MBTA keeps fighting against report release
AG’s office sides with Herald
The MBTA will continue a 10-month fight against releasing a consultant’s report that could shed light on its employee leave practices, saying the agency will — yet again — argue it shouldn’t be public.
Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman, said a law firm’s report is “clearly attorney-client privileged,” despite the Secretary of State ruling the T has yet to prove that.
The T hired the firm Morgan, Brown & Joy last year to audit its leave policies and practices, identify “loopholes” and “ensure compliance with state and federal law.” Last December, the T produced a glossy set of 21 recommendations the firm came up with, many of which the T is in the process of putting in place. But it’s never released the report itself.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, in a letter yesterday, sided with the secretary of state, ruling that the T must release the report, or parts of it. But her office — which is tasked with enforcing the state public records law — also gave the T the option of providing yet another “letter” to make its case, even though the Secretary of State has already twice struck down the T’s arguments.
“We recognize that the MBTA has twice responded to (the Herald’s) request and detailed in its responses how the attorney-client privilege applies to the responsive document. We hope that the MBTA’s third response will address the issues raised in the Supervisor’s order,” Jonathan Sclarsic, an assistant attorney general and director of Healey’s Division of Open Government, wrote to the T.
Sclarsic’s two-page letter came nearly three months after the Secretary of State’s Office formally asked that the AG enforce its order following a Herald request.
Under state law, the attorney general has the power to take legal action against any agency that skirts the public records law. However, the T indicated it still has no intention of making the document public.
“The MBTA will provide an updated response which, as the letter recognizes, will be the T’s third such response,” Pesaturo said in an email.