As the Latino population in Massachusetts continues to grow, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of Latinos achieving elected office throughout the state. Twenty years ago there was only one Latino serving in elected office in Massachusetts—Nelson Merced. In 1995, there were only four elected officials who were Latino and no state representatives. Today, through the hard work of candidates, activists, and Latino community activists and organizations, there are three Latinos serving as state legislators, fourteen holding municipal office, and an increasing number of campaigns at all levels of municipal and state government being conducted.
While this is good news for the prospects of Latinos/as gaining influence in state and local government, a less visible but equally important question is, Have there been similar gains in Latino state-level executive branch leadership through gubernatorial appointments to top executive positions and regulatory boards

Hardy-Fanta, Carol

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University of Massachusetts BostonScholarWorks at UMass BostonGastón Institute Publications Gastón Institute for Latino CommunityDevelopment and Public Policy Publications4-1-2002Who's in Charge? Appointments of Latinos toPolicymaking Offices and Boards in MassachusettsCarol Hardy-FantaUniversity of Massachusetts Boston, carol.hardy-fanta@umb.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/gaston_pubsPart of the Inequality and Stratification Commons, Politics Commons, Public AdministrationCommons, and the Race and Ethnicity CommonsThis Fact Sheet is brought to you for free and open access by the Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy Publicationsat ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Gastón Institute Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorksat UMass Boston. For more information, please contact library.uasc@umb.edu.Recommended CitationHardy-Fanta, Carol, "Who's in Charge? Appointments of Latinos to Policymaking Offices and Boards in Massachusetts" (2002).Gastón Institute Publications. Paper 139.http://scholarworks.umb.edu/gaston_pubs/139The Mauricio Gastón Institute of theUniversity of Massachusetts Boston conductsresearch on and for the Latino population. A goal is to generate the kind of information and analysis necessary to develop sound publicpolicy, and to improve Latino participation in the policy-making process. The GastónInstitute has produced this series of fact sheets in an effort to present up-to-date informationabout the issues affecting Latinos in a number of key areas: Education, Health, Housing,Immigration, and Political Representation.I N T RO D U C T I O NAs the Latino population in Massachusettscontinues to grow, there has been a corre-sponding increase in the number of Latinosachieving elected office throughout thestate. Twenty years ago there was only one Latinoserving in elected office in Massachusetts—NelsonM e rced. In 1995, there were only four elected off i c i a l swho were Latino and no state re p resentatives. To d a y,through the hard work of candidates, activists, andLatino community activists and organizations, therea re three Latinos serving as state legislators, fourt e e nholding municipal office, and an increasing numberof campaigns at all levels of municipal and stategovernment being conducted .1While this is good news for the prospects ofLatinos/as gaining influence in state and local g o v e rnment, a less visible but equally import a n tquestion is, Have there been similar gains in Latinostate-level executive branch leadership thro u g hg u b e rnatorial appointments to top executive positions and re g u l a t o ry board s ?In the present climate of severe budget cuts,state-level executive branch appointees are at thecenter of policy influence – advising the governorand making key decisions about all aspects of public policy. The presence – or absence – ofLatinos in top advisory positions and as members of boards, commissions, and authorities can make a great difference in policy decision-making in eco-nomics, education, health, public safety, communitydevelopment, labor, transportation and constru c t i o n ,human services, and the judicial system – all ofwhich have a direct impact on Latino communities.The Latino "appointment gap" is indeed strik-ing: A survey conducted in 1997 of appointments totop policy-making positions revealed that, nationally,"Latinos are the only group that is underre p re s e n tedThe Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Developmentand Public PolicyWho’s in Charge?  Appointments of Latinos toPolicymaking Offices and Boards in Massachusettsb y Carol Hardy-FantaApril 2002Latinos in Massachusetts: P O L I T I C A L R E P R E S E N TAT I O NThe Mauricio Gastón Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125    |    T. 617.287.5790 Ac k n ow l e d g e m e n t sThe author would like to thank Paige Ransford,M.S., research assistant for this project, for herskills in securing and compiling all the datarequired for this study, and the Gastón Institutefor providing financial support for the research.among appointed policy leaders in everystate." According to the survey, whitesmade up 87 percent of the top policyleaders appointed by governors and,while people of color made up 25 perc e n tof the population, they held only 12p e rcent of policy leadership posts in the United States.2We undertook this study to answerthe question, How are Latinos doing in gaining access to the commissions,boards, and authorities that make keypolicy decisions affecting Latinocommunities in Massachusetts? Whatwe found was alarming and shoulds e rve as a call to action for Latino leaders and communities.Study De s i g nOur goal in this study was first tocalculate how many Latinos havebeen appointed to policy-makingpositions at the executive level in state government and on the advisory and regulatory boards,commissions, and authorities thatset policy in the Commonwealth.The second goal was to estimate howclose Latinos are to gaining a level ofrepresentation in those positions thatmatches their 6.8 percent share of thestate’s population.To achieve these goals, we firsts e c u red lists from Office of the Secre t a ryof State that included the branch oro ffice name, board number and title,appointing authority (governor, mayor,c o m m i s s i o n e r, etc.), and names of individual appointees. We selectedappointments made by the governor (or with approval by the governor) and first counted the number of totalappointments in each position and oneach board, commission, and authority.The next step was to determine whichof the appointees should be counted as "Latino." Following established practices, we used Spanish surn a m e(and, where necessary, first name.) We also determined how manyLatinos currently hold appointments totop posts in government by analyzingdata on appointments to the level ofc o m m i s s i o n e r, dire c t o r, executive dire c t o r,secretary, etc., of the various executiveoffices by analyzing data from theSecretary of State’s office. Finally, weexamined the listings in the current issueof the Massachusetts Political Almanac(2001) to count how many Latinos therea re in appointed or top-level staff posi-tions in the various executive-level off i c e s .Percentages of Latinos appointed to boards, commissions, authorities, andadvisory committees are estimates ofcumulative appointment patterns, notan analysis of those currently serving on these boards, commissions, andauthorities. Some appointment dateswere old (in the 1980s and, in a fewcases, earlier). Since the Secretary ofState’s office does not removeappointees from the lists unless theyreceive a letter specifically requesting it, it was not possible from these data to determine who was still on a givenboard. We estimated more recentappointments by counting thoseappointments made no later than 1990.The number of Latinos appointedto top-level posts of commissioners,directors, secretaries, etc., of executive-level offices, however, is current.Using Spanish surnames to estimateLatino re p resentation in state govern-ment posts is less than satisfactory and may miss Latinos who do nothave recognizable Latino names. While some Latinos were undoubtedlymissed, the total count is more likelyto overestimate the percentage ofLatinos because when in doubt, wecounted the individual as a Latino.Few Latinos Appointed to State Board sData provided by the Office of t h eSecretary of State listed a total of 6228 individuals appointedeither by the governor or with t h eg overnor’s approval required.Among those included on the list were139 Latinos, representing 2.2 percent of the total (see figure 1). Excludingboards/positions that were repealed orno longer active, there were 135 Latinosout of a total of 6053 appointments(still 2.2 percent).A majority of boards, commissions,and authorities, 802 out of 900 (89.1percent), had no Latinos appointed.Another eighty (8.9 percent) had onlyone Latino appointed. Only 2 perc e n tof boards, commissions, and authoritieshad more than a token presence ofLatinos, which suggests that, even wherethere have been Latino members, theymay not have sufficient presence toinfluence public policy at a level thatreflects their presence in the population.Re g u l a t o ry and Ad v i s o ry Board s :W h e re A re the Latinos?We examined Latino membership onthe various regulato ry and adv i s o ryboards, commissions, and authori-ties within the executive branch.Latinos make up only 1.34 percent ofthe total appointments made by the gov-ernor to the thirteen executive offices(44 out of 3,285 appointments). Even if you include only appointments madein 1990 or after (and include all Latinoappointments), the percentage increasesonly slightly to 1.8 percent (44 out of2506 appointments). This indicates that,at the highest level of policy making,even fewer Latinos are appointed tothese boards, commissions, and authori-ties than to boards, commissions, andauthorities as a whole (see table 1).G u b e rnatorial appointments to four executive offices have included no Latinos. These offices include theExecutive Offices of Communities andDevelopment (which handles policymaking in the areas of housing andneighborhood services); Transportationand Construction (which includes theboards of Massport, the MBTA, and the Turnpike Authority); Elder Affairs;and Energy Resources.In five offices, Latino appointmentsw e re below 2 percent, including theSource: Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State, 12/31/01; N=6228Figure 1.  Latino Appointments as Percent of TotalLatinos2.2%Non-Latinos97.8%Executive Office of Public Safety, withonly 4 out of 279 appointments given to Latinos. Low Latino representationon this board is particularly importantbecause of its policy-making role in corrections, criminal justice, and statepolice matters. Other offices with simi-larly low Latino appointment patternsare Labor Affairs; Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations; andE n v i ronmental Aff a i r s .The offices which have betterre c o rds of Latino appointments includethe Executive Offices of Health andHuman Services (2.4 percent); EconomicDevelopment and Manpower Affairs(2.6 percent); and Education (3.1 per-cent). It should be kept in mind, however,that "better" is a relative term: Thesepercentages are still well below theLatino population share of 6.8 perc e n t .Latino Appointments to Legaland Electoral Boards Boards, authorities, and commis-sions under the Office of theAttorney General (which includesthe Victim and Witness AssistanceBoard and the Local DistrictElection Review Commission) andthe Secretary of State (which handles elections and the statecensus with direct bearing onLatino concerns about redistrict-ing) include no Latinos appointedby the governor.The best record of Latino guberna-torial appointments (68 out of 886appointments, or 7.7 percent) is for the boards, advisory committees, andcommissions that are outside the execu-tive branch, including those establishedby executive order. These include suchspecialized boards as the Governor'sCommission on the Status of Women,Commission on Indian Aff a i r s ,Commission on Puerto Rican andHispanic Affairs, and advisory commit-tees such as the Governor's AdvisoryCommittee on Children and the Family,as well as the Boston MetropolitanDistrict, the Metropolitan Area Council,and the State Ethics Committee. The relative power of these boards and commissions is directly correlated tothe degree of Latino representation onthem: the State Ethics Committee has noLatinos, the Metropolitan Area PlanningCouncil has two Latinos, and the Puert oRican and Hispanic Affairs Commission’stwelve appointments are all Latino.Judicial appointments deserve special attention. Sixteen out of 337appointments (4.2 percent) as recordedby the Secretary of State’s office wereLatino, but these appointments seem tobe at a relatively low level. Latinosmade up only 7 (2.3 percent) out of 307total justices, for example. Less than 2percent of trial court justices have beenLatino/a, and there has never been aLatino/a appointed to the State Supre m eJudicial Court.W h e re A re We Now? The Cu r re n tStatus of Latino Ap p o i n t m e n t sTo get a current snapshot ofL atino representation at the to plevels of gov e r n m e n t, we firs texamined gubernatorial appoint-ments to the eighty executive-levelpositions of the active executivebranch offices,with such titles as Commissioner, D e p u t yCommissioner, Director, ExecutiveDirector, and Secretary, etc. Thedata indicate that no Latinos currentlyhold any of these top state-level executivebranch positions.3We also used the listings in themost recent Massachusetts PoliticalA l m a n a c.4 T h e re are currently no Latinosamong the top-level staff (eitherappointed to top posts or hired within the top tiers) of the Office of theG o v e rn o r, or the Offices of the Attorn e yGeneral, Secretary of the Common-wealth, State Treasurer, Elder Affairs,Environmental Affairs, Health andHuman Services (which includes theDepartment of Public Health and theD e p a rtment of Transitional Assistance);Public Safety, Tr a n s p o rtation andC o n s t ruction, Housing and CommunityDevelopment, Labor and WorkforceDevelopment (which includes theDivision of Employment and Tr a i n i n g ) ,C o m p t ro l l e r, Board / D e p a rtment ofEducation, or the MassachusettsTu rnpike Authority.5 T h e re are noLatinos on the Supreme Judicial Court,either as justices or within the top staff.None of the appointments to the post of Chief Justice of the Trial Courts or to top administrative positions in theAdministrative Office of the Tr i a lC o u rts are Latino.In the Executive Office of Admin-istration and Finance, there is oneLatina who serves as chair of the CivilS e rvice Commission (France López) and Dorca Gómez is chair of theMassachusetts Commission AgainstLatino Appointments to Exe c u t i ve Off i c e sOffice %Executive Office of Communities and Development 105 0 0Executive Office of Transportation and Construction 37 0 0Executive Office of Elder Affairs 9 0 0Executive Office of Energy Resources 23 0 0Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations 288 1 0.3Executive Office of Labor Affairs 146 1 0.7Executive Office of Environmental Affairs 239 2 0.7Executive Office of Public Safety 279 4 1.4Medical Examiners and Public Administrators 58 1 1.7Executive Office of Administration and Finance 205 4 2.0Executive Office of Health and Human Services 457 11 2.4Executive Office of Economic Development and Manpower Affairs 228 6 2.6Table 1Total appointed since 1990Source: Office of the Secretary of State, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 12/31/01.No. ofLatinosCopyright 2002, Mauricio Gastón Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125.    |    617 287 5790Discrimination. In the Department ofEconomic Development, there is oneLatina, Brunilda Pérez, who is listed on the staff as executive assistant andsupport systems unit manager.We also gathered data from curre n tofficial lists on selected boards and commissions that we either consideredto be of particular interest to Latinocommunities or were able to accesseither from the internet or by calling the respective executive office. Theseincluded the MASSJOBS Council (whichis now the State Workforce InvestmentB o a rd); the State Ethics Commission;the Minority Business DevelopmentCommission; the Executive Committeeof the Judicial Nominating Council;t h e Seaport Advisory Council; the CivilService Commission; the MassachusettsConvention Center Authority; the PensionR e s e rve Investment Management Board(PRIM); the Public Employee Retire m e n tAdministration Commission; theMassachusetts Port Authority; the Boardof Education; the Council on the Art sand Humanities; the New England Boardof Higher Education; the Board of HigherEducation; the Juvenile Justice AdvisoryCommittee; and the Commissionon Judicial Conduct. We found that only three ofthese boards, commissions, orauthorities, had any Latinos:MASSJOBS Council, three outof thirty-nine members; oneLatino on the Minority BusinessDevelopment Commission; andone out of four on the CivilS e rvice Commission. The rest of these currently have noLatinos appointed. Furt h e rm o re ,the percentage of Latinos hold-ing current appointments on theseb o a rds (2.3 percent) shows no gainsc o m p a red to the cumulative re c o rd (2.2 percent). Also, within the judicialbranch, less than 2 percent of guberna-torial appointments to the position of justice are Latino.C o n c l u s i o nLatinos are severely underrepre-sented in policymaking positions inM as sac h u s e t t s . The cumulative patternshows that gubernatorial appointmentsto re g u l a t o ry and advisory boards, commissions, and authorities within theexecutive branch have been less than 2percent Latino (even if we include allLatino appointments as a percentage ofappointments made only since 1990).The number of Latino appointmentsmade to less powerful boards, commit-tees, and commissions outside of theexecutive branch has been somewhatbetter but still well below what wouldbe expected given the size of the Latinopopulation in the Commonwealth.Almost 90 percent of boards, commis-sions, and authorities, have had noLatinos appointed. Given the overrepre-sentation of Latinos in the criminal justice system, it is of great concern ,in particular, that Latinos have been soseverely underrepresented in both theO ffice of the Attorney General andamong the justices of the trial court s .The current picture is equally acause for alarm. There are no Latinosholding top-level appointments at thelevel of commissioner, executive dire c t o r,d i re c t o r, secre t a ry, etc., within the executive-level branch of government. The most important executive off i c e shave no Latinos holding top-level positions through gubernatorial appoint-ments or as hired staff .About the authorCarol Hardy-Fanta, is director of theCenter for Women in Politics and PublicPolicy of UMass Boston’s McCormackInstitute and a research associate of theGastón Institute.No t e s :1For a complete discussion of the growth in Latino political representation in Massachusetts, see Latino Politics in Massachusetts: Struggles,Strategies and Prospects, edited by Carol Hardy-Fanta and Jeffrey Gerson (New York: Routledge, 2001).2Center for Women in Government, "Appointed Policy Makers in State Government: The Regional Perspective," (Summer 1997), p. 2.3Ibid. This study indicated that no Latinos had been appointed at this level.  This suggests that there has been no improvement in Latinoappointments at this level in the past five years.4Massachusetts Political Almanac, 2001 edition, edited by Kenneth G. Morton and Papalinka Paradise. (Centerville, MA: Center for LeadershipStudies, 2001).5We would like to acknowledge again that determining who is Latino/a by name as listed is not a perfect system – it specifically misses Latinoswho do not have Latino names and thus could underestimate or misstate the actual count.  There are occasions, of course, where this methodcounts as Latino someone with a Latino name.  For example, there is one individual listed at Massport with a name that could indicate that heis Latino. We are in the process of verifying these particular cases. Without doing a complete review in person of each individual (a task beyondthe scope of this study), a full picture is not possible at this time. 

Who\u27s in Charge? Appointments of Latinos to Policymaking Offices and Boards in Massachusetts

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Who\u27s in Charge? Appointments of Latinos to Policymaking Offices and Boards in Massachusetts

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