AMHERST — With a motivation to serve others, make investments in young people and be empathetic toward families in crisis, Gateway Regional High School alum Benjamin P. Mann could soon be appointed an associate justice for the state’s Juvenile Court.
“Service, to me, is what truly motivates me to start each and every day, and it’s been a thread that has run through every successful and happy chapter in my life,” Mann said Wednesday afternoon at a Governor’s Council hearing on his nomination that took place in western Massachusetts at the University of Massachusetts rather than the State House in Boston.
The hearing, being held at the Old Chapel on the UMass campus, gave Mann, of Longmeadow, an opportunity to respond in depth to numerous questions from members of the council, which offers advice and consent on gubernatorial nominations for judges, clerk-magistrates, public administrators and members of various state boards.
For Tara J. Jacobs, the District 8 councilor who represents 102 cities and towns in western Massachusetts, the hearing was a rare opportunity for the Governor’s Council to go on the road.
“I’m very happy to be convening a council hearing in western Mass,” said Jacobs, a North Adams resident.
While she does often put on local public hearings in the district for candidates who live in the region, those are less formal and are secondary to an official hearing.
“Today, this is the official Governor’s Council hearing,” Jacobs said.
Nominated in September by Gov. Maura Healey, Mann is an assistant clerk magistrate at the Springfield Juvenile Court. Prior to that, he served as counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, where he coordinated legal interventions and worked with social workers to address the needs of families and children involved in care and protection proceedings throughout the state.
A 1996 graduate of Gateway Regional, where he served as senior class president, Mann was an instrumental music teacher at Holyoke Magnet Middle School for the Arts in 2001 and also spent time as assistant district attorney for the Northwestern district attorney’s office.
Accompanied by his wife, children and parents, Mann spoke about empathy, dignity and fairness. “Every legal decision has real consequences for people,” Mann said.
During the hearing, in which spectators included UMass students and professors and Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, two of the other councilors, District 2’s Tamisha L. Civil and District 7’s Paul M. DePalo, sat on either side of Jacobs, with two other members of the council, District 3’s Mara Dolan and District 5’s Eunice D. Ziegler, participating remotely.
They then spent more than a hour asking questions, such as how he would ensure parents get into necessary treatment programs if they are dependent on narcotics, how to prevent children in state custody from disappearing from the child welfare system and how he would prevent systemic bias from the court system.
Three witnesses provided testimony in favor of Mann.
“He serves with compassion and understanding,” said Andrew Blefeld, deputy regional counsel for the Department of Children and Families.
Mary-Gallant Cote, clerk magistrate of the Great Barrington Juvenile Court, said she knows Mann for his kindness, courtesy and respect to litigants in the court, who are facing some of the most terrible circumstances.
“Attorney Mann treats everybody with dignity and respect, not because of any position they have or any title they hold, but that’s just because it’s how he treats other human beings,” Cote said.
David Paradis, first justice for Springfield Juvenile Court, said Mann is always well prepared, responds promptly to texts and calls and will bring a tech savvy knowledge to the position.
As the hearing wrapped up and before councilors took questions from student observers, Jacobs explained that the vote on Mann’s nomination will take place at the State House later this month, during a session led by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.