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Posted by: Thimios315

By JULIE MEHEGAN, Sun Statehouse Bureau

BOSTON In an unusually sharp public rebuke, Gov. Mitt Romney and his lieutenant yesterday raised concerns about hygiene and inmate safety at the Cambridge jail supervised by Middlesex Sheriff James DiPaola and said they are refusing a spending increase for the department because DiPaola failed to cooperate during the budget process.

During a press conference to release his spending proposal for fiscal 2006, Romney proposed a modest increase of 2.1 percent for seven of the eight sheriffs' departments. He excluded Middlesex and proposed level-funding for that office.

"Lt. Gov. (Kerry) Healey toured virtually all of the prisons in the state, all the sheriffs' operations, and came back very unhappy with the conditions of the Middlesex jail," Romney said. "We have tried to meet with them. I have found the sheriff's office there to be unresponsive, and therefore we have not given them the same increase we gave all the other sheriffs." DiPaola fired back in a statement late yesterday, saying he was "completely startled" by the suggestion that the Cambridge jail is unclean or that inmates are unsafe, concerns he called "baseless and surprising." DiPaola said Healey never raised those issues during her Aug. 3 tour of the jail, which he said has received positive reviews during annual inspections by the state Department of Correction.

The sheriff also said contrary to the charges by Romney and Healey, his staff was in regular contact with their budget aides, and he discounted the administration's influence over the final budget, saying he believes the spending plan "amounts to a suggestion to the Legislature."

Yesterday's clash between the administration and DiPaola comes eight months after The Sun reviewed the sheriff's spending records and found his office boasts a larger budget than departments of similar size and with the same number of facilities.

The review found that while the number of inmates in custody has dropped, the number of higher-paid employees under DiPaola has grown. In addition, The Sun reported that DiPaola has a fleet of 170 vehicles which includes an $800,000 community-control center used mostly for training while other sheriff's departments have no more than 120 vehicles.

Romney said at the time that the review raised a "frightening array" of issues and that his staff would review the department's spending. A spokesman for the governor said DiPaola had the opportunity to address concerns raised in The Sun series as well as those addressed by Healey if he had participated in the budget process.

"There have been a series of critical stories regarding waste and mismanagement in the Middlesex sheriff's office that we were cognizant of, and all we're asking for is cooperation as we assemble the state budget," said Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's director of communications.

The executive branch has almost no authority over the independently elected sheriffs' departments except when it comes to making budget recommendations. Healey yesterday accused DiPaola of ignoring his responsibility to play a role in that process.

Each of the sheriffs was expected to submit a formal spending proposal to the Executive Office of Administration & Finance (A&F). Healey said DiPaola did not do so.

The sheriff, a former state representative and police officer, also skipped a Nov. 16 meeting with Healey at the Statehouse during which each of the sheriffs was given the opportunity to outline their budgetary priorities, she said.

While she provided few details, Healey said she had some concerns about inmate overcrowding and hygiene issues when she toured the Middlesex county jail in Cambridge. If budget problems contributed to those issues, Healey said, she expected to hear from DiPaola.

"With those questions unanswered, and with his unwillingness to come to the table like every other sheriff in the commonwealth to discuss with us what his needs were for the coming year, I think we made the only decision we could," she said.

DiPaola's spokesman said he was unavailable for an interview yesterday. But in his statement, the second-term sheriff insisted his staff has had "regular dialogue" with A&F throughout the year. It does not address whether he submitted a formal budget.

"With respect to the charge that the Middlesex sheriff's office has not 'come to the table' and has not communicated our needs to the governor's office, we would simply say that is not true," he said. "Our discussions with the budget analysts seemed productive and cooperative. At no time was there any indication from any administration official that there was a problem with our agency in preparation of (the budget)."

DiPaola said if Healey had been truly concerned about what she saw in Cambridge, she shouldn't have waited five months to report it.

"If it was then, during this brief tour, that she formed these concerns, she had adequate time over the past five months to discuss them with us," he said.

Healey has served as Romney's liaison to municipal officials and many law-enforcement agencies, an arrangement DiPaola criticized subtly in his statement.

"It is ironic that the Romney administration accuses the Middlesex Sheriff's office of failing to communicate when high-ranking municipal officials cannot get past the lieutenant governor," he said.

DiPaola oversees a $50 million budget and a staff of about 650 at the Middlesex County Jail in Cambridge and the Middlesex County House of Correction in Billerica. A 2.1 percent budget increase would bring his office just over $1 million in additional funds next year.

The proposal outlined by Romney yesterday is the first step in finalizing a spending plan for fiscal 2006. After public hearings on Romney's budget, the House will unveil its own proposal in the spring, and the Senate will follow. The fiscal year begins on July 1.

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Posted by: mpd61

Hmmmmm....

50 vehicles sold @ $2000.00 each would give him $100,000 contingency fund. ( I'm sure he could actually get a lot more!)

Then he would still have as many vehicles as the other sheriffs, and more money than last years budget. (I KNOW they could get more than $2K for the Hummer, right?)

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Posted by: PearlOnyx

Topic Closed. Already being disccussed at length, including above picture in Hot Topics Forum. No need for duplication.

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