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Felix Arroyo the elder gets put on leave as probate register, just like his predecessor
By adamg on Sat, 02/04/2017 - 7:44pm
The Globe reports the state court system has put Felix Arroyo, Sr. on leave as it investigates something about the way he's done his job after replacing Patty Campatelli, who was put on leave during an investigation into various infractions, including allegedly punching a subordinate.
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Comments
It's almost as if a position
It's almost as if a position like this should be appointed rather than elected...
Not 'almost'
My perception is that Arroyo is a decent guy. He got himself elected Register (which pays $135K/year plus pension) based on name recognition. Turns out, he could not do that job.
(When is last time you recall an elected official being suspended for incompetence? Not ever, for me.)
Conclusion: Make the position appointive, based on a competitive process.
Counties in MA are an
Counties in MA are an anachronism. Can't all their functions be rolled up in state government?
They mostly are
That's what made the recent Register of Deeds election (never mind the even more recent raise for the Suffolk County Register of Deeds after a whole two months in office) so stupid - the employees all really report to the Secretary of State, not the Register of Deeds, so what's the point?
The problem is nobody wants to stick their neck out and introduce legislation (hmm, maybe in the form of a proposed constitutional amendment) to rid of us of these resting places for city councilors who found themselves without jobs after not getting re-elected.
I knew I should have voted
I knew I should have voted for Marty Keogh
You're right
Marty...
This is an oddly reported story.
We still don't know why he was placed in administrative leave. You don't get placed on admin leave because of simple incompetence. There is typically an allegation of significant misconduct that needs to be investigated.
What did arroyo do (or what is he accused of doing) that resulted in his placement on admin leave? After hundreds of words we don't know. Well done Globe.
Who suspended him?
Either I need more coffee, or this article is written extremely vaguely. Who, exactly, suspended Arroyo? (I mainly want to know so I can thank them for looking out for us)
Also, count me in for making this a civil service job. Giving these hacks big pay-raises is crazy.
Asminstrative leave is different than a suspension.
It's a paid vacation. A suspension is without pay and typically comes after your employer has determined you violated rules/committed misconduct.
This represents the great
This represents the great success of diversity in 21st century progressive Boston: now every minority can be corrupt hacks - not just the Irish. Now that's true progress!
actually the reverse
Patty "Boom Boom" Campatelli spent her days surfing the web, going for ciggie breaks, berating employees and scratching lottery tickets while the office went to hell. It wasn't until she drunkenly assaulted an employee that she finally got into trouble.
They put Felix Sr. on paid administrative leave because the office was a mess but:
Inherit a fucked up office and not turn it around quickly - and they pull the trigger. Unless there is more they're not saying (and I would guess that there MUST be something) this looks like a double standard. Maybe now that non-whites are getting elected to these patronage positions they've decided that it's time to do something about it. Tell Murphy he got in JUST in time.
Worst probate office in MA
A colleague deals with every probate office in MA as part of his job. The Suffolk county probate court clerks office is the worst one hands down. About a year ago they instituted a "no call" policy. If you had questions you had to go in person to ask them. If you needed info on a case, yep, in person. For law firms outside of Boston who practice in all courts this is unfeasible. He had a case which required multiple trips from Natick into the city just to get the case scheduled.
There are often loooong waits and Felix would be kicking around talking to (distracting) staff or asking people if they needed anything. He never seemed to have any idea how to move things along. The court VM implored people to contact him directly if they weren't getting a response with the clerks office. So I left him a message and emailed him after not hearing back on a motion I had filed and he never got back to me.
The office itself is understaffed and most of the workers are miserable as a result. And some of the staff should not be working with the public. They manage MANY pro se cases. Assisting lay people who have little knowledge of the court is a lot more work than dealing with attorneys directly. They need more staff, they need better leadership and they need to dump the staff who are just awful (instead of simply overworked).