Mike Albano is Western Mass’ perennial candidate. A member of the Governor’s Council — but more famously the mayor of Springfield, from 1995 to 2004 — Albano has amassed a following and developed a political acumen that has kept him on the short list most years for a potential run for public office.
After serving several low-key years on the Governor’s Council, Albano is ready to throw his hat in the ring for the Hampden County sheriff’s seat.
As a journalist with an opinion column to write, I felt a twinge of glee when Albano announced his candidacy in late January. There’s a lot to work with here: the 2001 FBI investigation of Albano’s office, a few allies going to jail in 2007, the mountains of debt Springfield had to contend with once he left office in 2004. But the real reason I’m writing about Albano’s candidacy is because as a citizen, his announcement scares me.
Albano has enough name recognition to make him a challenger in any race he enters this side of Worcester. Even he was surprised when he eked out a seat on the Governor’s Council in 2012 after years of political obscurity. But the county sheriff’s position is the wrong place for Albano. Whether you believe Albano was a corrupt son of a gun or not, the truth is Albano shouldn’t be sheriff because he doesn’t have a track record of being an administrator who conducts the public’s business with responsibility and integrity.
To catch folks up who may not be following the Hampden County Sheriff’s race, here’s a brief synopsis of the situation: Michael Ashe has been the county’s sheriff since the mid-’70s, and in 2014 announced that he is retiring and will not run for reelection. The popular sheriff has instituted revolutionary changes in the area’s correctional facilities, with a focus on rehabilitation and training for inmates. Thanks largely to these efforts, the three-year recidivism rate (which measures how often a person released from prison will commit a crime and return) is 40 percent. Nationally the recidivism rate is debatable, but studies put it between 50 and 67 percent. This number includes county, state, and federal inmates.
County sheriffs oversee the inmates and employees of the county jails and set the annual budget for the department and facilities. They also receive little oversight from the state: there’s an annual assessment by the Department of Correction, and their budgets are reviewed before approval in Boston — that’s it.
Albano’s legacy in Western Mass politics is a slippery one. For example, although Albano’s mayoral office was raided and brought under investigation by the FBI, the G-men couldn’t prove any wrongdoing on Albano’s part, but nabbed his chief of staff in the early 2000s on tax fraud. A political appointee was busted on fraud and conspiracy charges. Albano has long contended the FBI investigation was in retaliation for his time on the Parole Board, during which he advocated for the release of four men who were serving life sentences for a murder they didn’t commit. Years after the men were sentenced, it became clear that to protect an informant the FBI concealed information that would have proven the men’s innocence. The men have since been vindicated, though two died in jail. The FBI has a long history of abusing its power, so Albano may have a point here.
But let’s look at what we objectively know from Albano’s tenure as mayor:
∎ Two close allies working as city employees served jail time on fraud and conspiracy charges.
∎ The Asselin Housing Authority fiasco was happening on his watch. Albano has correctly noted that the city does not directly oversee the Housing Authority, where disgraced former director Raymond Asselin stole more than $6 million from public housing. Asselin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his crime in 2007. But the city funnels plenty of money the authority’s way, and some of its most vulnerable citizens live there. Being ignorant of what was going on at the Housing Authority is inexcusable. Knowing what was going on and doing nothing about it is despicable. Which was it, Mr. Albano?
∎ When Albano left office, the city was more than $40 million in debt and the state soon took over control of Springfield finances, setting up a Finance Control Board that presided over city money from 2004 to 2009. Albano has said that state budget cuts are what ripped open the city’s budget gap, but other communities didn’t need the state to come in to fix their budgets.
Albano is not great with management. He doesn’t hire the right people, notice when a swindle is going on next door, or write a decent budget — all major components of the sheriff’s job. And if elected as sheriff, Albano would be responsible for accomplishing these goals without much oversight.
Albano is also running against a good crop of candidates that offers voters variety: Nick Cocchi, assistant superintendent at the county jail; Jack Griffin, a Springfield Democrat who recently retired after more than 20 years with the Connecticut Department of Corrections; and James Gill, a Wilbraham independent who is an assistant deputy superintendent in the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
I’m partial to Gill. By spending time with inmates, he has a good understanding of what their lives are like and what programs they’ll need during and after prison to keep them on a path toward success. In his 30 years in public service, he has spent time overseeing vocational education, anger management and domestic violence programs, religious services, student interns, and community volunteer services, and has been commander of the hostage negotiation team. He also hasn’t made out-of-touch remarks like recommending kids “pull up their pants” or getting wistful for the days when kids didn’t carry guns, as Gill has. Cocchi seems pretty decent. Though I do not like how Ashe is attempting to pass the torch to Cocchi via political support, a continuation of the legendary sheriff’s work and dedication to rehabilitation sounds good.
Albano has more work to do to prove he can manage a large-scale department before we should hand him the keys to the county’s five prison rehab centers and jails.•
Contact Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
