Duties
The Council generally meets at noon on Wednesdays in its State House Chamber, next to the Governor's Office. Pursuant to the Massachusetts Constitution, the Governor may, in general and at his discretion, from time to time assemble the Council for the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth. In addition, the Governor must seek the advice and consent of the Council with respect to nominations of judicial officers, appointment and removal of notaries public and justices of the peace, issuance of pardons and commutations, and payment of monies from the treasury.
Annual compensation in 2008 was $26,025.
The outside conduct of some councillors has drawn public scrutiny in recent years. Felony assault charges were dismissed in July 2008 against one councilor, Marilyn Devaney. In the 2008 election, councillor Kelly A. Timilty falsified the endorsement of the governor and later was fined. The 2008 election generated higher than usual interest in Council seats, but all of the incumbents were reelected.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts Governor's Council
Famous quotes containing the word duties:
“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“What between the duties expected of one during one’s lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one’s death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That’s all that can be said about land.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a “taxing- machine;” to the contented, a “machine for securing property.” Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)