“Why did it take Governor Romney more than a month to appoint members to the Commission on Medicolegal Investigation to find a successor to the state's chief medical examiner?
“In a hearing before the public safety and criminal justice committee, Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn was forced to concede that there were major problems in the office of the chief medical examiner. The Governor's office pledged to appoint new commission members in order to find a successor to Dr. Richard Evans.
“In the meantime, the bodies of two burn victims were misidentified in a horrific pre-holiday house fire in Gloucester. The Governor took off to Utah for a holiday vacation and still there was no movement to replace the chief medical examiner.
“Now, a month later, the Governor is finally moving to appoint members to this commission. What should have taken a few days at the most, has taken the Governor more than a month to accomplish.
“It should also be remembered that the so-called ‘reform' Governor refused to adopt a legislative proposal offered last fall which would have reorganized the state police crime lab, the office of the chief medical examiner and other crime labs into a single agency, called the Department of Forensic Sciences. The agency would have streamlined bureaucracy, reduce duplication and improve coordination and accountability among these offices.
“The Governor failed to sign this significant reform into law, opting instead to further ‘study' the issue. Someone should inform the Governor that is not reform – that is called preserving the inefficient status quo.”
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