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"It takes an awful lot to get me off a sailboat when I'm on vacation, but had I known this was coming up for a vote, I would have flown back to oppose it," said Gordon. "I hope and expect I might have been able to convince some people to agree with me." Gordon, who is vice chairman and the longest-serving member of the board, said Walsh should not have been put in the "nonexistent" position of assistant executive director.
-The Associated Press, 3/18/09

Board member rips Mass gov for senator's $175K job
The Associated Press, 3/18/09
By Glen Johnson

A member of the board that hired a state senator to fill a long-empty executive job ripped Gov. Deval Patrick and his colleagues for the appointment and said the state should not be spending $175,000 per year on a glorified lobbyist.

Marvin Gordon told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he was on vacation in the Caribbean last week and had no notice that the Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority was going to vote on hiring Sen. Marian Walsh, D-Boston.

The vote was not itemized on the board's public agenda and came up at the end of the meeting, during a section described generically as the "Chairman's Report." The hiring was approved unanimously.

Patrick has appointed or reappointed the majority of the seven-member board and has been roundly criticized for Walsh's hiring - and $100,000 raise - while the state is facing a $1 billion budget deficit. In addition, Walsh was an early political supporter, and both the governor and Legislature have faced a public outcry over recent patronage appointments within state government.

"It takes an awful lot to get me off a sailboat when I'm on vacation, but had I known this was coming up for a vote, I would have flown back to oppose it," said Gordon. "I hope and expect I might have been able to convince some people to agree with me."

Gordon, who is vice chairman and the longest-serving member of the board, said Walsh should not have been put in the "nonexistent" position of assistant executive director.

MHEFA is a nonprofit agency that helps arrange financing for education, health and cultural institutions. It has not had an assistant executive director for at least the past 12 years.
In her role as assistant executive director, Walsh would assist the agency in government relations and "reaching out to the other Massachusetts agencies and quasi-public authorities," the board said in a statement following the meeting.

Walsh would step down from the Senate, where she earns $76,440 as majority whip, to take the new job.

Gordon said: "I don't think a state agency should be hiring anybody as a lobbyist. The euphemism of `maintaining relationships with state agencies,' give me a break. Secondly, I think that filling a $175,000 job as a political reward for this governor, who I expected a lot more from, is unconscionable."

Board Chairman Allen Larson told the AP the vote wasn't highlighted in the agenda because it was printed in advance. He said he e-mailed members March 9 to inform them of the Walsh vote. Gordon was on vacation at that time.

"I think Marvin's getting caught up in the politics of this," Larson said. "Were it not a state senator getting appointed, I'm not sure there would have been much of an issue here."

He added: "Marvin's upset I didn't figure a navigational way to contact him at sea in the Caribbean. I just don't see that as my job."

Larson, the husband of Bentley College President Gloria Larson, who served as co-chairman of Patrick's transition committee, said Walsh has unique skills. He said her background will help the agency as it reaches out to the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and other state agencies and quasi-public authorities to share expertise and resources.

The 54-year-old senator has served as chairman of the Senate Taxation and Banking committees. She has been in the Senate since 1992 and served two terms in the House.

Gordon, 72, is a Harvard and Harvard Business School graduate who was worked as a chief executive, banker and hospital foundation board member. He also served seven years as a selectman in Milton, the hometown he shares with Patrick.

Gordon was appointed to the MHEFA board in 1997 by then-Republican Gov. Paul Cellucci. Yet he twice gave the maximum $500 to Patrick during the Democrat's successful 2006 campaign for governor.

Agency spokesman Liam Sullivan said Gordon's absence from a board meeting was a rarity.
"He has a very good attendance record," said Sullivan.

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