Gonzalez: Baker fails on OT thefts
Says top officials should be fired
Gov. Charlie Baker’s handling of the state police overtime scandal is under fire by challenger Jay Gonzalez, who is calling on the governor to “immediately fire” Secretary of Public Safety Daniel Bennett and Col. Kerry Gilpin.
“Gov. Baker needs to take charge. Enough is enough,” Gonzalez said at the State House steps yesterday. “He should finally act with a sense of urgency to fix the culture of corruption and management failures that have resulted in state police officers stealing taxpayers’ money.”
Gonzalez suggested Baker appoint someone “from the outside” of the state police, which is against the law. When a reporter raised that issue, Gonzalez said, “We should get legislation immediately to do it.”
Baker countered yesterday by pointing to all the indictments that have taken place so far, which he said was a result of Bennett and Gilpin’s work investigating the disbanded Troop E. He also noted that GPS technology has been installed in more than 1,000 marked cruisers.
“I think the work that’s being done by the colonel is exactly the right kind of work to be done,” Baker said. “She’s the one that led the investigation, expanded it. She’s the one that submitted the documentation to both the attorney general and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that’s led to these indictments and these pleas … I think she’s doing all the things she said she was going to do.”
Three former lieutenants were indicted in connection with alleged overtime abuse on the Mass Pike just last week. The trooper pay probe has netted 46 state cops to date.
“Our Attorney General Maura Healey says there is more to come, and even though the first report was 19 months ago, Gov. Baker did not propose any reforms until about a year later,” Gonzalez said. “And now six months after he’s proposed those reforms he still failed to implement them.”
The governor’s campaign spokesman Terry MacCormack said Baker’s public safety team has for months been implementing the very reforms his opponent is demanding, “which is why his opponent’s credibility continues to be questioned by fellow Democrats.”
Democratic state Rep. Angelo J. Puppolo Jr. called Gonzalez’s stunt “political nonsense,” and expressed his continued support for Gilpin.