Three Commissioners appointed by the Governor for a three-year period lead the MCAD. One of the three Commissioners is designated as the Chair of the Commission and is in charge of the agency's management.

Under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 151B, the MCAD has the authority to take or initiate complaints, investigate, conciliate and, if conciliation fails, to submit complaints to a public evidentiary hearing before one of the Commissioners. After an appeal to the Full Commission, the decision of the Commission may be appealed through the state court system. Judicial review of the Commission’s decision is not a new trial of the case, but rather is a review of the record developed during the Commission’s public hearing.

The MCAD’s jurisdiction includes discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, veteran or military status   handicap, children, and receipt of public assistance. The state’s anti-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.

While the MCAD's responsibility appears to be extraordinary, in the last fiscal year they received only $1,657,522 from the State's budget. When considering the number of civil rights violations occurring everyday in Massachusetts, anyone might suspect that this fund does not reflect the financial resources necessary to make this agency fully operational. The consequence of this lack of resources and other related circumstances is beginning to tarnish the reputation of this institution.

Many believe that the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has failed its mission. After so many years the agency has not come close to satisfying the expectations of the minority population, this group of citizens who are more at risk to become victim of civil rights violations.

Besides rumors and unfounded allegations about investigators cutting monkey deals with attorneys, more recently a few incidents have occurred in this respectable state agency that has drawn a lot of suspicion among the concerned citizens. However, the MCAD still represents a symbol of solace for those who believe that they have been discriminated against on basis of race origin or disability. Hundreds of people have continued to march into this agency on a daily basis to file their complaints. Although it may take them a life time before they can see a glimpse of justice. Records show that the MCAD may take approximately seven to ten years to resolve litigation in some cases. According to the civil rights activists and attorneys this long process is allowing most of the violators to get away with their wrongful actions. Sometimes the attorneys lose sight of their client before the commission reaches a decision or a company goes bankrupt or relocates and in the worst case the victim died before a decision was made about their case.

Now lawyers refuse to take discrimination cases on a contingency basis where the MCAD is involved. A Boston lawyer said that it is ridiculous to deal with the MCAD. He said these investigators might ask you to call them back in three months if someone wants to know about the status of their case. It is not easy to explain to a client that it may take three months or more before they know about the status of their cases. At the MCAD the cases are classified based on the possibility of the petitioner to hire a private counsel, cases represented by private counsel are assigned to a special unit. The reason for this segregation has not been defined. In cases where the respondent is another government agency, the violator maybe represented by a dream team of lawyers and experts, after all, it's the taxpayers who will pay the legal expenses, the petitioners are being treated as the perpetrator. The MCAD does not provide legal advice. If the petitioner cannot afford to pay a lawyer, he or she is doomed. The word is out there, the employers are well aware of the situation, now they are not worried anymore to violate their employee's civil rights.

According to JeLessia Jones, the spokesperson for the Commissioner's office, the MCAD receives over 5,000 claims every year and due to a limited budget, the agency is operating with a very restricted staff consisting of only 12 investigators and eight lawyers. She said that the delay for the initial investigation may take longer depending on the nature of the claim and the time needed to gather all the evidence. She said the MCAD wants each case to be evaluated properly and fairly, that's the reason for the long delay. 

Another concern pointed out by the legal community, is the climate of instability portrayed by this agency. A downtown Boston attorney recalled the case of one of his clients that had been transferred from one investigator to another within a period of two years. Finally, the last MCAD attorney who had the case said that she never even had a chance to look at the file. The worst problem that may happen to someone is if his or her file was missing. Many people may wait for years to find out one day that they don't have a case on file.

More recently the concerned citizens are left with the impression that the MCAD is out of control. An African American woman told The Boston Connection that a few years ago she filed a complaint with the MCAD after she became the victim of a racially motivated incident and that MCAD had intentionally blown her case. She took a taxi from the airport in 1993, her baggage was already packed in the trunk of the taxi when suddenly the taxi driver, a Caucasian, decided to drop her off the road in order to pick up another white man. When she refused to get out the taxi driver took her baggage out of the trunk and forced her to get out of the taxi. She said that she felt rejected and very embarrassed, she became frustrated and distressed, she could not believe that someone would treat her that way because of the color of her skin; then shortly after the incident she decided to file a complaint with the MCAD in search of justice.

She said that the taxi company offered a settlement in the case, since then she never heard from the MCAD. She called on many different occasions, no one ever returned her phone calls. A few years later she learned that the taxi driver had died. Time went on, she never heard from anyone, she had moved to another state. A few months ago she called the MCAD to find out about her case, and she was advised to come to the office in Boston. She set up an appointment to see the MCAD lawyer who was supposed to be handling her case and she came to Boston. When she arrived at the office, the secretary said that the attorney was busy meeting with other clients. She went back and forth to the office and never had a chance to speak to that attorney. Finally, she was told that no one was available to see her, she should go home and call again to make another appointment. The woman will soon return back to her home state, and her case will remain forever a mystery.

In the August issue The Boston Connection Magazine broke the story of a Hyde Park woman (identified only as Chantal) who was allegedly assaulted by a MCAD investigator. According to this woman, she went to the MCAD to file a complaint against her employer because she believed that she was discriminated against. A few days later the MCAD investigator showed up at her house and forced her to perform sexual acts with him, then he threatened to blow her case and put her in trouble if she did not keep quiet about the incident. The woman felt humiliated but she was too embarrassed to come forward, the investigator used the power of his position to abuse his client. After a series of abusive conduct and intimidation the woman found out that she was pregnant, she decided to come forward and speak to The Boston Connection Magazine. At that time she was apparently scared, because she seemed to be well aware of the consequences but she said she felt like that she has to take the risk to confront her abuser to stop him from having another victim.

Shortly after the distribution of our August edition, the MCAD released a statement informing our managing editor about their decision to put the investigator involved in that case on administrative leave, and they referred the case to the Suffolk District Attorney's office for further investigation.

In retaliation, the investigator and his wife launched a campaign in order to intimidate the young woman, to such an extreme that they managed to have her fired from her job. The investigator misused Chantal's private information such as her social security number, her address and her telephone number for personal matters.

Last month, Attorney Kathrine Bowden of Boston who represents the employer in the case that triggered the scandal sent a letter to the MCAD investigator to request clarification about a phone call that her client received from a woman who claimed to be his wife (the investigator's wife) and who provided to them some damaging information about his client "Chantal". Kate Bowden wrote in the letter, "I need to know how to advise my client."

These very unusual circumstances seem to have confused everyone including MCDH staff, the petitioner, as well as the defense attorney. Kate Bowden, one of the best defense attorneys with a long experience dealing with the MCAD found herself in a situation where she did not know how to advise her client. The investigator's behavior is very unethical.

In the public's opinion, the MCAD is just a symbol, only the poor people will continue to go there to file their complaints because they cannot afford to pay a lawyer to file their claim before a judge. We will continue to blow our whistle until our people become fully aware that filing a complaint with the MCAD is like playing the lottery, or until the legislature decide to give more money to this agency allowing them to become more efficient. ¨