Dismissed agency chief continues to draw pay

Shelly Taylor, 48, earned a portion of her $108,000 annual salary for the month following her Aug. 7 resignation because she was helping her replacement, Richard C. Heidlage, ease into his new job responsibilities, Heidlage said.

Heidlage, who was hired at the agency by Taylor last year, said he retained Taylor as a paid consultant for two additional months because assigning Taylor’s unfinished cases to other magistrates would require them to start again, reviewing cases from the beginning and repeating hearings.

The backlog has created havoc for people who came to the agency for relief. A former prison guard who has waited 16 months for Taylor’s decision on his request for a disability pension said she does not deserve additional pay or extra time to finish her work.

“As a taxpayer, I am furious,’’ said Jeff Waite, 49. “I worked for the state. They paid me to do a job. They paid her to do a job; now do it.’’

The little-known Division of Administrative Law Appeals makes hundreds of critical decisions each year on cases including government workers’ pensions and appeals from professionals such as doctors and day care workers whose state-issued licenses have been suspended or revoked.

In many of Taylor’s cases, litigants have been waiting a year or more for rulings.

“Shelly took on too much herself, and, as a result of that, she was unable to get decisions out, and she was essentially a choke point for getting work out of the agency,’’ Heidlage said. “That was the problem.’’

Taylor did not respond to requests for comment left on her home answering machine and sent to her e-mail address.

Taylor is expected to turn in the last of 12 decisions Heidlage asked her to write by the end of this week. She had submitted seven by Tuesday, he said. She will not be paid after Nov. 6.

“The contract will not be extended,’’ Heidlage said. “We don’t have the money to do that.’’

Taylor’s predecessor, Chris Connolly, 62, said he was given just two weeks to finish his caseload after Taylor fired him in 2008. Connolly had worked at the agency for 30 years.

After he was fired, Connolly filed an age discrimination complaint, which was later dismissed.

During her more than two years as chief magistrate, Taylor wrote two complete decisions, agency records show. Connolly labeled that a “pathetic’’ record of output compared with his average of 18 to 24 written decisions each year.

Connolly said Taylor’s lack of production was surprising, given that she is a specialist in government regulatory law.

Taylor, a lawyer, had previously served as senior litigation counsel at the Massachusetts Port Authority. She also held legal positions in the offices of the attorney general and the state treasurer, according to a press release issued when Governor Deval Patrick appointed her in 2007.

“There was no need for a steep learning curve,’’ Connolly said.

Taylor was appointed to run the $1.1 million agency in part to address an increasing backlog of cases. The Division of Administrative Law Appeals, which has 10 magistrates, receives some 800 cases each year and does not even begin to hear those cases until at least a year later.

In Taylor’s first full year on the job, the number of decisions issued by the agency dropped by half, from 348 the year before to 169, agency records show.

Taylor’s management style and effectiveness drew strong complaints from employees and lawyers practicing before the agency.

“We went months and months and months with no hearing notices,’’ said Deborah Kohl, a lawyer who represents Waite. “Nothing was scheduled.’’

Some lawyers who appear before the agency said that continuing to pay Taylor makes no sense.

“It is ridiculous,’’ said attorney Nick Poser, who has practiced before the division since 1987. “She had plenty of opportunities to finish her work, especially where she was the one who was in control of the timing of her leaving.

“It does not feel to me it like it is a good use of my and other taxpayers’ money, especially in light of her disastrous tenure as chief magistrate,’’ Poser said.

He said the decision to retain Taylor shows the Patrick administration’s lack of interest in the agency.

“They did not care about the Division of Administrative Law Appeals and the work that it does and the people that it serves,’’ Poser said.

Heidlage said he has made it a mission to reduce the agency’s case bottleneck.

“The backlog continues to grow,’’ Heidlage said. “I see it as my task going forward to place the procedures in place not only to help the magistrates get these cases decided, but also to help the litigants get these cases decided.’’

The agency’s budget has been cut for the coming fiscal year. Heidlage said he will take six unpaid work days. He invited a public review of his performance in six months.

“There are changes that we need to make,’’ he said. “I can tell you the Division of Administrative Law Appeals is fully engaged, and the people are working as hard as I’ve seen anybody work anywhere.’’

This story was reported by members of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University, a collaborative that includes the Globe, WBUR-FM, and New England Cable News.