NORTHAMPTON — While many state job vacancies get posted online, countless others are filled without any public notice, even though the commonwealth’s hiring guidelines call for vacancies to be posted publicly for at least 14 days, including management positions.
A House bill now in the Ways and Means Committee could change the landscape for job-seekers and to bridge the gap between state policy and its practices which often falls short of those guidelines.
In other words, the human resources policy that is designed to hire a diverse and qualified workforce would become law and the public would, at the very least, have notice of all job opportunities within the state’s vast bureaucracy.
Sponsored by state Rep. John W. Scibak, D-South Hadley, the bill has been reintroduced in various versions for 20 years in the Legislature, but has always failed to garner enough support to make its way into law.
Thomas J. McGee, of Hadley, is responsible for getting the proposed legislation on lawmakers’ radar repeatedly since 1995 and he believes that posting all state employment opportunities is a matter of fairness and transparency. McGee has testified for years in Boston to get the legislation passed, and had earlier hoped the recent patronage hiring scandal in the Massachusetts Probation Department would give it the needed momentum.
“The purpose of the bill is to help minorities, veterans and others to find jobs they’re qualified for,” said McGee, who is retired and spent much of his career working in U.S. government service. “If they keep it a secret, they keep operating as they’re doing with these hack employments. You want the most qualified people. It’s disgraceful that it’s gone on for two decades.”
McGee began pushing for the bill when former state Rep. Nancy Flavin, D-Easthampton, represented his district.
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst voiced support for the bill and sponsored it in the Senate two years ago. In a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee chairman then, Rosenberg wrote that its passage “would allow excellent candidates who might not otherwise have the opportunity to hear about these openings to access this information in a timely manner.”
“Ultimately having a larger and more competitive field of candidates to draw upon only benefits our state by ensuring that our workforce is composed of highly qualified individuals,” Rosenberg wrote in support of the bill.
The latest version in the House received a favorable recommendation from the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, of which Scibak is chairman. Scibak said he sees no reason why the bill should not continue forward and is not aware of any opposition to it at this time.
“If you want transparency in government, there should be transparency in terms of job postings,” he said. “It makes perfect sense.”
Scibak said that while the House Ways and Means Committee is currently busy with the state budget, McGee’s bill is one he’d like to see make its way out “sooner than later.”
“I’ve spoken both to Ways and Means and the speaker in terms of it being a priority for me and I plan to do that again,” Scibak said. “I’m not abandoning the possibility of this thing passing this session.”
A review of recent hirings at several state agencies finds that some jobs were advertised either by the state or through the agency’s own website, though many others were not, in part because of a waiver process that exists in the state’s hiring process.
That was the case with a slew of new hirings over the past several months in the state Division of Professional Licensure, according to that agency. The agency is overseen by Director Charles Borstel and licenses and regulates some 50 trades and professions.
The Division of Professional Licensure filled five management positions late last year, none of which was posted. The positions included three associate executive directors, an executive director and the agency’s general counsel, a position that had been posted in the past.
The agency used waivers that allowed it to fill the jobs without posting the vacancies on the state’s employment opportunities website, according to Chris Goetcheus, a spokesman for the Division of Professional Licensure.
The agency did post an administrative job that was filled in January.
According to the state’s hiring guidelines, last updated in May 2015, all management and non-management positions should be posted to encourage an “open, fair and transparent hiring process,” though agencies may — as an exception — request a waiver from posting jobs based on a documented need that can include internal promotions or specialized skills.
The guidelines state that agency heads have been given “increased flexibility” in the job posting and recruitment process, including using waivers to avoid posting state jobs.
For example, Executive Office of Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders announced several new staffing additions and promotions within that department in March, including undersecretary of human services and assistant secretary of communications and external affairs positions. The jobs were appointed without being advertised, the agency said when the Gazette inquired about the hirings.
The office of state Auditor Suzanne Bump is one state agency that has made it a regular practice to post career opportunities with that office on its website in addition to the state’s employment website.
One recent exception was the hiring in March of a new deputy auditor and general counsel who will be in charge of the bureau of special investigations. As one of the state’s constitutional officers, Bump is not required to post the deputy auditor position, said Michael Wessler, a spokesman for the auditor’s office.
Nevertheless, the auditor’s office not only posts its current openings, but also maintains a searchable archive of 109 posted jobs since Bump, the former secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, took over as auditor in 2011.
Wessler said in an email that in addition to posting job vacancies simultaneously on both the state human resources division’s website and its website, the auditor’s office also uses professional associations, colleges and universities, Monster.com and Dice.com for information technology positions.
“We post in these areas in order to attract high quality and diverse applicant pools,” Wessler wrote.
Do you know about a state job that was filled but not posted as a career opportunity? If so, contact staff writer Dan Crowley at dcrowley@gazettenet.com or at 413-585-5239.