Katie Castellani
State House News Service

Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio says she is planning to sue the Massachusetts Port Authority over documents she claims the authority improperly kept from auditors. Massport claims it has cooperated with DiZoglio’s office.

On Wednesday, DiZoglio said the port authority blocked her office from accessing personnel records that the auditor is legally allowed to review as part of her audit of government settlement agreements spanning from January 2019 to December 2024. At a press conference on the audit, she announced her lawsuit plans.

Jennifer Mehigan, a spokesman for Massport, said the authority has not received a complaint or been served by the auditor and that Wednesday’s press conference was the first port authority officials heard about a lawsuit. Mehigan also said Massport has been fully cooperative with the state auditor’s office throughout what she called this “unusually lengthy process.”

According to the audit, DiZoglio’s office conducted a Data Reliability Assessment over the course of the audit to verify that agencies being audited provided all settlement agreements. For the assessment, auditors requested personnel files from a random sample of state employees at Massport and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.

Agencies keep settlement agreements in employee personnel files, according to the audit. When reviewing Massport’s files, the auditor discovered an additional seven settlements the authority did not report to the auditor. Also, Massport denied the auditor access to 10 of 131 records DiZoglio’s office tried to access, according to the audit.

Auditors also reported that the state attorney general's office and Massport "improperly shared sensitive information" about the audit with employees and retirees who were not involved in the audit.

Mehigan noted that Massport is a public employer and acknowledged that it had notified more than 100 current and former employees whose files the auditor requested to review, as required under the Massachusetts Fair Information Practices Act. Massport notified the auditor that a “small number” of employees objected to sharing their information. The state attorney general’s office also invoked Fair Information Practices Act during the most recent audit.

Auditors said the only other time where an auditee invoked the information practices law, disclosed sensitive information, and denied access to records was when the governor did so during the audit of the executive branch’s handling of employment settlements under the Patrick and Baker administrations spanning January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2022. The audit said the attorney general had coached governors to “moot” the records request by invoking the Fair Information Practices Act.

“We repeatedly, and in writing, rejected this new and made-up claim that auditees, such as [the governor] could have the choice to withhold information from our office that is needed for our audit work,” according to the audit report. “... Under [the governor’s, attorney general’s] and Massport’s misinterpretation of the law, bad actors across our state government would be entitled to block statutorily authorized reviews of their personnel files by state oversight entities anytime they feared such a review might reveal misconduct.”

In the audit report, the attorney general’s office said it sent Fair Information Practices Act notices to employees because it has a “legal duty to do so” and that its compliance with the Fair Information Practices Act did not hinder the auditor’s review of personnel records. In April 2025, the auditor requested to review 116 personnel records of current and past employees of the attorney general. After following the statute's notification process, auditors were able to review all 116 personnel files by May 2025.

"The audit confirms that the AGO leads the way in following state law and best practices when it comes to settlement agreements," Campbell spokesman Allie Zuliani said in a statement to State House News Service, where "AGO" means "Attorney General's office." "State law requires agencies holding personal data to notify the data subjects when their personal information is requested. After providing notice to the affected individuals, the AGO gave the Auditor’s staff access to every personnel file they requested.”

DiZoglio also said she is also calling on Campbell to allow the auditor to choose its own attorney to represent it in the lawsuit against Massport. Because of the attorney general's past with invoking the Fair Information Practices Act and advising the governor to do so, Campbell’s office is “conflicted out” of representing the auditor, DiZoglio said. 

Campbell's office said it is reviewing DiZoglio's request to initiate litigation against Massport and has no further comment.

Because it is a quasi-public agency, Massport is not required to follow the same mandates as executive branch agencies to report their settlements with the state comptroller’s office, DiZoglio said.

Mehigan said Massport has voluntarily adopted a no-non-disclosure agreement policy that’s consistent with Healey’s executive order banning the use of non-disclosure agreements across executive offices.

“As I've been saying for years to those of you who have been around this building for years, it is beyond past time that we stop allowing taxpayer dollars to be abused by concealing allegations of unlawful, unethical behavior across our state government,” DiZoglio said.

Katie Castellani is a reporter for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts.