Boston Mayor Michelle Wu mentioned she was not concerned in a separation settlement between the Water and Sewer Fee and its fired normal counsel Michael Flaherty that features $253,670 in severance pay for the ex-city councilor.
Wu declined to remark, when requested whether or not she was comfy with the quarter-million greenback payout to Flaherty, who was dismissed on Jan. 10 from his $224,999 place with the Fee, after a few 12 months on the job.
“I was not involved in the situation,” Wu mentioned Wednesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “Water and Sewer is a separate entity from the city.
“With personnel situations, things happen and situations change, and there are a whole set of legal and contractual parameters that end up shaping the outcomes of what happens in individual cases,” the mayor added.
Wu mentioned her understanding of the settlement, which was equal to a few 12 months’s price of severance, was that it got here “from consideration of a whole set of factors.”
“I’m not familiar with all the details here, but Water and Sewer is its own entity, and they function and make their own personnel decisions,” Wu mentioned.
The severance settlement was finalized final Friday between Flaherty and Fee Govt Director Henry Vitale. Flaherty agreed to the $253,670 payout on circumstances that he received’t sue or disparage the quasi-public company.
The Boston Water and Sewer Fee was created by the state Legislature in 1977, changing separate water and sewer divisions of the town’s public works division. It’s overseen by a three-member board of commissioners that’s appointed by the mayor with the approval of the Metropolis Council.
Flaherty joined the Water and Sewer Fee in January 2024, after spending 20 years on the Boston Metropolis Council, together with 5 years as Council president. He departed the Council for an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2009, and was re-elected to the physique in 2013. He selected to not search re-election in 2023.
Flaherty was an ally of Mayor Wu after she got here into workplace, after having served collectively for a time on the Metropolis Council. That previous affiliation led some to take a position that Wu’s affect helped him rapidly land the high-paying job with the Water and Sewer Fee.
The ex-city councilor was employed final 12 months as deputy normal counsel of the Water and Sewer Fee, at a $164,000 wage. Payroll data present Flaherty was later elevated to normal counsel, and was paid $224,999 in 2024.
The Fee has declined to supply a motive for Flaherty’s termination, and Flaherty has not responded to the Herald’s requests for touch upon the matter. Public data from the Fee that first confirmed Flaherty’s dismissal cite exemptions “around producing records confirming personnel decisions.”
The Herald has additionally requested affirmation on the existence of an alleged commissioned investigation that led to Flaherty’s termination, and the associated report for January 2025, however was informed by the Fee in a data response that it “does not possess any such document.”
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