I read your linked diary and you did comment on this back in 2005. So… I was wrong about that fact that you did comment in 2005.
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p>Call me wrong but that is far different than calling me a liar which I believe is when you KNOW something but say something else. I don’t like liars either!
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p>I apologize for being wrong.
As in: you are, but you’ll never admit it.
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p>Not paying taxes on a $34-45k/year home business is a pretty serious omission.
Especially since we have democratic legislators who vote the sales tax increase in, and then plan a trip to NH to skirt said tax increase.
between, on the one hand, seeing David’s post, clicking through to the other posts he linked or searching on the terms he suggested, and still making the claim, knowing it to be false, that it’s unusual for BMG to call out hackery among Democrats; an on the other hand, seeing David’s post, deliberately not clicking the links or doing the searches he offered as evidence for his position (there’s that offering evidence vs. making assertions thing again! Funny how that seems to keep coming up) and making the claim, having chosen not to check the evidence that’s right in front of you, that it’s unusual for BMG to call out hackery among Democrats? Is there, maybe, some kind of argument to be made on philosophical niceties that the latter isn’t lying and the former is? Yes, perhaps, but it’s empty sophistry.
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p>You as good as called David a liar, after either seeing – forgive me if I’m not actually completely convinced you didn’t click through in the first place – proof that he wasn’t, or knowingly avoiding seeing that proof. And then you act all wounded when he refuses to play nice with that, and accurately describes your dishonesty? That’s some fucking gall, man.
… if he’s going to debate what was said and not said, the absolute least he could do would be to review the record offered to him.
Contrast Edgarthearmenian’s response below.
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p>Please, JohnD, do try to represent the conservative side with distinction.
who so often tries to make the discussion about him? How some post would have been received differently, if he had posted it? How commenters are only reacting the way they do because it’s him?
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p>No matter how many times he’s told that he’s wrong, he remains convinced that it’s all about him. It isn’t, and some of us are really tired of his whine, and wish it would stop.
… that I, myself probably avoid posting 4 or 5 times a week because of John D fatigue.
I promise I won’t post any more that 3-4 posts a day. Will that brighten your day… put a smile on your face?
instead of playing keyboard commando on BMG.
New title… Senior Director and a healthy raise. They love me but I’ll tone down the posts to make you happy (and everyone else). Plus I’m playing a Scrabble like game on my iPod Touch called Words with Friends which is awesome.
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p>Oldest is in third day of CA bar exam so I can relax about that too.
I don’t believe you.
He spends way too much time on here to be productive. If he’s not making crap up per usual, then his boss must be really stupid, or they reward incompetence at his company.
Why are you so angry or sour? I really did get both and I could post my paycheck but you would accuse me of photoshopping it.
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p>Either way, it is true and I’m well respected (not here of course). But I am going to make your day and post less here. And being in sales I thought you might know this but you the most productive sales people work smartly not the hard. Plenty of hard working people end up failing but very few of the wise ones fail.
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p>My company is great and full of wonderfully smart people. We had a great year last year and are on course for another one this year. I’m sure the human living inside of you who isn’t so acidic would be happy that some people are doing well in the bad economic times. I’d be happy to find out that you are over quota and making a killing! Are you?
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p>PS You spend an awful lot of time here too!
You can make all the grandiose claims you want. Until we “open the box” and meet, there’s no way to prove them. Even then, I’d bet you argue the cat was just sleeping.
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p>Who cares, anyway? On here, all we have to judge you by is your comments and behavior. The latter is bad enough that I wouldn’t care if you were secretly the dalai lama.
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p>No mount of money or enlightenment could compensate for your constant stream of gloating, rudeness, and lies.
like when I’m stuck at an airport. Most of them are in the morning or the evening, not suring work hours. You post about 20-30 comments to my one. i am not angry or sour, just pointing out your lack of a work ethic. đŸ™‚
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p>I think it’s great that your company is healthy, and yes I understand the work smart and not hard ethos. However, in my 20 years of sales, I have found that the salespeople who do both are the ones who get to go to President’s Club every year. The lazy ones have a few good years, but the ones who focus and work hard are consistently successful.
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p>I’m doing fine and have a great job. Thanks for asking.
Although I didn’t see the same “happiness” for my success from you.
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p>As for your metrics for success, I’ll go with them as I have attended “Presidents” club many many years during my 28 years of sales. They aren’t nearly as lavish as they once were nor does my current company spend overly on “awards”. But they pay well and I keep getting raises and making good money so I’ll be happy without “club” (plus I don’t drink anymore and many of the clubs you had to go solo). I have stopped hanging the wall plaques many years ago as well.
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p>My sales job has me traveling only 1 day or week with the rest on the phone so posting here in between things is not nearly as time consuming as you make it sound. And people like huh will be happy to tell you that I don’t much research (or thinking) before I post anything so it really is just the “typing time”.
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p>I do golf in the summer though and it is funny that many of the sales people I golf with are very good and very successful sales people. Work hard, play hard… I can’t say that I have a single rule like “who focus and work hard are consistently successful” since I’ve seen many very successful sales people who don’t focus and/or work hard.
At least, he’s probably the first to use it in the media — mainstream or otherwise. I think they’ve been looking at the issue with immediacy for some time đŸ˜‰
what I want to see and to hear only what I want to hear. David is correct; I’ve just concentrated too much on the posts with which I disagree. My error. I will try to do better in the future.
LABOR BLASTS PATRICK PROPOSAL TO RESTRUCTURE COMMISSION: Labor leaders on Wednesday attacked Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to restructure the Civil Service Commission, saying the move weakens an independent agency they say is tasked with keeping politics out of public employment. In testimony to the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, the heads of Bay State labor unions called on lawmakers to reject the proposal. “It sets the stage for Tammany Hall,” said Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, referring to an infamous Democratic political organization dominant in 19th century New York. The five members of commission – with at least one representing labor, two representing management and no more than three commissioners allowed to be from the same political party – currently receive full-time salaries. Saying it will lead to a more cost-efficient operation, Patrick is proposing that only the chair and vice chair be full-time and paid, while the remaining three members would stay on a volunteer basis. “The commission board members are currently the only members of a state board – except for the Appellate Tax Board – that receive full-time salaries,” Jay Gonzalez, Patrick’s budget chief, told the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight at a hearing on the proposal. “In practice, the day-to-day activities of the commission do not require full-time attention by all members of the board.” The proposal would allow the commission to deal with its caseload “more efficiently, professionally and expeditiously,” and hire more staffers to handle cases, Gonzalez said. Story Developing | 3:25 P.M.
While it’s true that addressing the perception and reality of corruption in our mostly-Democratic state and local government has been widely discussed here, it’s also true that those of us who agitate to actually do something about it are generally spanked and beat up for doing so.
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p>The general formula is something along the lines of “Yes, we agree that there’s a problem, BUT look at how awful the alternatives are.” It looks to me as though this community is willing to tolerate this kind of corruption when the price of addressing it is to risk losing elections. The general response is something along the lines of “Yeah, it looks bad, but look how terrible the other guys are.”
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p>As we have learned to our chagrin, we are at the point where we are likely to lose elections anyway. It looks to me as though our tolerance for such corruption exceeds that of the electorate.
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p>I’d like to see a little less emphasis here on Scott Brown’s many shortcomings and little more on practical, pragmatic steps we can take to hold our elected officials to a much higher standard than they are accustomed to upholding. I very much applaud your decision to front-page this piece, and I don’t at all mean to bust your chops for it. Instead, I’m suggesting that we show a bit more understanding to folks like Edgar.
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p>In my view, I think we need to toughen our stances towards Governor Patrick, Tim Murray, Mr. DeLeo and Ms. Murray, and towards Mayor Menino and his staff (just what is going down with email-gate?) — all of them.
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p>Are there any indications that the firefighter and police disability and pension scam-engine has been slowed even a little bit? Can you really blame folks for being out of patience with union that stalls, bobs and weaves even after its own investigation shows that a firefighter was killed because the union forced maintenance to be done by unqualified and untrained firefighters instead of qualified (but presumably non-union) mechanics?
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p>Are we really supposed to believe that Daniel Crane looked particularly closely at Sal DiMasi’s dirty laundry? After reading this morning’s piece by Andrea Estes, can you blame folks for rolling their eyes and vowing to put a stop to this circus?
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p>Here’s the really fun part:
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p>I’m sure I join many in being SHOCKED, just SHOCKED, that this handpicked crony found (after an exhaustive and expensive tax-payer funded review of the review) that “the charges were ‘fair and reasonable.'” He “didn’t know” whether Sal DiMasi or his lawyer had anything to do with his selection? Yeah, right.
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p>Please.
There has never been any tolerance for hackishness on the part of BMGs editors and the majority of its commenters, in my view.
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p>Governor Patrick has been well roasted here, for example, for the Marian Walsh payback.
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p>In a perfect world, every hack would have a strong progressive challenger breathing down their neck every time they turned around.
Admittedly, government is famous for it. When, in my youth, I worked for a short time in Massachusetts government, I was truly amazed and the familial relationships of departments.
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p>Asked, “Who’s your Rabbi?”, I said I wasn’t Jewish. “No, no, you Irish?” I looked around and did a quick calculation of the organization’s ethnicity. “Yes, and part Italian.”
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p>Later on, I found the same situation in private industry – at a smaller extent. Certainly the private industry relatives seemed to work harder, or at least had real jobs.
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p>I doubt things will change. It seems people will always take care of “their own”.
I have a friend who’s on the Graduate Senate at UVM and in this capacity was asked to help interview candidates for a new Dean they were hiring. The idea was to get various “interest groups” to weigh in before the Chancellor made his decision. My friend and everyone else involved unanimously agreed that one candidate was head and shoulders above all the others and should clearly be hired. So what did the Chancellor do? Hire his less than qualified drinking buddy, of course! The whole process was a sham from the start.
How many “vice president’s relatives” find employment in the company for various tasks? This is a sector where “family business” is a literal reality.
the general public doesn’t really have an interest in how that company runs its business. If they don’t like the product, or don’t like the way they run the company, they can buy someone else’s toothpaste.
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p>Not so with government. We all pay for it, and we don’t have another choice short of moving to another state. That’s why people get so angry about it.
… made all the time that the private sector is allegedly more efficient and is used to beat up on government all the time. Just because the private sector issues are less transparent doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
I know “hey, look over there! someone else did something bad once!” is the only way some of the right-wingers around here know how to operate, but I’ve read enough of his comments to be confident that Mr. Lynne isn’t “defending” anything. We liberals are actually capable of understanding complex issues without reducing them to simplistic, black-or-white platitudes. You should try it sometime!
Defending hackery
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p>Right.
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p>(sighs and shakes head)
…who has time to actually read what they’re replying to?
It’s arguably easier to change states than health insurance or mobile phone carriers at this rate. But regardless, considering that a larger amount of personal income goes to the private sector than the public, I’ve always been amused that people care much more about the first than the second.
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p>If I find Tufts Health and BCBS are both corrupt, I’m SOL. If I think Comcast and Verizon are both rotten, no Internet or cable tv for me. If you don’t like your water company, then move.
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p>Our choices in private sector are surprisingly thin for an open market sometimes.
In my (thankfully) short stay as a state employee I saw the people with jobs that were merely to warm a chair seat. People would wander off, spend much of the day on breaks, and let everyone know who the relative was that got them the job – over and over again. It didn’t take too long to figure out that a lot of state tax revenue and federal aid few out the window. If there were ever a real audit of positions, think how much money could be saved… Who would do that? DeNucci’s office?
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p>Not that DEC, and Polaroid were much different. Hey!, What happened to them…
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p>“You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.” –John Kenneth Galbraith
I have whined about the fat in our state budget and people here keep telling me there is “no fat left to be cut”. Your story must be from before Deval took over and laid off the tens of thousands of slackers … oh wait, no he’s actually hired more people than he laid off. Never-mind!
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p>But he did institute the “volunteer day” where every state worker can go volunteer a day/month at various places. So the state can take a 5% hit on workload with no effect on getting things done. Sounds like a 5% across the board cut would have NO IMPACT on services. But that won’t happen!
does it still exist ?
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p>How can the state be crying it doesn’t have enough staff or money and gives employees 1 day a month of to volunteer ?
I don’t know about Polaroid, but I worked at Digital from 1974 to 1982, in a variety of technical and business roles.
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p>Say what you will about Digital, I know of NOBODY at Digital who was hired because of a relative who got them a job. NOBODY. There were some, at every level, who were less energetic than others. My experience was that they didn’t last all that long. Many of my coworkers worked literally around the clock for weeks at an end, and alternated those periods with weeks where they came in late, took long breaks, and went home early (most of THOSE did much of their most productive work while tending their garden or taking a “leisurely” walk along the river). Bob Armstrong told me that he designed most of the PDP11/05 (especially the hard parts) sitting in traffic on Route 2. He said that the driver’s seat of his car while in traffic was one of his most productive work environments.
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p>Digital, during its prime, did not conduct any “real audit of positions”, not even one. Instead, we had a culture where it was very hard to get hired, very hard to get fired, and each project leader chose the people they wanted on their team. It was a culture that bred creativity, innovation, and extraordinarily high technical achievement (along with a copious quantities of wailing, gnashing of teeth, frustration, back-biting, and astonishingly byzantine politics).
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p>I don’t think I ever encountered “people with jobs that were merely to warm a chair seat” — not even one. Yes, there were bozos. Yes, there were some who we viewed as blowhard incompetents. NOBODY was there to warm their chair seat.
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p>I am a fan of effective well-funded government. There is a wide and growing set of crucial needs that private companies are not capable of addressing. As marvelous as Digital was, it would be a disaster to have Digital run the MBTA. Not because they couldn’t do it — at its peak, the Digital air fleet logged more passenger-miles than many public carriers (any employee could take a Digital aircraft to any facility anywhere in the world at any time by merely showing their badge). Instead, Digital would have ensured that the MBTA ran quickly, frequently, conveniently, and safely. And it would have a cost a FORTUNE. Ken Olsen believed that the Digital air network was a crucial part of his competitive advantage, and he funded it accordingly. I don’t think any elected executive would be offered that discretion with public funds.
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p>Government and private enterprise are different. Fundamentally. They serve different purposes, they serve different stakeholders, and they are (or should be) measured by different benchmarks.
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p>I don’t know about Polaroid, but Digital Equipment Corporation was MUCH different from any government culture I’ve ever seen or been aware of in Massachusetts.
The leave which funds this is collected from rank and file, by and large. You must donate at least one day a year to participate, as a gesture that you will share your vacation time to help coworkers who are sick long term and exhaust their leave and cannot afford to go ‘off payroll’.
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p>These are people making less than $40,000 who don’t have showy perks, part-time or no-show jobs, years of sick time escrowed, and the wherewithal to financially survive a broken leg should they use up their sick time.
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p>Cousin – you are sucking down the one or two days hundreds of file clerks donated as insurance against a rainy day – vacation days they might have enjoyed. For over two years you’ve abused their donations.
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p>And that’s not all that’s sucking.
And I really liked Brookline Tom’s analysis. I am a constant reader and sometime poster who has recently been getting very turned off. The name calling and negativism towards Scott Brown, instead of being an optimist and giving him a chance really speaks to the polarization that we want Obama to break through.
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p>At the lumber yard I often go to, filled with Brown supporters, they remember when I asked Martha Coakley why she wouldn’t enforce the Open Meeting Law on Eagan and Braude and they describe the incident as her “running away like the question is a hot potato.” Where has she been while the Feds take down so many democratic pols?
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p>What is happening with the emails that Menino lost? Why hasn’t the Suffolk DA done anything to the licensing board which approved Dianne Wilkerson’s liquor license in a back room deal (His office gave their attorney’s an open time frame to get back to them with a reason. To no surprise they haven’t given a reason). The Globe hasn’t even reported about how the Boston School Committee selection committee has illegally appointed the members of the school board for the last 14 years in non-public meetings.
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p>I read many thoughtful posts here from many committed citizens but then I see political insiders (hacks) appointed to committee’s and commissions by our Governor. Why aren’t Tom, David, Charlie, Shirley Kressel, etc. on those statewide ethics commissions?
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p>Anyway, thanks for bringing up the topic finally. I’m not willing to tolerate any of these hacks and I vote accordingly.
I’m a little reluctant to do something really drastic, like bar any family member of any elected official from holding a state job. After all, there’s always a chance that family member really is qualified. PP made a passing reference to a state-level civil service exam; maybe that is part of the solution. Maybe there should be an extra check/balance in place when such an applicant comes up so that the elected relative can make a recommendation, but not an actual hiring decision. I can’t imagine we could ever eliminate entirely the who you know factor, and frankly I’m not sure I’d want to. Sometimes people have the worst luck going through a completely neutral and objective hiring process and could use an advocate saying you know, this person really is talented and should be given a chance. Anybody hired that way could be subject to stricter review and scrutiny during an initial probationary period to make sure he really is doing the job well.
I used to like Howie Carr more when he railed against any hacks. Now he tries to tie these practices only to Democrats and is way too playbook conservative.
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p>Anyone remember former state representative Valerie Barsom (R-Wilbraham)? She resigned in late 1996 to go work in the Weld administration for the Big Dig. It was reported in the Springfield Republican that she later resigned and started a trucking business that hauled dirt for the Big Dig — probably more profitable than the $80k that she made as a state employee.
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p>Howie called her out with some columns in 1997, though he often did not identify her political party affiliation. I somehow doubt he would do that today to a fellow Republican, he really changed when when Romney took office.
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p>Bottom line is that any hiring process that has a human decision point in it has the potential for hiring abuses, public or private. The only way to lock that down completely would be to go to some kind of blind score-based hiring system — i.e. civil service. However, that doesn’t work so well with higher-up positions that rely more on trust and soft skills.
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p>A disclosure-based system could work, but only if the public ire can be sufficiently directed at elected officials.
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p>I think that some slack needs to be cut though — this DeNucci hiring is an example of an obvious abuse, but I have no problem with Deval Patrick hiring high-level people he knows and/or has worked with into positions that he controls — a governor needs to be able to put a team he is confident in on the field. I think the MA Republicans, in an attempt to discredit Patrick, went over the line a few times with innuendo.
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p>Pointing out when “supporters” or “donors” to candidates are hired somewhere by the state is often over the line — should people be disqualified for a state job because they supported a political candidate or donated money to a campaign?
…is that Republicans control very few jobs to offer. The ones that do (Plymouth County Sheriff) fill their slots with cronies.
But I fear you’re not.
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p>http://www.bostonherald.com/ne…
For years it guaranteed that the prospective civil servant could at least read, write and do a little math. But, in a classic of politicaal bait & switch, the politicians cried out the test discriminated against minorities. So the test died. Now, minorities that did well on the tests could be passed over to hire the politicians’ friends.
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p>So is the dirty business of politics…
Here’s how it worked (or didn’t work) in Billerica in the early 1980s (I have no reason to believe anything is any different today).
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p>The waterworks was, by statute, a civil service position. The argument was, correctly, that it was too important a position to be subject to the whims of political patronage. At the same time, the civil service exam was administered by the state. Being unpopular with elected officials at virtually every level, the state civil service authority was perpetually underfunded.
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p>That meant that tests were seldom updated or administered. As a result, the list of those who had taken and passed the needed civil-service exam for the Billerica water department was years (as in well more than five) behind. Hence, there were no applicants (minority or otherwise) available to add to the Billerica water department. That meant, in turn, that the town “had no choice” but to pay overtime — LOTS OF IT — to the old-timers who had operated the plant for years. Meanwhile, the salary of the town administrator (Paul Talbott, as I recall) was pegged to (among other things) the dollar total of the personnel budget he managed.
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p>Thus, here was the reality that faced the Billerica finance committee in the early eighties:
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p>
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p>Yes, politics is dirty business. It is not, however, dirty in the sense that I fear you imply in your comment.