McGee cuts probation jobs support

LYNN – State Sen. Thomas McGee said Monday he will likely wait before penning any more letters of support for probation job applicants in the wake of an investigation into how the state Probation Department hires employees.”Until I think there is a clear decision of where probation should go, under judicial or under administration, and who is going to run the agency, it is not something to weigh into right now,” said the Lynn Democrat.McGee was listed in the top 10 of state lawmakers who recommend candidates for Probation Department jobs in the report of the department by independent counsel Paul F. Ware.Although McGee was not accused of any wrongdoing, the examination of the state Trial Court’s Department of Probation inferred that he and others sponsored many applicants for probation jobs, including some who had made political contributions.”There are substantial problems with the Probation Department right now and we need to identify in a fair and clear way how the agency should be run properly. And most importantly, we have to determine who should run it,” he said.The report states that the sponsor lists reflect the greater influence of legislators in leadership positions or on important committees. McGee is chairman of the Public Service Committee and the Labor and Workforce Development Committee.”I didn’t have any indication of what was going on in terms of advancement or hiring at probation,” he said.McGee said his office has a constituent services staff that fields calls daily for assistance with educational placement, affordable housing, substance abuse treatment and other concerns.”Somebody might call looking for a job, or a family might need services for in-patient treatment, or they may be struggling to find housing,” the senator said. “I try to help them. That’s what I have always done.”If a probation job opened up and McGee’s office received a request for sponsorship from a potential candidate, the constituent services staff would review the person’s resume and conduct an interview, he said.”I have supported qualified candidates who approached our office for help,” McGee said. “We would usually write a letter of support in their behalf if we felt they were qualified.”McGee took issue with data contained in the report, such as the 21 candidates he sponsored for probation jobs.”Those numbers were put out over a number of years,” he said. “And the report does not clearly say that these were recommendations, nothing more.”The senator said a letter of support from his office is merely a first step.”There is a whole process the candidate has to go through after that. There’s a lot more to it ? I think the report itself is very disturbing, especially the things that were happening in terms of how positions were being filled and the rigging of jobs. That is something we need to take a serious look at.”The report noted that “significant discrepancies in favor of contributors” appear as well for several senators, but McGee was not among them.The author of the report acknowledged that it is incomplete and that many avenues of obvious inquiry could not be fully explored given time and resource constraints. Ware said he was mindful that the investigation was focused on the Probation Department, not other state agencies or the Legislature.”The investigation did, however, reveal a degree of abuse and systemic corruption in hiring and promotion that cannot be ignored, and which as implemented, became an obstacle to the very principles of hiring articulated in Trial Court policies,” Ware said.