Public records reveal staff turmoil at the Boston Water and Sewer Commission with embattled HR Director Marie Theodat on paid administrative leave and the agency’s general counsel and ex-city councilor Michael Flaherty out of a job.

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission released the information Wednesday in response to a series of public records requests from the Herald. The release comes after the Secretary of State’s office ordered the agency, which had been non-responsive, to comply with the requests following multiple appeals by this publication.

Theodat, who was promoted to chief human resource officer last September and saw salary hikes while embroiled in multiple civil lawsuits that include allegations of fraud, is now on paid administrative leave, according to public records.

Flaherty, who joined the Commission in January 2024 after spending two decades on the Boston City Council, is no longer employed at the quasi-public agency.

“Mr. Flaherty’s employment as the Commission’s general counsel ended on Jan. 10, 2025,” Commission spokesperson Dolores Randolph wrote in the records.

The documents don’t state a reason for either employment change, including whether Flaherty’s departure was voluntary or he was terminated, citing exemptions “around producing records concerning personnel decisions.”

Requests for comment from Flaherty and Theodat were not immediately returned on Wednesday night.

The mayor’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change in job status for Flaherty.

Flaherty was an ally of Mayor Michelle Wu after she came into office. That past association led some to speculate that her influence helped him quickly land the high-paying job with the Water and Sewer Commission.

The Herald requested payroll information for the entire Boston Water and Sewer Commission for 2023 and 2024. Records, which were also released Wednesday, show that last year, Flaherty was paid $224,999 and Theodat made $202,873.

Those salaries made Flaherty the fifth-highest paid employee at the Commission, while Theodat was tied with five other department chiefs as sixth-highest, payroll records show.

The highest-paid employee, a chief engineer and operations officer, made $261,565 last year, besting Executive Director Henry Vitale, who made $228,466.

While it’s unclear what prompted the personnel changes, they may speak to turmoil sources have described at the Commission ever since fraud allegations leveled against Theodat in a Suffolk Superior Court lawsuit became public after they were first reported by the Herald last October.

The lawsuit alleges Theodat worked with relatives to swindle her elderly and dementia-ridden uncle out of his $1.1 million Dorchester home. It alleges she “fraudulently induced” him to sign over the deed to his longtime home for “less than $100” under the “guise” he was signing documents related to his medical care.

At the end of this past November, a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled in favor of a woman who alleged Theodat stiffed her on a $75,000 mortgage loan. The ruling was made after a weeklong trial related to a separate civil lawsuit filed against Theodat in 2020.

A trio of unions representing Boston Water and Sewer Commission employees sent a letter to Vitale, the commission’s executive director, last October pressing for an internal investigation and for Theodat to be suspended pending the results.

The Commission had responded to those calls by saying that it saw the civil lawsuits as having no bearing on Theodat’s employment in a statement that described her as a “valued employee.”

The records cite a privacy exemption in declining to confirm whether an internal investigation was launched.

As general counsel, Flaherty would likely have been involved in legal issues regarding Commission employees.

The unions, in their letter, had also requested that Theodat be stripped of her ability to handle sensitive employee information like social security and banking numbers, and that the information be transferred to the legal department.

Related Articles

Pam Bondi freezes DOJ funding for sanctuary cities, as Michelle Wu gets date to testify in front of Congress

After Tania Fernandes Anderson probe, Boston City Council votes to ban non-disclosure agreements

Elected Boston school committee at issue again in mayoral race as Josh Kraft expresses support

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu hits back at Josh Kraft’s criticism, portrays him as a carpetbagger

Josh Kraft launches campaign for Boston mayor with call for rent control, pause on White Stadium

Records previously obtained by the Herald reveal that Theodat’s $202,873 salary last year represented a nearly 27% increase in her pay from 2023, when she was making about $160,000. In April 2019, she was paid $126,000.

Along with a series of pay hikes over the past several years, Theodat was promoted from human resources director to chief human resource officer, effective Sept. 1, while several civil lawsuits were pending against her in court, records show.

The Herald first began asking for confirmation that Theodat had been suspended on Dec. 4 and first inquired about Flaherty’s rumored departure on Jan. 10. The Herald appealed to the state after multiple requests were ignored by the Commission.

The Commission records released on Wednesday end with a statement.

“The Boston Water and Sewer Commission is consistently recognized as one of the highest rated water and sewer commissions in the country thanks to our outstanding employees,” Randolph, the commission’s spokesperson, said.

Boston Water and Sewer 2024 payroll: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Michael Flaherty (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)