BOSTON—Independent gubernatorial candidate Timothy Cahill said Monday that patronage is a part of politics, but politics played no role in his decision to hire the wife and daughter of a state official who has been suspended amid allegations of rampant patronage at his own agency.
The state treasurer said he knows Probation Commissioner John O'Brien, and O'Brien has supported his political career in their hometown of Quincy. Yet he said that didn't influence his decision to hire O'Brien's wife, Laurie, and one of the couple's daughters.
"There's no personal relationship," Cahill said of John O'Brien. "He's not hanging out at my house or anything like that. He's a political supporter, or has been for a while, but that didn't influence the decisions I made about his members of his family.
Cahill added: "We had openings for positions. They applied for those positions. I've known Laurie O'Brien for a long time, because she's a Quincy resident."
O'Brien's hiring practices have been the subject of front-page stories in The Boston Globe. Gov. Deval Patrick heightened attention on the issue by branding the Probation Department a "rogue agency" and urging the Legislature to pass a department-realignment bill he filed in January.
Margaret Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert Mulligan later announced they had placed O'Brien on administrative leave out of concern the stories would undercut public confidence in the agency.
Cahill offered a defense of political patronage when asked about descriptions of seemingly highly qualified applicants being passed over for probation jobs in favor of those related to politicians.
"Does that not happen in government all the time?" he asked. "Obviously, it is part of the political process. It's an unfortunate part when it's been brought to this level."
Cahill noted none of his family members work for O'Brien.
Patrick, a Democrat seeking re-election, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker said Attorney General Martha Coakley should investigate. Marshall and Mulligan appointed former Big Dig investigator Paul Ware to conduct an investigation on their behalf.
Cahill said an investigation is not needed. Rather, he supports returning oversight for the department from the legislative branch to the judiciary.
"The Legislature really deserves the blame for this," said Cahill. "They shouldn't have made the move when they made it. They made it simply because they wanted to control the jobs."
He said if oversight is returned to the judicial branch, then it "could determine whether Commissioner O'Brien should stay or should leave, and they can reorganize the place around making it work for probation, making it work for public safety."
Patrick told reporters the Probation Department is a "rogue agency."
He added: "What I thought was a problem may be even a bigger problem, and I want to encourage the Legislature to take up this bill."
His bill proposes combining the Probation and Parole departments under the executive branch, which Patrick says will create a modern agency allowing people to transition from prison life back into society. It would also give oversight to the governor instead of the Legislature.
Cahill said that would likely just shift the source of patronage, which Patrick dismissed with a quip.
"You mean, will people still ask for jobs?" the governor asked with a chuckle as he entered a student forum at Suffolk University's Rappaport Center. "Yeah, I'm sure people would still ask for jobs."
Nonetheless, Patrick said patronage should not just be accepted.
"I don't think that's enough of an explanation, and it's certainly not one that's going to satisfy me or anybody else in the general public," he said.
Later, the treasurer picked up the endorsements of the patrolman's and superior officer police unions in Quincy. He said after a month of negative ads against him by the Republican Governors Association, "It's nice to know that people are going to stand with you."
Lt. Timothy Sorgi, president of the Quincy Police Superior Officer's Association, said in a statement: "Tim Cahill is a longtime friend of law enforcement and is committed to making sure that our men and women wearing the uniform have the resources and support that they need."
