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Keller @ Large: MassDOT Raises Raise New Questions

BOSTON (CBS) - It wasn't a great start to the year for the state Transportation Department.

First, there were some pretty significant budget concerns.

Then, a crisis when a light fixture fell inside a Big Dig tunnel.

But apparently someone thinks management is doing a great job.

Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan gave raises to 17 managers in his department.

If it sounds like "do as I say, not as I do," that's because it is.

Watch Jon's WBZ-TV commentary:

Secretary Mullan is the guy who made a big deal last year of denying a raise for Massport chief Tom Kinton on the grounds that while he may have deserved it, it was bad form in light of the "economic realities that many Massachusetts families are dealing with."

To turn around a few months later and dole out double-digit percentage pay hikes suggests a tin ear at work.

Mullan has already acknowledged he blundered by not being more forthcoming about problems with potentially dangerous light fixtures in the Big Dig tunnels.

He is widely regarded as one of the more competent people in the Patrick administration, so these public relations mistakes perhaps speak to a workload he can't quite get on top of.

Which in turn raises some questions for Governor Patrick himself, who championed the consolidation of our transportation bureaucracies on the premise that it would increase managerial efficiency and reduce costs.

So far, we've seen some glaring managerial errors and now we learn of fat raises being doled out.

Could it be that the governor created a new bureaucratic monster that he's having trouble controlling?

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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