A Superior Court judge today rejected The Boston Globe’s bid for an injunction requiring Massachusetts officials to turn over the names of employees who have received lucrative settlement or severance deals, but indicated the newspaper could eventually prevail as the case proceeds to trial.
Under the Public Records Law, the Globe is seeking the names of more than 150 public employees who received separation, severance, or settlement agreements from 10 state agencies since 2005. The value of the agreements totals $10 million. The newspaper obtained the agreements themselves a year ago but the names and other identifying information of the recipients were redacted.
Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders said the fact that the Globe will have to wait a few more months to see if they can get the names “seems hardly unfair,” especially when balanced against the irreparable harm that would occur if she ordered the information to be released right now.
“This court is not convinced that the risk of harm to the Globe if no disclosure is ordered outweighs the potential harm to the defendants if the injunction is granted,” Sanders wrote in her decision. “To disclose this information without a full consideration of all the issues at stake would be unfair to [the employees who signed the agreements] and would result in an irrevocable loss of the privacy they bargained for.”
Sanders nevertheless indicated the Globe’s arguments for disclosure were compelling. “The Globe argues persuasively that the public has a right to know how its tax dollars are spent and that this includes a right to examine the manner in which public employee claims are resolved,” she wrote. “Recent events like the Probation Department scandal underscore the importance of transparency in the process of hiring, managing, and compensating public employees. Without knowing who was paid as part of these severance agreements, the Globe — and the public that it serves — will not be able to determine whether the government spent tax dollars wisely.”
The Globe wrote a front-page story about the issue on Sunday, focusing on the fact that most of the agreements require the recipients of the payouts and the state officials who handed them out to keep them secret. CommonWealth covered the Globe’s initial quest for the records as part of its ongoing coverage of public records issues in Massachusetts, as well as the filing of the lawsuit seeking the names of the settlement recipients.