Categories: OLD Media Moves

Boston biz reporter having difficulty getting public records

Colman Herman of Commonwealth magazine reports about the difficulties facing Boston Globe business reporter Todd Wallack in obtaining severance agreements of state employees from the governor’s office.

Herman writes, “In an appeal filed with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office, Wallack seeks unredacted versions of the documents, noting the settlements involved millions of taxpayer dollars. In one case, according to Wallack, an employee was awarded more than $300,000. ‘I can’t imagine the courts intended to give the state a loophole to hide deals involving millions of dollars in taxpayer funds,’ Wallack writes in his appeal.

“Patrick claims that, as governor, he is exempt from the Public Records Law as a result of a 1997 court case (Lambert v. Executive Director Judicial Nominating Council), although aides maintain Patrick voluntarily complies with most records requests.

“Last October, Alan Cote, who handles public records appeals on behalf of Galvin, ruled in Wallack’s favor, ordering the governor’s office to produce the records for Wallack in unredacted form.

“Cote also took note in his ruling of a side issue raised in a letter he received from Richard Barry, Jr., general counsel to the National Association of Government Employees, which represents about 12,000 state employees. Berry said he opposed Wallack’s appeal because nearly all the settlement agreements reached between the state and employees include ‘a confidentiality provision in which both parties agree that the terms of the agreement shall remain confidential.'”

Read more here. Despite the ruling, Wallack still has not received the documents.

View Comments

  • Wallack is the same one who broke the story of corporations mis-reporting executive compensation in their proxy statements simply because of arithmetic errors in adding up their data. He's a sharp one. Let's hope this goes in his favor, although I'm not at all surprised the state is stalling him.

Recent Posts

Dynamo hires former Business Insider executive editor Harrington

Former Business Insider executive editor Rebecca Harrington has been hired by Dynamo to be its…

2 days ago

Bloomberg TV hires Kerubo as desk producer

Bloomberg Television has hired Brenda Kerubo as a desk producer in London. She will be covering Europe's…

2 days ago

Jittery CNBC staff reassured by new boss

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish…

2 days ago

Making business news accessible to a wider audience

Ritika Gupta, the BBC's North American business correspondent, was interviewed by Global Woman magazine about…

2 days ago

Rest of World hires Lo as China reporter

Rest of World has hired Kinling Lo as a China reporter. Lo was previously a…

2 days ago

Bloomberg rises to No. 7 biz news website

Bloomberg News saw strong unique visitor growth to its website in October, passing Fox Business…

2 days ago