GLOUCESTER, Mass. – May 17, 2011 – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is expected to deploy subordinates to Gloucester today for a series of private meetings culminating in the public release his report on a special master's study of the most egregious cases of abuse of the badge against the fishing industry, according to indications swirling Monday from here and New Bedford to Washington, D.C.
Details of the planned operation, a diplomatic mission with high stakes for the cabinet official who has been nominated by President Obama to be U.S. ambassador to China, were a closely held secret Monday night.
Administration sources told the Times Monday evening a decision to bring the findings to the public had not been finalized.
Congressional pressure built last week for a full airing of the final report by master, Charles Swartwood III.
The delegation wrote to Locke that they wanted it public by last Sunday.
Mayor Carolyn Kirk and the congressional delegation, including Gloucester's congressman, John Tierney, were kept in the dark.
But the report by Locke is expected to include restitution, a form or reparations — a rare step in U.S. jurisprudence reserved for the most extreme perversions of the justice system involving violations of civil rights or physical harm.
Underlings' initial plan to move on without attending to the harm caused in the past was reversed by Locke.
NOAA representatives declined to confirm that action on the report by Swartwood, a retired federal judge and the current chairman of the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, was imminent.
"I am still not able to confirm the release date of the secretary's decisions on Judge Swartwood's report," Justin Kenney said in an email message late Monday.