Blue Mass Group

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Deval Patrick’s salary slashing campaign

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CommonWealth magazine’s cover story in the new summer issue, “Salary divide,” looks at Gov. Patrick’s move to slash salaries among top officials in state government.  Last week, the Globe reported that Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan will leave by the end of the year after being rebuffed in his request to Patrick for a raise. Is Patrick’s new hard line on salaries hurting the effort to recruit and retain top talent in state government? CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl and policy analyst Charlie Chieppo consider that question in CommonWealth‘s latest Face to Face video conversation, which you can view here.

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  1. We just hired terrific new CEO’s for Mass Development and Mass Technology Collaborative at salaries that were 30% less and 20% less, respectively, than their predecessors’.

    I agree with Fred Salvucci, who is quoted in the story as saying that it’s possible to attract good people to government service jobs at lower pay if those being hired have the backing of top officials and feel they can really accomplish something.

    That’s what we’re doing at the agencies where I chair the board.

    • in a Letter to the Editor on Sunday In part …(.emphasis mine)

      It was clear during the Romney administration that funding for both highways and transit was dramatically inadequate. Rather than act, Governor Romney appointed a bipartisan commission, which reported at the end of his term that it would take $20 billion to achieve a state of good repair. Governor Deval Patrick proposed a significant increase in the gas tax, but the Legislature insisted on “reform before revenue,’’ and provided only patchwork funding.

      The reform streamlined the Turnpike and MassHighway into MassDOT, but the same employees who for over a decade were told to “never write anything down’’ are still practicing a poorly informed brand of triage among competing disasters waiting to happen.

      Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan has worked tirelessly on reform, and has achieved real savings from using civilian flaggers and some other purchasing efficiencies.

      True transparency will make clear that with the dangerous underfunding of maintenance, the transportation system, and the commuters who depend on it, are at risk. But true transparency will require that the community’s political and civic leadership be ready to face the inconvenient truth.

      Frederick P. Salvucci
      Cambridge

        • blue flashing lights attached to it on the roads? Come on, get real. Like Christie’s poll numbers, your comment is tanking.

          Doesn’t look like Christie could get re-elected Governor, never mind anything else.

  2. …there’s only one word to describe the melding of these talents, “nirvana”.
    Thank you for the work you do.

  3. is that it comes on top of the long-term trend of cutting public sector staffing. As I note in my book, “Managing Public Sector Projects…in an Era of Downsized Government,” this trend has lessened the capacity of the public sector to successfully manage and oversee public projects.

    Fred Salvucci notes this in the CommonWealth article: The reason the Boston Harbor project was more successful in meeting its budget and schedule than the Big Dig was because the MWRA had more capacity to manage the Harbor Project than did the then Highway Department to manage the Big Dig. In the latter case, key management functions were turned over to Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and the results were fiscally disastrous.

    Unfortunately, in the debate over public sector salaries, we’ve lost sight of the underlying dynamic of unchecked privatization and downsized government.

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