Massachusetts Convention center board takes no vote on CEO, source says
No vote was taken Sunday night by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority board after an abrupt meeting was called as the sprawling Seaport center faces two Beacon Hill investigations.
CEO Marcel Vernon was not terminated, and no other voting decisions were reached in the closed-door session, a source with knowledge of the meeting told the Herald Monday.
Another source said negotiations are “ongoing” to possibly give Vernon a six-figure settlement to step away from the MCCA.
Agency spokesman David Silk told the Herald in an email Monday that “at this time, we have no comment.”
It all comes as the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight launched a probe Friday with a letter demanding information on allegations of corruption related to procuring documents, mismanagement of public funds, destruction of records, and more, by leadership of the MCCA.
Vernon has welcomed the investigation, as well as requests for information by another state committee related to efforts to curb reported racial bias and exclusion at the MCCA.
Vernon’s lawyer, Jeffrey Robbins, said Sunday that he was told by MCCA legal counsel that the board meeting was intended to terminate the $300,000-plus CEO, something Robbins says is in retaliation for his public support of the two investigations into the Authority.
Robbins said the abrupt session was an open meeting law violation caused by failing to provide notice of the meeting at least two business days in advance.
“This purported notice is an extraordinarily obvious and, indeed, transparent violation of the Open Meeting Law, and is in flagrant retaliation against Mr. Vernon for his public support for two demands for information from two separate Committees of the Massachusetts Legislature,” Robbins said in a scathing letter to the board.
One of the investigative letters came from state Sen. Mark Montigny and it directed Vernon to preserve all relevant documents at the authority, and even requested an official from the Secretary of State’s office to oversee documents “in order to ensure no Authority employees can get to them.”
The letter from Montigny addresses a laundry list of concerns the committee is investigating and seeks information about allegations of corruption among leadership at the MCCA related to contracts, employee surveillance, the hiring of outside law firms and private investigators to gather information on employees, and the alleged destruction physical and electronic records.
