It's part-time work that comes with full-time, state-funded perks.
Every two years, Massachusetts voters elect eight candidates to the Governor's Council, a relatively unknown body dating to Colonial days that is responsible for approving judges, granting commutations and signing off on treasury warrants.
They typically meet once a week, often for just a few minutes, and hold confirmation hearings for judicial nominees as necessary.
They receive a salary of $26,025 a year, health insurance benefits, travel expenses, a prime Beacon Hill parking space and creditable service toward a state pension. The council also employs three staffers in its Statehouse office.
They rarely reject a nominee. The Governor's Council held 32 hearings to interview nominees in 2009 and approved all 32 candidates, according to minutes of the "assemblies," or meetings, filed at the Statehouse.
The weekly Wednesday assemblies are brief. Councilors can often wrap up the state's business in less time than it takes a TV station to return from a commercial break.
Of the 62 assemblies held between January 2009 and August 2010, 51 of them lasted five minutes or less. Three of them began and ended within one minute.
The longest was a June 30 meeting that stretched 30 minutes.
Democrat Mary-Ellen Manning of Salem, the North Shore's governor's councilor, said the body does more than just meet on Wednesdays. It also holds hearings to interview nominees, several of which have lasted three hours or more, she said.
While some councilors meticulously cull through a nominee's background, others rarely voice objections.
"It's been my experience that you can make as much of this job or as little of this job as you choose to," Manning said.
Manning has been a frequent critic of Gov. Deval Patrick and his choices to serve on the bench. She estimates that she regularly spends between 10 and 15 hours researching a candidate and fact-checking his or her credentials, though in extreme cases she said she has put in 40 or 50 hours of background work. Those efforts may include researching campaign donations, pulling divorce files, interviewing employers and checking out the occasional anonymous tip, she said.
"I am devoted to as thorough an investigation as is humanly possible," said Manning, who does not accept travel reimbursements and, a few years, refused a raise. "... It's very important for the public, and for my reputation with the public, that if I am concluding in the negative or the positive on someone, that I be sure."
In June, Manning was one of two councilors who raised allegations that judicial nominee David Aptaker failed to report campaign donations to a pair of disgraced former public officials, state Sen. James Marzilli and Middlesex County Register of Probate John Buonomo. Under pressure, Aptaker later withdrew his nomination.
"Attorney Aptaker apparently didn't think I'd fact-check him," Manning wrote in a statement as part of the record. "That was a fatal mistake."
This week, both the Wednesday assembly and a pair of hearings were canceled after five of the eight councilors said they couldn't attend. Never before has a hearing been canceled because a councilor couldn't make it, said Manning, who claims she drove in to the Statehouse anyway on Wednesday.
The State House News Service later questioned whether some of the absent councilors may have been on the campaign trail instead, with just six days to go before the state primary.
Democrat Jason Panos, who's challenging Manning in Tuesday's primary, said serious reforms need to be implemented at the Governor's Council. Panos filed legislation at the Statehouse last year with three major components: require that hearings be subject to the Open Meeting Law, force the council to publish information online, and mandate that councilors file an annual report to the governor and the Legislature.
"I believe that the Governor's Council and the process of judicial confirmation is broken," Panos said. "People don't have a say, let alone are they a factor in the outcome of judicial confirmations."
However, Panos rejected the idea of abolishing the council outright, saying the alternatives — such as electing judges or letting state legislators confirm them — would only further politicize the process.
Manning said she'd like to see the council be removed from the party system, and she would like judges to be held to term limits.
"I'm all for reform," Manning said. "I think abolishing the Governor's Council should be on the table in any reform efforts. I just think until it's abolished, you want to have someone like me there."
The council was once a powerful body, dating to a time when both the governor and lieutenant governor were appointed by the king of England. But much of the councilors' powers were stripped under reform efforts in the 1960s. That came after a period where several councilors were imprisoned for taking bribes.
"Certainly there have been people who have used this for their personal aggrandizement, even to the point of illegality," Manning said. "That's just a fact."
Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salem news.com.
Obama Scraps Birth Control Mandate
US Airmen's Killer Sentenced to Life in Germany
Navy Names Ship for Gabrielle Giffords
Raw Video: Deadly Blasts in Syria
Romney Slams President Obama at CPAC
Gingrich: Pres. Obama 'waging War on Religion'
5 Killed in Wrong-way Crash on I-10 in La.
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
Ga Girl Fights Off Kidnapper at Walmart
