Amid uproar over the vote on Salim Rodriguez Tabit for a seat on the Superior Court, Governor's Councilor Mary Hurley said, "I am formally stating that I am going to be a committee of one or as many who want to join to put in place rules of order."
By ANDY METZGER
BOSTON -- Animosity between members of the Governor's Council erupted into "chaos" and shouting on Wednesday as the elected panel that vets judicial nominees confirmed Methuen attorney Salim Rodriguez Tabit by a 5-2 vote for a seat on the Superior Court.
Councilors Robert Jubinville and Marilyn Devaney, who cast the votes against the nominee, expressed outrage at the departure from the normal practice of holding votes the week after an interview with a judicial nominee.
A bilingual attorney who spent his early career as a prosecutor in Essex County, Tabit has been in private practice for about 17 years and in June 2006 became a partner at Broadhurst Tabit, he wrote in a questionnaire for the council.
The second and final day of Tabit's unusually lengthy council interview drew to a close late Wednesday afternoon, and Governor's Councilor Eileen Duff announced her intention to immediately convene a meeting for a vote on the nominee. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito arrived shortly afterward, as Devaney and Jubinville protested, sparking an argument where councilors shouted over one another.
"This is a travesty of justice," Devaney said before the meeting got underway. She said, "This was all set up. It's a set-up. It's a disgrace. And lieutenant governor, you shouldn't be part of it."
"Have some respect Councilor Devaney," Councilor Jennie Caissie responded.
Wednesday's interview with Tabit was scheduled during the 47-year-old's first interview a week earlier when Jubinville raised concerns over a Board of Bar Overseers complaint, which was dismissed. The dismissed complaint was not specifically addressed in the questionnaire Tabit had filled out for the council in January and Jubinville questioned whether it had been intentionally hidden.
Tabit on Wednesday said he alerted the Judicial Nominating Commission, which operates under the governor's office, about the "frivolous" complaint and its relatively quick dismissal in November when he learned that Gov. Charlie Baker wanted to meet with him about an opening on the court. The complaint had been made after Tabit submitted his application. Tabit said he thought the addendum he supplied would have been sent to the councilors, but it was not.
"Why wouldn't you make sure that we knew it if you were making sure the governor knew it?" Jubinville asked Tabit during Wednesday's interview. He questioned, "Why didn't you think we were as important as the governor to give us information?"
"I absolutely did," said Tabit, who said he thought the council had received the information about the dismissed complaint. Councilors agreed that unless they result in disciplinary action, occasional complaints are an ordinary part of the business of lawyering, and Caissie pointed out that Tabit only had one complaint in more than two decades of practicing law.
Governor's Councilor Terrence Kennedy said the complaint "seemed to be much ado about nothing" and heralded the nomination of an attorney with Cuban-American parents to the Superior Court bench, which he said includes no Latino jurists.
"The majority of my clients are Latino. Most of them are immigrants. Many don't speak any English," said Tabit. He said many of his clients have an "inferiority complex" and are "defensive." The nominee, who has practiced a wide range of law, said it can be "unnerving" for some to go into an institution where people do not speak their language.
The council typically interviews a candidate one week and votes on the nominee the following Wednesday at its usual noontime meeting. Nominees are not usually present for their votes. In Tabit's case, Jubinville told the nominee last week to return for more questioning Wednesday and to supply councilors with more information about the dismissed complaint, which he did. The vote was held around 5 p.m. right after the interview concluded.
Jubinville and Devaney protested the vote, calling it a "disgrace," and Devaney questioned whether Polito had been "planning" for the vote Wednesday. The lieutenant governor responded that she was in the executive suite to confer about the upcoming winter storm and was asked to come to the council chambers.
"Can I have some attention here, some respect while you're talking," Devaney said, though no members were audibly speaking over her. She said, "I'll wait 'til they're finished talking. I like to give people respect."
At that claim, other councilors pointedly laughed, and Kennedy shouted, "You talk through everybody else, Marilyn, all the time" - as Devaney attempted to resume her speech - "You know I've sat here for six years and listened to you do it, and I'm tired of it. OK? You set your own rules."
"This is a travesty of justice and this will be your legacy, lieutenant governor," Devaney said. After the meeting Devaney suggested the departure from the council's ordinary procedure was improper, telling the News Service that she herself had "lost it because this is going on too much." Asked about the lack of decorum in the chamber, Devaney said "it's very hard to have decorum" when councilors spring a vote on a nominee.
"To me this is underhanded. It's disgraceful - the last-minute bang-the-gavel we're-going-to-have-a-vote. There is no need of a vote today," Jubinville told his colleagues. "A vote can be held next week. And this is wrong. If this the way we're going to do business we deserve every criticism we get."
Jubinville said Councilor Christopher Iannella, who was the only councilor not present, wanted to participate in the vote.
Amid the uproar, Governor's Councilor Mary Hurley, a retired judge elected to the council last November, expressed exasperation.
"I'm the newbie here. I am so confused. I have lived my whole life by rules: the rule of law, the rules of evidence, court procedures and everything else that goes with it. I am formally stating that I am going to be a committee of one or as many who want to join to put in place rules of order. We need them," Hurley, a former Springfield mayor now living in East Longmeadow, said, continuing, "That's the problem. There's no rules. It's chaos. It's chaotic."
"It's chaotic because of things like this," Jubinville said, striking his hand on a table for emphasis. He said, "Councilors on this council are rubber stamps."
Devaney joined in, saying councilors are "cheerleaders." When Caissie noted the hours spent vetting Tabit, Devaney accused her colleague of spending part of the hearing "across the street, at the 21 Amendment," a Beacon Hill bar, which Caissie immediately and categorically denied.
"We had a nine-plus hour judicial confirmation hearing for a Superior Court nominee. He was grilled," Caissie said. She said, "It is the practice of this body to vote one week after a hearing. So we're in keeping with that."
Caissie, the lone Republican on the council, agreed on the need for rules and contended it was a disgrace that "people don't extend any professional courtesies anymore in this chamber."
"The disgrace is banging the gavel and saying we're going to vote when nobody knows about it," yelled Jubinville in response, slamming his hand against the table with greater emphasis than before. "That's the disgrace."
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