Police, fire hiring bill puts patronage before vets

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/03/26/police-fire-hiring-bill-puts-patronage-before-vets/RVgRGMCDZgIYXat8QnkaNJ/story.html



Police, fire hiring bill puts patronage before vets
By Kevin Cullen Globe Columnist March 26, 2016

When Governor Charlie Baker unveiled his municipal modernization bill last December, mayors, town managers, and selectmen across the state rejoiced.

They said it would give them more local control, more flexibility. They would be able, without seeking legislative approval, to run their cities and towns more independently and efficiently, from deciding the number of liquor licenses they could issue, to something as simple as whether legal notices could be posted on line rather than in the local newspaper.

But buried in the bill’s 1,100 pages is a section that veterans see as a backdoor kick in the pants, the first serious move to get rid of veterans preference in Civil Service hiring.

The original version of the bill before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Service had a section that made it easier for cities and towns to opt out of Civil Service hiring entirely. A new, recently inserted section calls for a special commission to study revocation of veterans preference.

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Like Jindal, Brownback, Walker, Scott and the entire corps of Republican governors, Gov. Charlie is continuing that fine tradition of chipping away at that which separates us from fascists in his Republican way.

Gov. Charlie hates veterans.