Two questions need to be answered by Deval Patrick. The first and most obvious question is, with a close to 10% unemployment rate in February of 2010 did you hire someone from Ohio to run the Massachusetts Unemployment Assistance program? Was nobody in Massachusetts qualified.
The second and perhaps more politically damaging question is, why would Patrick hire someone who has been publicly reprimanded by the State of Ohio for using public resources to search for state information on a private citizen for political use? Cicatiello was part of a Workforce Development division in Ohio ripe with ethical problems, most stemming from using public resources to help elect Barack Obama to the presidency.
The action comes a day after Gov. Ted Strickland suspended department director Helen Jones-Kelley of Clayton for a month without pay. Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles found that Jones-Kelley improperly authorized searches of state databases to get information on Samuel Jospeh - "Joe the Plumber" - Wurzelbacher and improperly used her state e-mail account to raise money for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Judi Cicatiello was responsible for maintaining access to the database used to snoop on Joe the Plumber. She was reprimanded for not stopping the snooping from going on.
Fraunholtz and Cicatiello oversaw two of the confidential databases accessed to collect information on Wurzelbacher, the report said, and were responsible for "ensuring that access to these databases is limited to the furtherance of the agency's functions or purposes."
Assistant Director Williams contacted Paul Fraunholtz, Deputy Director of Family Stability, and instructed him to conduct a search of the CRIS-E database. Fraunholtz, in turn, contacted Judy Cicatiello, Deputy Director of Unemployment Compensation, and requested she run an inquiry on Wurzelbacher using the Ohio Job Insurance database, which occurred on October 16. Both Fraunholtz and Cicatiello conducted searches on Wurzelbacher.(pp 15-16)
Cicatiello conducted searches for potentially damaging personal information on the political enemies of Barack Obama. She did so at the direction of her corrupt boss, and found nothing wrong with the practice.
Governor Patrick is Judi Cicatiello really the type of person that should be entrusted with the personal information of thousands of people collecting unemployment in Massachusetts? Or is helping your friend Barack Obama find an ally a job your number one priority? We are all waiting for an answer.
