After public records revealed staff turmoil, including a fired general counsel Michael Flaherty, a suspended HR director and purported cronyism, Mayor Michelle Wu said she will be taking a closer look at the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.
“I have had many things on my plate and have not delved into the details of exactly what’s been going on under the hood of that agency, and that is going to be a place that I spend more of my time thinking about understanding what’s happening, and the oversight that’s needed,” Wu said Tuesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
Wu said her “primary interaction with the agency to date has been around the services that they deliver,” such as making sure that the city’s water system is working well, increased flooding is managed, and “moving to a stormwater fee that is equitable.”
“They have been excellent on that front,” Wu said. “Some of the other pieces around how the organization is run and the staffing challenges — that is certainly concerning and deserves more of a look.”
Wu was asked about Flaherty’s quarter-million dollar payout through a severance agreement, and purported cronyism revealed by Commission records that show the agency’s Executive Director Henry Vitale had two sister-in-laws and a nephew on the payroll last year.
Wu had previously sought to distance herself from the staffing issues at the Water and Sewer Commission, saying that she was not involved in the severance agreement that saw the quasi-public agency pay Flaherty $253,630 on conditions that he won’t sue or disparage the agency.
“Water and Sewer is its own entity, and they function and make their own personnel decisions,” Wu said last month.
Flaherty, a past mayoral candidate and Wu ally, was fired by the Water and Sewer Commission on Jan. 10, after about a year on the job, due to a “breakdown” in his “working relationship” with Commission Executive Director Henry Vitale, per public records provided by the agency after a formal request.
The ex-city councilor was hired in January 2024 as deputy general counsel of the Water and Sewer Commission, at a $164,000 salary. Payroll records show Flaherty was later elevated to general counsel, and was paid $224,999 in 2024.
When the Herald reported last November on a series of pay hikes and a promotion doled out to chief human resource officer Marie Theodat while she was embroiled in several civil lawsuits, including one that alleges she swindled a home from her elderly and dementia-ridden uncle, Wu’s office made similar remarks.
Theodat saw her salary jump 61% since 2019, from $126,000 to $202,873 last year.
At the time, a trio of unions was pressing for Theodat to be suspended pending the results of an internal investigation, due to their concerns about the civil litigation. Theodat is currently on paid administrative leave, Commission records show.
“The City of Boston doesn’t administer the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, fund or oversee their budget, nor handle hiring, employment, and payroll of their staff,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time. “The Water and Sewer Commission is a separate employer with separate enforcement mechanisms, and it is not under the purview of the City of Boston.”
The BWSC was created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1977, replacing separate water and sewer divisions of the city’s public works department. It is overseen by a three-member Board of Commissioners that is appointed by the mayor with the approval of the City Council.