Patrick discusses supporter for post

Appointment would mark shift for governor

The Patrick administration has been discussing whether to name an early campaign supporter as head of a state bonding agency, a job that pays as much as $225,000 a year, according to an e-mail written by a Walsh political adviser that outlines the plan.

By installing state Senator Marian Walsh, a West Roxbury Democrat and early supporter of Governor Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign, as executive director of the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority, the administration would be trading down in expertise.

A former Suffolk County prosecutor and longtime legislator, Walsh has no detailed job experience in public bonds and nonprofit debt. The current executive director, Benson T. Caswell, has an extensive background in the field.

A switch also could be expensive, creating a major hurdle for Walsh to get the job: Firing Caswell would cost the state $450,000, according to terms of his severance package.

If Patrick moves ahead with the plan, it would mark a shift for the governor, who declared after his campaign that lawmakers need not apply for administration jobs. At the time, Patrick's statement was in keeping with his campaign promises to reform Beacon Hill culture and reduce political patronage hiring.

There seemed to be little predisposition to that reformist impulse in the e-mail by a Walsh political consultant, Michael Goldman, to Patrick's chief of staff, Doug Rubin. A copy of the May 28 e-mail was obtained by the Globe.

"This is the job she is excited about doing for the governor," Goldman wrote in the e-mail.

Goldman, who also serves as an unpaid political adviser to the governor, described the outlines of a plan that he said was discussed with Rubin: Stack the authority's board with fresh Patrick appointees. Install a new chairman. Orchestrate Caswell's firing. Announce, at the end of July, that Walsh would be the new executive director, starting Sept. 1.

"Is this still the game plan? If so, great!" Goldman wrote.

If Walsh received the same salary as Caswell's $225,000 a year, it would pay Walsh $151,000 more than she currently makes as the Senate's assistant majority leader. Walsh, a state senator since 1993 and a House member from 1989 to 1992, now makes $73,273 a year.

A Patrick spokesman did not deny that the plan was under consideration, but would not discuss specifics.

"While we would be proud to have her as part of the administration, there are no current plans to make such an announcement," said Patrick's press secretary, Kyle Sullivan.

A spokesman for Walsh likewise did not rule out such a move, but said she is currently focused on her November reelection bid, which is uncontested.

Late yesterday, Rubin issued a statement describing the content of Goldman's e-mail as inaccurate, but did not elaborate.

"The e-mail was presumptuous, and I let Michael know that it did not accurately reflect our conversation," Rubin said.

Walsh declined to comment.

"All she is doing is running for reelection," Goldman said in an interview, acting as Walsh's spokesman. "Down the road, there may be other opportunities. Her focus is to win reelection."

Goldman said he has never received a response from Rubin to his e-mail.

With Walsh as the only Democrat whose name is printed on the September primary ballot in her district, local party officials will have the upper hand in choosing her successor if she were to leave. No Republican has filed for the seat.

Caswell, who has a long experience as a financial expert at Chicago firms advising nonprofit clients in tax-exempt capital financing, was recruited to take over the authority after a national search in 2002. He was hired by a board dominated by Republican gubernatorial appointees.

Caswell took over from Robert Ciolek, who also had a strong background in municipal and state financing, including a stint as director of administrative services for the City of Boston.

Last month, the Health and Educational Facilities Authority board voted Caswell a $25,000 a year raise, increasing his annual salary to its current $225,000. Firing him to make way for Walsh would cost the agency heavily in severance pay. His contract states that if he is dismissed without cause, he is guaranteed a year's pay, as well as two months of salary for each year served. It is not clear what salary Walsh, 53, would be paid in the post.

Patrick's chief appointment secretary recently contacted the Health and Educational Facilities Authority to notify it that the governor intended to move shortly to fill three vacancies.

Within days of his landslide election, Patrick took a tough stand against patronage, warning legislators they would be wasting their time pressuring him to hire their cronies or supporters. He did say he would not exclude lawmakers or their supporters from taking jobs in his administration, but said he would seek only the most qualified for the jobs that he fills.

"There is patronage and waste and inefficiency in all kinds of quarters of our government, and one of the jobs I am taking on is to get at that," Patrick said then.

But he has recently shown a willingness to bend on that point. Last month, he appointed state Representative Rachel Kaprielian, a Watertown Democrat and another of Patrick's early supporters in 2006, as registrar of motor vehicles, although she has no experience running large public agencies. He also appointed another legislative supporter, Representative Michael Festa, a Democrat from Melrose, as secretary of elder affairs, and Doublas W. Petersen of Marblehead as agricultural commissioner.

The Health and Educational Facilities Authority, which has a staff of 20, has issued more than $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds to finance construction for nonprofit health and education facilities around the state.

With three current vacancies to fill, Patrick will soon control the nine-member board of the authority. He is also expected to reappoint the chairman, Allen R. Larson, a Cape Cod lawyer whose wife Gloria Larson, president of Bentley College, was a state Republican insider who endorsed Patrick's candidacy in 2006. Allen Larson's seven-year term expired in July, and he is now serving as a holdover.

Walsh holds a theological degree from Harvard Divinity School and a law degree from Suffolk University. She has broad exposure to state finances and financial regulation. She served as Senate chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Joint Committee on Banks and Banking. She also led efforts in the Senate to force private, nonprofit organizations to open their books to the public.

Walsh, who has been seeking to leave the Senate, had applied to Patrick's judicial nominating commission to become a district court judge. But she withdrew her name this spring. The governor recently appointed her husband - Paul V. Buckley, a retired district court judge - to the state's Industrial Accident Board, a post that pays $113,000 a year.