Gov. Deval Patrick pronounced the state of the Commonwealth “strong,” but the state of the Department of Children and Families is anything but. Patrick won’t be able to revel in the afterglow of his final address for long: The political fallout of from the disappearance of Jeremiah Oliver has only just begun.
Following up on last week’s House oversight hearing, the governor provided an update Monday on his ongoing conversations with lawmakers, agency officials, and independent investigators.
Perhaps that is why Patrick devoted only one sentence Tuesday night to the agency crisis arising out of the disappearance of the five-year-old Fitchburg boy. In a curious turn of phrase, he linked the strengthening of the child welfare agency to fixing with the Health Connector website, not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.
Unfortunately, most child abuse tragedies tend to follow familiar scripts. Lawmakers express outrage, commissioners appear contrite, governors vow to find out exactly what happened, and everyone agrees to look at possible reforms, if not necessarily more funding.
So far the developments in the Jeremiah Oliver case recall the state’s last high-profile child welfare crisis, under Mitt Romney, involving Haleigh Poutre. Patrick, like Romney, turned the major investigation over to outsiders. However, instead of appointing a commission as Romney did, Patrick engaged the highly regarded Washington-based Child Welfare League of America to investigate the Oliver case and policies and procedures at the agency.
The fallout from Poutre case and two other high profile instances of abuse in 2005 and 2006 led Patrick to establish the Office of the Child Advocate. The office has already played a key role in providing critical insights into the Oliver case that DCF’s own internal investigation may have omitted or overlooked.
Patrick has shown his hand on the budget front, pledging more money for the department to tackle caseload pressures, which require individual social workers to monitor dozens of family members, educators, and health providers.
At last week’s House oversight hearing, Rep. David Linksy, a Natick Democrat, told Department of Children and Families Commissioner Olga Roche that the agency would get “whatever money you need” and that “the Speaker would make sure that it happens.” It remains to be seen whether public pressure-a WBUR/MassINC poll found that nearly 80 percent of those surveyed are playing attention to the case-persuades House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray to support Patrick’s request for a $32.6 million increase funding for the department.
Right now, Patrick is standing by Roche, a child welfare veteran who came up through the agency’s ranks and took over the leadership of DCF in October. She fired three people involved in the Oliver case, moves that the department usually avoids.
Romney also stood by his man, Harry Spence, another well-regarded public servant (who is currently back in state government, overseeing administration of state’s trial courts). But Spence did not survive the change in administrations. After moving into the corner office, Patrick fired him. Unless some gross dereliction of duty comes to light, count on Patrick to continue to support Roche.
What bears watching is how the Legislature responds to the Child Welfare League report expected this spring. After all, Patrick is on his way out. Will lawmakers knuckle down and pass any proposals requiring their action? Or, in an election year, will they punt the tough decisions to the next governor?
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick delivers a final State of the Commonwealth address that’s light on big initiatives for his final year in office. Keller@Large was not impressed with either Patrick’s speech or the one that followed from the governor’s BFF in Washington. Health care guru John McDonough blisters the gov for glossing over problems with the state Health Connector website: “No plan. No explanation. No hope.”
Rep. Carlos Henriquez, brought for a second time to the State House in handcuffs, urges supporters via Twitter to write to House Speaker Robert DeLeo on his behalf, State House News reports. The House is considering disciplining Henriquez after he was found guilty of assaulting a girlfriend.
Lottery officials asked lawmakers yesterday to pass a bill allowing the agency to experiment with online gambling with no cash prizes, with an eye toward getting into actual Internet gambling in the future. Retailers line up against the Lottery’s online move.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The Lawrence City Council began deliberating over a $379,000 cost overrun for street paving incurred under former Mayor William Lantigua, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Peter Gelzinis talks to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans about the city’s recent spike in gang violence.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
President Obama takes his State of the Union message on raising the minimum wage and saving for retirement on the road, Time reports. New York magazine runs through the speech’s highlights and lowlights. Slate’s John Dickerson paints Obama’s address as window-dressing designed to distract from an unrelenting set of political constraints. The New York Times outlines the limits of Obama’s unilateralism. One National Review writer deemed the speech “forgettable,” the nicest of their analyses.
Sen. Ted Cruz pens a Wall Street Journal op-ed column painting Obama as the most imperial of the imperial presidents.
The New York Times puts Bridgegate in context, outlining the mechanics of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s highly organized, highly political intergovernmental relations efforts.
US Rep Michael Grimm, a Republican from New York with some campaign finance issues, threatened a reporter that he would “break you in half” and “throw you off this f—ing balcony.” On camera.
ELECTIONS
State Sen. Barry Finegold is announcing a run for treasurer with $434,000 in his campaign account, the Eagle-Tribune reports. Several candidates are likely to vie for Finegold’s current seat.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Bankers are wary of financing the state’s new medical marijuana operations.
Jeff Jacoby on income inequality: Nothing to see here folks, move along.
Paul McMorrow says there are much better uses for a stretch of Washington Street near Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain than a MBTA bus yard.
EDUCATION
The state Appeals Court upheld an arbitrator’s decision that Marshfield school officials wrongly fired a teacher who did not have a license to teach even though the Education Reform Act requires it.
The Fitchburg teacher’s aide who was suspended after someone anonymously sent school officials her racy modeling pictures is reinstated, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Football players at Northwestern University launch an effort to be represented by a labor union, ESPN reports.
State education officials have placed the Global Learning Charter Public School in New Bedford on probation after the school failed to meet benchmarks the state set to improve student achievement scores.
TRANSPORTATION
The MBTA’s shiny new commuter rail cars are riddled with defects, the Globe reports.
The West Bridgewater trucking company whose tractor-trailer carrying 11,000 gallons of gas rolled over triggering a fiery explosion and massive traffic jam on Route 24 yesterday has a spotty record, including at least 16 accidents in the last two years, according to federal transportation data.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Sen. Marc Pacheco files climate change preparation legislation that includes a coastal buyback program, the Associated Press reports.
The last working farm in Braintree is on its last legs as the family owners of Del’s Poultry Farm are looking to subdivide the land into eight buildable housing lots.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett concludes Lynn police were justified in using lethal force against Denis Reynoso, an Iraq War veteran who reportedly grabbed an officer’s gun in a struggle at his home, CommonWealth reports. Here is the Item’s report on Blodgett’s analysis as well as a story on this being the second instance of a Lynn policeman’s gun being taken away from him.
Private sector investors are putting $18 million behind a Chelsea effort to reduce inmate recidivism in one of the state’s first big tries at “social impact” investing. Three years ago, CommonWealth reported on the early stirrings of the movement here.
A judge rules against a former Peabody police lieutenant who claimed his pension was improperly taken away after he was convicted of improperly accessing the Civil Service exam scores of 21 colleagues in the department, the Salem News reports.
MEDIA
Boston magazine editor Carly Carioli says he is flattered Bath Magazine in England copied his Boston Marathon cover, but feels a donation to the One Fund is in order.
The Knight Foundation sets aside $1 million to help nonprofit news operations reach sustainability, the Nieman Journalism Lab reports.
A New York congressman threatens to throw a TV reporter off a Capitol balcony, and a Weather Channel meteorologist knees a would-be heckler.
The family of Jennifer Martel, the woman allegedly murdered by Jared Remy, says they have “no opinion” about Jerry Remy’s decision to return to the Red Sox broadcasting booth. The same is not true for Herald columnist Steve Buckley.
