The Boston Water and Sewer Fee’s embattled human assets director, embroiled in a number of civil lawsuits that embrace fraud allegations and investigated on three separate events by the quasi-public company, is out of a job.
Marie Theodat, chief human useful resource officer of the Water and Sewer Fee, is not employed on the company, the place she was paid $202,873 and promoted final 12 months however had been on paid depart since not less than this previous February.
“Effective April 18, 2025, Ms. Theodat no longer works for the Commission,” Dolores Randolph, a Fee spokesperson, mentioned in a Wednesday assertion.
Randolph declined to touch upon the rationale behind the departure, which turned efficient final Friday, “as it is a personnel matter.”
Whereas she responded to a Herald inquiry searching for affirmation that Theodat was dismissed from her position, Randolph didn’t reply to additional inquiries about whether or not the departure was initiated by the Fee and when the company’s prime human assets government was positioned on paid administrative depart.
The Water and Sewer Fee mentioned in early February that Theodat was on paid administrative depart, after a Herald public data request and enchantment to the Secretary of State’s workplace.
Theodat didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The Water and Sewer Fee held an 8 a.m. government session-only assembly final Tuesday to debate “litigation and legal advice.”
The assembly was convened two days after the Herald printed a report primarily based on public data from the Fee that exposed the company spent tens of hundreds of {dollars} investigating Theodat however continued to present her raises, promote her after which pay her $202,873 wage whereas she stayed residence on paid depart.
The general public data, which confirmed Theodat had been investigated 3 times, have been launched to the Herald on April 9 by the Fee, after it was compelled to take action following an enchantment to the Secretary of State’s workplace.
Almost $30,000 was billed to the Fee by two outdoors regulation companies in August and December 2024 for 2 investigations of an undisclosed nature. One inside investigation into Theodat was additionally performed by the Fee employees, at a price that was not disclosed by the quasi-public company, data present.
Though the Fee was paying for investigations into “allegations of misconduct against” Theodat, it continued to present her a sequence of raises. Her pay has been hiked by 61% since 2019, and the Fee promoted Theodat from human assets director to chief human useful resource officer final September.
Metropolis and Fee payroll data present Theodat was the best paid human assets director within the Metropolis of Boston final 12 months, and was tied with 5 different division chiefs because the sixth-highest paid worker on the Fee.
The Fee selected to withhold the “three internal investigation reports related to Marie Theodat’s employment” with the company, Randolph wrote within the April 9 data response. She cited a privateness exemption for doing so, however commented usually on what the investigations entailed.
“The Commission investigated allegations of misconduct against Ms. Theodat and issued these investigation reports to determine whether any disciplinary action, up to and including termination, was required,” Randolph wrote. “The investigation reports are highly likely to create personal embarrassment for Ms. Theodat because disclosure would make public, at the very least, the allegations of misconduct raised against her.”
The primary commissioned investigation passed off within the month that preceded the submitting of a civil lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court docket that alleged Theodat labored with family to swindle her aged and dementia-ridden uncle out of his residence.
It was performed between July 16 and July 30 final 12 months, in accordance with an Aug. 5 bill from ADR Analysis. The bill was despatched to Michael Flaherty, a former Boston metropolis councilor who was common counsel of the Water and Sewer Fee on the time.
Flaherty was later fired by the Fee, this previous Jan. 10, as a result of what the quasi-public company mentioned was a “breakdown in the working relationship” between Flaherty and the Fee’s Government Director Henry Vitale.
On the time, two different lawsuits have been pending towards Theodat in Suffolk Superior Court docket, together with one which concerned among the identical events and the identical Dorchester residence because the August 2024 lawsuit and one which alleges Theodat stiffed a lady on a $75,000 mortgage mortgage.
The August 2024 civil lawsuit that alleges Theodat “fraudulently induced” her uncle to signal over the deed to his $1.1 million residence for “less than $100,” underneath the “guise” that he was signing paperwork associated to his medical care, first got here to mild in an October 2024 Herald report.
Weeks later, per Fee data, Serino Legislation was retained by the company to conduct an investigation into Theodat, that per the invoices, prolonged from Oct. 29 to Dec. 20. The regulation agency was paid almost $25,000.
Two invoices for that work have been despatched final December to Nixon Peabody, an outdoor regulation agency that seems to now be dealing with the majority of the Fee’s authorized duties.
Per Fee data, Nixon Peabody was employed on a contractual foundation in late October of final 12 months for $350,000, and was retained once more this previous January for a $500,000 contract that extends all through the top of this 12 months.
On the time, the Fee was being pressured by a trio of unions representing Water and Sewer Fee workers to research and droop Theodat whereas the “severe” allegations leveled towards her in civil lawsuits performed out in court docket.
The unions, SEIU Native 888, IAM Native 100 and OPEIU Native 6, despatched a letter to Vitale, the chief director, elevating considerations about Theodat’s “personal access to sensitive information such as banking numbers, routing information” and social safety numbers.
After acquiring data revealing the existence of three prior inside investigations, the Herald inquired about how lengthy metropolis taxpayers could be paying Theodat’s $202,873 wage.
The Fee didn’t reply on the time, however supplied a solution — till April 18 — on Wednesday.
