One member of the Governor’s Council calls her position “an obscure, little-understood role.”
Tara J. Jacobs of North Adams is right about that.
But Jacobs did her best last month to sling back the curtain and open the proceedings of the Governor’s Council to the public, an achievement worth noting if for no other reason than its rarity.
For the first time this century – and possibly the first time ever – the Governor’s Council held an official hearing outside the State House in Boston.
Jacobs and her colleague, Tamisha L. Civil of Stoughton, made it happen, cajoling the rest of the eight-member council to meet at the Old Chapel on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Not that all eight councilors showed up. Only three councilors appeared in person at UMass; two others attended via teleconference.
Now that it has held its first official hearing outside Boston, the Governor’s Council should continue its push for openness. Jacobs said she is confident that the group, which meets every Wednesday in Boston, can find the time and, more importantly, the will to continue bringing hearings people around the state.
Jacobs said one other councilor told her after the hearing, “This is amazing. We have to do it more.”
The Governor’s Council operates with little attention. Its job description: Giving hearings to prospective judges the governor nominates. Without council approval, judges do not reach the bench. The council also gives its consent to clerk-magistrates, public administrators and nominees to various state boards.
At UMass in October, Benjamin P. Mann, a former assistant district attorney with the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, sat before the council taking questions about how he would operate if approved as a judge for the state’s Juvenile Court.
Mann’s hearing led the agenda. Jacobs, though, said the highlight of the day was the question-and-answer period following the hearing. UMass students filled the Chapel and fired questions at councilors.
Getting out of Boston “is very much worthwhile,” said Jacobs. “The student part is so important.”
Jacobs represents 102 cities and towns from the New York border to beyond the Quabbin Reservoir. She wants to make it a point to do the state’s business in front of as many high school and college students as possible, planting ideas of legal careers.
To that end, we call on the council to meet at two other UMass campuses, going next to Lowell and Dartmouth. Then the council should start meeting at Massachusetts state university campuses.
The work may be obscure – but it doesn’t have to be. Jacobs and Civil have proved that.
Original article, published Nov 3 2025: https://www.masslive.com/westernmass/2025/11/governors-council-right-to-hold-hearings-outside-of-boston-the-republican-editorials.html
