Candidates looking to succeed Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick are weighing in on the resignation of the embattled leader of the state’s child welfare agency. Tuesday morning Olga Roche stepped down as commissioner of the Department of Children and Families following the deaths of three children under the agency’s supervision.
Republican candidate Charlie Baker oversaw DCF as the state’s Secretary of Health and Human Services in the early 1990s. He has been calling for Roche to resign for months and says the latest deaths could have been avoided after the agency was put under a microscope in January following the disappearance of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver whose body was found this month.
“I wish people had pursued some of the stuff we had talked about earlier in the year and pursued this on a region-by-region basis because I think it would have been helpful,” Baker said following the announcement Tuesday.
State Attorney General Martha Coakley released a statement proposing organizational changes at DCF. Fellow Democratic candidate, State Treasurer Steve Grossman, says the resignation gives the agency a long-overdue chance to rebuild.
