STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
With Gov. Deval Patrick on hand to ensure a tiebreaking vote, Rep. Christopher Speranzo won a lifetime appointment today as clerk magistrate of the Pittsfield District Court, filling a two-year vacancy and overcoming objections from four members of the Governor’s Council who questioned his qualifications.
The 5-4 vote came after Patrick cancelled a planned vote on Speranzo last week, when his nomination might have been defeated because the governor and another Speranzo supporter, Councilor Christopher Iannella, were out of state and unable to attend the planned meeting.
“I think if people look at the resume, the facts in terms of his career, this guy has a breadth of experience that will serve him well as a clerk magistrate,” said Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, who cast the tiebreaking vote in his role as the ninth Governor’s Councilor. Patrick needed to attend the meeting to allow Murray to vote.
“Everyone comes in with a resume that’s somewhat different,” Murray said. “If you go back and look at the resumes of clerk magistrates that we’ve appointed and previous administrations have appointed some have had experience in the law, some have had experience just on the criminal side, some on the civil, some come from outside of the law, some may have a degree, some may not.”
Patrick’s pick of Speranzo’s for the lifetime sinecure highlights an issue that was raised in CommonWealth magazine earlier this year about those with political connections, especially legislators and former staffers, getting an outsized proportions of the clerks’ positions that come with little oversight, no mandatory retirement and scant possibilities of being removed unwillingly from office.
Speranzo was the second controversial court nominee confirmed in today’s council session. Earlier, Peter Coyne, a 10-year assistant clerk magistrate in the Suffolk County Juvenile Court whose brother is a prominent Beacon Hill lobbyist, won confirmation to a lifetime judgeship on the juvenile court, earning the approval on his tenth attempt to win a judgeship.
Speranzo, 38, a Pittsfield Democrat serving his fourth-term in the House, will leave his post as vice chair of the Judiciary Committee and become the second Democrat to leave the 160-member House in two weeks – Stephen Canessa, a New Bedford Democrat, resigned last month for a health care industry job.
Speranzo won support from Councilors Thomas Merrigan of Greenfield, Terrence Kennedy of Lynnfield, Kelly Timilty of Dedham and Iannella of Boston – all Democrats. Two Republican councilors, Jennie Caissie of Oxford and Charles Cipollini of Fall River, and two Democrats, Marilyn Devaney of Watertown and Mary-Ellen Manning of Salem, voted against Speranzo.
The deadlock set up the tiebreaking vote from Murray. Once the tie became apparent, Patrick entered the Council Chambers through his inner office, greeted councilors and banged the gavel quickly after Murray cast his vote. Patrick then returned to his office
The four Governor’s Councilors who voted against his nomination argued he was unqualified for the post, noting his acknowledged lack of experience in criminal matters, his lack of private sector experience and his lack of trial experience. Councilors also noted Speranzo never told voters in his district he was eyeing the clerk magistrate job even when he was asked about it during his reelection campaign last year.
“He probably is a good person. And I don’t doubt that,” said Councilor Devaney, one of the four councilors who voted against Speranzo’s nomination. “My son is a good person too, but I’m not going to give him a position as clerk magistrate because I want someone who is qualified.”
Devaney also ripped the judicial selection process as flawed and overly secretive, questioning whether certain councilors exerted too much influence on the process.
“There’s something wrong with this picture and I don’t know how I can stop it,” she said. “It’s a runaway train.”
During his nomination hearing, Speranzo defended his public sector career, arguing that it provided him with the “life experience” to work effectively as a clerk magistrate. He said that in his three-and-a-half-year legal career, which included time as an assistant attorney general and Pittsfield city solicitor, he had regularly faced step learning curves and excelled.
Coyne, 55, eked out a 5-3 vote from the Governor’s Council, overcoming questions by some councilors about his political connections: one brother, William, is a lobbyist for Exxon Mobil, Kraft Foods Global, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, MillerCoors, Raytheon, and Verizon Communications, and another brother, Michael, is a Boston Municipal Court judge.
Cipollini ripped Coyne’s political connections, questioning his brother William’s myriad political contributions, including a $200 contribution to Councilor Timilty in 2008. Timilty, who rarely speaks in during council meetings, shot back, “I was happy to receive it.”
Cipollini also blasted his council colleagues as “rubber-stampers” who fail to do their due diligence before doling out lifetime appointments.
Coyne, during his hearing last week, rejected the suggestion that his brother’s political contributions tipped the scale in his favor.
“I don’t believe that at all,” he said. “Whatever contributions my brother makes are limited by the law. As far as I know, everything that he does in terms of contributions is in compliance with the law.”