Cleaning Up Bad Hiring Practices

For John, BLUF:  The corruption in the Probation Dep't hiring needs to exposed  Not looking for jail time or anything, just some sunshine.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In yesterday's edition of The [Lowell] Sun there was an article by Reporter Andy Metzger, of the State House News Service.  The headline was "Chair: Probation hiring probe beyond panel's jurisdiction".  This is about how the Commonwealth is dealing with way Probation Department jobs were being passed out improperly, and the fact that the Feds have been dealing with it for us.

Here is the lede and following paragraphs.

A House oversight committee will not investigate how a rigged hiring system was able to operate for years in the Probation Department, a decision a Republican lawmaker attributed to the culture that enabled the secret patronage.

House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight Chairman David Linsky told two Republicans in a letter Friday that the committee does not have the "jurisdiction" to look into what factors permitted the sham hiring to continue.

[Chairman] Linsky was unavailable for comment, but an aide cited the statute that sets out the jurisdiction of oversight committees and excludes any legislative agencies from being targets of oversight investigation.

How convenient.

It is the General Court.  The casual observer might be misled into thinking that the Legislature could amend the statute to allow such actions.  And, if there are reasons not to, reasons dealing with possible corruption of the process and the danger of paybacks, someone should say it.

Transparency.

Regards  —  Cliff