Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBSY Constans Radio with.
Speaker 2: Us is the State Auditor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Diana do is Auglio, Diana, Madam Auditor. I should say,
Speaker 2: how are you tonight?
Speaker 3: Oh? Great, Dad, thanks for having me. I'm up a
Speaker 3: little past my bedtime, but I am here. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: miss an opportunity to be on Nightside.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate it. You you have had a very
Speaker 2: interesting career, not You started off as an as an
Speaker 2: intern or as an aide at the State House of Representatives.
Speaker 2: Then you were elected to the House of Representatives and
Speaker 2: you served I think it was was it four terms
Speaker 2: there if I'm if I'm correct.
Speaker 3: Or wrong, I sixth year of the State Representatives and
Speaker 3: then went on to the Senate for four years there
Speaker 3: until I was most recently elected to be your state auditor.
Speaker 3: And it's been a really humbling, incredible experience, and.
Speaker 2: You very independent minded member of the legislature. And I
Speaker 2: think it's probably fair to say that some in the
Speaker 2: legislative leadership probably looked at you as a bit of
Speaker 2: a rebel or am I overstating it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think that that's actually pretty accurate some from
Speaker 3: the Merrimack Valley. I am Masullen born and raised were
Speaker 3: up on the New Hampshire border, and you know, I
Speaker 3: spent several years during my childhood in the city of
Speaker 3: Lawrence as well. Moved around quite a bit during my childhood.
Speaker 3: I was raised by a young mother. She was only
Speaker 3: seventeen when she had me, and I grew up housing
Speaker 3: insecure and we moved around quite a bit depending on
Speaker 3: where my mom could find work as a young nurse's
Speaker 3: aide at the time. And you know, I graduated from
Speaker 3: the public school system here and ended up going off
Speaker 3: to Community College, which was an associates degree that I
Speaker 3: was able to afford thanks to our state investments and
Speaker 3: families like mine. From there, I earned a scholarship to
Speaker 3: Wellesley College, ended up getting my degree from Wellesley, and look,
Speaker 3: knowing that others had invested in me and given me
Speaker 3: the opportunity to succeed someone coming from my background, I
Speaker 3: really felt and still do feel a strong calling to
Speaker 3: serve in whatever way I'm able to to make sure
Speaker 3: that I am working hard to ensure that those opportunities
Speaker 3: are provided to others in our communities. And at that
Speaker 3: age when I just graduated from college. Since I couldn't
Speaker 3: do those types of investments financially, I ended up serving
Speaker 3: in a lot of different community service programs. I worked
Speaker 3: at youth centers, community centers, nonprofits, you name it. While
Speaker 3: I was simultaneously waitressing and cleaning houses to make ends
Speaker 3: meet financially speaking, and I got a job offer working
Speaker 3: at the State House in Boston. Full transparency, I had
Speaker 3: no idea what a state representative did. I did not
Speaker 3: generally use legislature as part of my vocabulary. Didn't really
Speaker 3: know what the legislature was or what it did. But
Speaker 3: I got the job as a community activist. There was
Speaker 3: a state rep who needed somebody who came from the community.
Speaker 3: I had strong roots in the community. Obviously. I ended
Speaker 3: up going to work at the State House learning about
Speaker 3: all the great things that state government can do to
Speaker 3: invest in our communities and to serve everyday people. And
Speaker 3: I also, during that very short amount of time working
Speaker 3: at the State House in Boston, learned about the flip
Speaker 3: side of how state government can also operate when there
Speaker 3: is no accountability. I was sexually harassed while I was
Speaker 3: working as a legislative aid. I was in my twenties,
Speaker 3: at the time fort jow out of college, and the
Speaker 3: way that they thought it was appropriate Dan to deal
Speaker 3: with that harassment was to fire me and then require
Speaker 3: that just to get myself next week severance package. Not
Speaker 3: for some big settlement or anything like that, but just
Speaker 3: to get my six week severance package. On my way
Speaker 3: out the door, that I signed away my right to
Speaker 3: talk about what happened among some of the most powerful
Speaker 3: politicians in Massachusetts at our own Statehouse. And I didn't
Speaker 3: let them get rid of me keep me quiet. I
Speaker 3: didn't leave state government like they told me to do.
Speaker 3: Instead ran for state representative and a little over a
Speaker 3: year later made my way back into that same chamber
Speaker 3: that fired me as the youngest woman serving in the
Speaker 3: House of Representatives at that time. And since then, Dan,
Speaker 3: I've been fighting like hell to make sure that we
Speaker 3: have a more transparent, accountable, equitable, and accessible state legislature
Speaker 3: and overall state government that serves working families across our
Speaker 3: state who all too often fight hard to receive at
Speaker 3: the table, but unfortunately continue to find themselves disenfranchised or
Speaker 3: isolated from the broken system that currently exists here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: I do that a couple of parts of that store.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of parts of your story that I
Speaker 2: think are incredible. Amazing to go from a community college
Speaker 2: to Wellesley College is amazing. Someone there must have seen
Speaker 2: in you a spark.
Speaker 3: And then one of my professors, you're right, Yes, her
Speaker 3: name was Ann millerk and a wonderful, wonderful human and
Speaker 3: she did and she invested in me, and I'll forever
Speaker 3: be grateful to her for seeing potential in me that
Speaker 3: I couldn't see in myself.
Speaker 2: Sure, and then to deal with what you dealt with
Speaker 2: at the State House as an aide. One of the
Speaker 2: things we're going to talk about tonight are the need
Speaker 2: to eliminate what's called non disclosure agreements, which I think
Speaker 2: is what you were referring to. But then to come
Speaker 2: back a year later as an elected member of the
Speaker 2: great in General Court as they call it, you really
Speaker 2: knew how the system worked, in how the system should work,
Speaker 2: and all of that. So I think that's a great
Speaker 2: way to reintroduce yourself to the audience. But I want
Speaker 2: to talk about Boston Convention Center, the audit that you
Speaker 2: folks have just completed and disclosed. I want to talk
Speaker 2: about non disclosure agreements. And I also want to talk
Speaker 2: about ballot question number one, because one of the things
Speaker 2: that you want to do as state auditor is to
Speaker 2: audit the state legislature, and surprise, surprise, the leadership of
Speaker 2: the state Legislature wants no part of that. So we'll
Speaker 2: take questions and for I think of all the statewide
Speaker 2: office holders, and obviously there are six of you constitutional
Speaker 2: office holders, you were one that is taking a position
Speaker 2: that very few people understand, and you're explaining it and
Speaker 2: you're doing something with it. So we've got to take
Speaker 2: a quick break. We'll get the phone calls, but first
Speaker 2: I want to get to all of those issues. And
Speaker 2: I also want to talk about that ballot question, because
Speaker 2: that's one that needs to pass. Its ballot question number one,
Speaker 2: and I know that you're very much behind it as well.
Speaker 2: My guest is the State Order of the Carmwalth of Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: Diane Dezaglio. An incredible story but also an attitude of
Speaker 2: which we need more at the State House. In my
Speaker 2: humble opinion, if you'd like to get on the line
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five four to ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven, nine, three one ten thirty, the state orner
Speaker 2: is a Democrat, a former state representative, form of state
Speaker 2: center and now one of the six constitutional offices. So
Speaker 2: we officers here in the Cormwalth of Massachusetts, and we'll
Speaker 2: start off with the Boston Convention Center audit, which has
Speaker 2: just been completed and will explain its relevance. Back on
Speaker 2: Night Side right after this with the State Order and
Speaker 2: Diane at Desauglio.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guess the State Auditor Diana Dezaglio. Look, let's start
Speaker 2: with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which for many years
Speaker 2: was considered a dumping ground for political patronage. You did
Speaker 2: an audit which covered two years twenty twenty one, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, and you found some problems. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: What should the public know about this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So all our office audits every state entity at
Speaker 3: least once every three years, or we do our us
Speaker 3: to do so, as we were required to by law.
Speaker 3: And the Convention Center was up for their audits. And
Speaker 3: this is actually following multiple reports and the Boston Globe
Speaker 3: reported on this, amongst other news outlets, that there were
Speaker 3: allegations racial discrimination issues amongst other challenges regarding state contracting, prosurement,
Speaker 3: going out to bid using our state tax dollars. So
Speaker 3: our office looked into the convention center challenges, uh, following
Speaker 3: those reports and following the many uh, you know, complaints
Speaker 3: and just concerns that were that were raised to our office,
Speaker 3: and we recently released the results of that audit report,
Speaker 3: and we found some pretty disturbing things. And we found
Speaker 3: that the Mathadiss Convention Center actually really needed to augment
Speaker 3: their human resources practices, that employee complaints were not being
Speaker 3: handled accurately, UH, that uh, distribution regarding security plans was
Speaker 3: not being handled equitably with clients.
Speaker 2: UH.
Speaker 3: But we also found more disturbing things alongside of that,
Speaker 3: you know, that that you know, we we had gotten
Speaker 3: complaints about in alignment with those things, I should say, uh,
Speaker 3: pertaining to the abuse of state taxpayer dollars. Alongside of
Speaker 3: the audit findings concerning you know, violations of their own
Speaker 3: processes and procedures, we actually found that the Convention Center
Speaker 3: authority was unlawfully executing some of their state contracts and
Speaker 3: entering into procurement and you know, going out to bid
Speaker 3: without actually documenting some of those original bids, which is
Speaker 3: required by our public records law, and you know, you
Speaker 3: need to make sure that when you're sending out these
Speaker 3: bids that you're actually documenting that process to make sure
Speaker 3: that it was done ethically, morally, and legally. And we
Speaker 3: found a significant lack of documentation suggesting destruction of public records,
Speaker 3: which is very concerning. We've referred those matters to the
Speaker 3: Secretary of State's office and we found significant challenges and
Speaker 3: you know, potential violations of the law that we've actually
Speaker 3: referred to the Attorney General's office regarding how state contracts
Speaker 3: were being execut suited in violation of the Convention Center's
Speaker 3: own policies and procedures, and some that were done unlawfully.
Speaker 3: So we let the Convention Center know about these things.
Speaker 3: They said that they are going to take action to
Speaker 3: address these concerns. They agreed with us on a majority
Speaker 3: of the issues that we raised them. I do have
Speaker 3: to say this was all done under previous leadership, and
Speaker 3: the new interim executive director was incredibly cooperative with our
Speaker 3: audit team, very responsive, and has already begun to take
Speaker 3: actions on the issues raised. There was also one more thing, just.
Speaker 2: To give her the credit is Gloria Larson.
Speaker 3: Gloria, Yes, yes, she's.
Speaker 2: Working with you. The prior executive director who ran into
Speaker 2: some choppy waters, let's put it like that, was David Gibbons.
Speaker 3: He's no longer there, Yes, So Gloria Larson was incredibly
Speaker 3: you know, helpful to our audit team in ensuring that
Speaker 3: we got the documents that we were requesting and that
Speaker 3: the audit process went smoothly. That's not always the case
Speaker 3: in every agency. Audits aren't that easy for some folks
Speaker 3: to participate in. But this process went smoothly thanks to
Speaker 3: the new and Derman executive director. So you know, our
Speaker 3: audit team was thankful for that. But one of the
Speaker 3: other things that we did find Dan that I didn't
Speaker 3: get to mention, was we actually found that and this
Speaker 3: is something very near and dear to me. As I
Speaker 3: already mentioned, I talked about an NDA that was executed
Speaker 3: years ago, over ten years ago, when I was a
Speaker 3: younger woman in my twenties. That that was over ten
Speaker 3: years ago. That was for a six week severance package,
Speaker 3: and it was to cover sexual harassment occurring at the
Speaker 3: state House. What I uncovered in this most recent audit
Speaker 3: of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority alongside my audit team
Speaker 3: was the unlawful execution of a taxpayer funded, one point
Speaker 3: two million dollar taxpayer funded non disclosure agreement that concealed
Speaker 3: allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation at our Convention Center authority.
Speaker 3: So we went from over ten years ago a six
Speaker 3: week severance package sexual harassment at the state House, in
Speaker 3: action occurring for the last ten plus years, even though
Speaker 3: this issue was repeatedly raised to the legislature, repeatedly raised
Speaker 3: to the previous administration, and now we're in a situation
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four where we now have a one
Speaker 3: point two million dollar taxpayer funded non disclosure agreement concealing
Speaker 3: allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation. That is unacceptable. We
Speaker 3: are going backwards in on this issue regarding transparency, accountability,
Speaker 3: and also abuse of our taxpayer dollars and the silence
Speaker 3: saying of potential victims of harassment, discrimination, abuse, or anybody
Speaker 3: who may have seen something that is an illegal activity
Speaker 3: in a state entity. We need to take action. It
Speaker 3: is absolutely unacceptable that we continue to allow year after
Speaker 3: a year with no action being taken on this issue.
Speaker 4: The abuse of.
Speaker 3: Our tax dollars to silence people about inappropriate and even
Speaker 3: illegal activities.
Speaker 2: So these so these NDAs in which taxpayers, taxpayer money
Speaker 2: is used to silence victims, to cover up the activities
Speaker 2: of state officials, taxpayer money is used. You want, as
Speaker 2: I understand that Governor Healey by executive order to outlaw
Speaker 2: the use of NDAs, is that within Is that within
Speaker 2: her scope of authority?
Speaker 3: Yes it is. And I actually had never thought about
Speaker 3: it from that perspective before. But recently I was called
Speaker 3: and told through my office that I was going to
Speaker 3: be acting governor for short since on Tuesday when everybody
Speaker 3: was gone at the convention. And subsequently had looked into,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the good things one would be
Speaker 3: able to do in the position of acting governor. That
Speaker 3: could you know, bring bring some attention to an issue
Speaker 3: of importance and do some good you know, and and
Speaker 3: we'll say, get into some good trouble. Right. So I
Speaker 3: looked into some of the you know options, and you know,
Speaker 3: I had folks calling saying, you know, you need to
Speaker 3: sign an executive order to do this or do this
Speaker 3: or do that. I said, you know, all the respects,
Speaker 3: thank you. You know, an administration could just as easily
Speaker 3: rescind an executive order. It's this second big at home
Speaker 3: as quickly as it was signed. Right, And that's not
Speaker 3: that's not a way to make meaningful progress.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: We have an elected governor, we have an elected lieutenant governor.
Speaker 3: But I did have the opportunity to think about, you know,
Speaker 3: from an acting governor's perspective. So I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: what I could raise awareness about and highlight that was
Speaker 3: important to me, important to the causes that I've worked on,
Speaker 3: and important to the communities that I've represented, not just
Speaker 3: now but through the years that I've been working up
Speaker 3: at the State House. And you know, we had just
Speaker 3: been working on that audit of the Convention Center authority.
Speaker 3: This issue was fresh on my mind while I was
Speaker 3: getting asked what I was planning to highlight, and I
Speaker 3: ended up, you know, looking into the option of drafting
Speaker 3: an executive order and if that would you know, potentially
Speaker 3: resolve some of these challenges in our state agencies. And
Speaker 3: I found that it is possible to do that iministration
Speaker 3: ten indeed, issue an executive order to prevent the abuse
Speaker 3: of taxpayer dollars in going towards funding these non disclosure agreements.
Speaker 3: To conceal these illegal activities. So I drafted that proposal.
Speaker 3: You may have heard I didn't get to serve ex
Speaker 3: acting governor, but that's okay. I appreciated the experience and
Speaker 3: the opportunity of getting to think about this issue from
Speaker 3: a different perspective, because the result was that I got
Speaker 3: to work. We drafted an executive order, and we presented
Speaker 3: it for the governor's consideration and the Lieutenant governor's consideration.
Speaker 3: And I am strongly urging the governor and our team
Speaker 3: to take a look at that executive order draft, you know,
Speaker 3: when they get their next chance. It is incredibly important
Speaker 3: that we've taken action again. We've been going backwards. Not
Speaker 3: time to make progress.
Speaker 2: We will keep our eye on that. What am I
Speaker 2: going to do is I got to take a news
Speaker 2: break and then we come back. I also want to
Speaker 2: talk about the ballot question, about your desire to audit
Speaker 2: the legislature and why that's important. And I also want
Speaker 2: to ask people and invite people to call six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Not often do you have the opportunity to talk with
Speaker 2: one of the state constitutional officers. State auditor. The Auditor
Speaker 2: of the Comwealth of Massachusetts, Diana Dezaglio is here. As
Speaker 2: you can see, she has many ideas. If you have
Speaker 2: a question or comment, I want to encourage her. She
Speaker 2: believes that sunshine is the greatest disinfectant and as I believe,
Speaker 2: and she is a breath of fresh air at the
Speaker 2: State House. We'll be back on Nightside with a conversation
Speaker 2: about the ballot question and also you have questions and comments,
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear from you back on Nightside with
Speaker 2: the State Auditor.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray and Boston's News Radio,
Speaker 1: just as.
Speaker 2: The State Auditor of the come Wealth of Massachusetts, and
Speaker 2: there is there are five ballot questions on the November ballot.
Speaker 2: Question Number one basically is asking us, the voters, to
Speaker 2: give the state Auditor, Diana de Zaglio, the authority to
Speaker 2: audit the state legislature. This is a big, big question.
Speaker 2: Tell us why, auditor.
Speaker 3: Well, for anybody who's followed recent happenings in our state legislature,
Speaker 3: state legislature had a really challenging time getting things across
Speaker 3: the finish line, you know, issues being taken up in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night. Climate change, legislation not getting passed,
Speaker 3: economic development bill getting left on the table, amongst other
Speaker 3: really important issues to Massachusetts residents who were relying on
Speaker 3: the legislature to do their jobs and to do their
Speaker 3: jobs in a kindly fashion, that did not occur. The
Speaker 3: legislature has been having a challenging time with getting things
Speaker 3: done in a timely fashion for many years now, but
Speaker 3: I think this year that was really put on display
Speaker 3: in a very salient way for Massachusetts residents to be
Speaker 3: able to see clearly that this is not the way
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts legislature is supposed to be operating, especially not
Speaker 3: dan in a state like Massachusetts. In Massachusetts we leave
Speaker 3: on so many issues. But here in Massachusetts, our state
Speaker 3: legislature is continually ranked by almost every good government group
Speaker 3: as the least transparent, the least accessible, the least accountable
Speaker 3: state legislature in the entire nation. It is not subject
Speaker 3: to public records laws, not subject to open meeting laws.
Speaker 3: Bills are able to get passed in the middle of
Speaker 3: the night when no one's wat There has been a
Speaker 3: cloak of darkness over the State House for far too long,
Speaker 3: and this year we have an opportunity to vote on
Speaker 3: one issue that will help to shine a light on
Speaker 3: some of the dark areas in our state legislature. And
Speaker 3: that is Question one. Question one is asking all of
Speaker 3: you who are listening at home, to please give the
Speaker 3: Office of State Auditor the explicit authority to audit the
Speaker 3: state legislature. They are the only state entity who is
Speaker 3: refusing to recognize what current law already states, which is
Speaker 3: that the Office of State Auditor is to audit all
Speaker 3: state departments, offices, activities. They are claiming that they believe
Speaker 3: they're exempt because they make their own rule rules, and
Speaker 3: they don't think that they're subject to the same laws
Speaker 3: as everybody else is, as every other state entity is.
Speaker 3: We had one hundred and seventeen times that we have
Speaker 3: found through our history that the state legislature actually has
Speaker 3: been audited by the Office of State Auditor. It actually
Speaker 3: was always audited by our office, since their office is
Speaker 3: inception it's creation in eighteen forty nine, at which time
Speaker 3: audits of the legislature started happening, and they happened very
Speaker 3: frequently up until only in recent years legislative leaders decided
Speaker 3: to balk at that law and bok at those audits
Speaker 3: and decide that they were no longer going to cooperate.
Speaker 3: And when I ran for this office, I committed to
Speaker 3: the tax paying residents of this Commonwealth that I would
Speaker 3: audit the legislature if you sent me to the Office
Speaker 3: of State Auditor. I am fulfilling that promise to the voters.
Speaker 3: I am currently auditing the legislature, but they are refusing
Speaker 3: to even speak with the auditors in my office, never
Speaker 3: mind cooperate with their audit. So we have this option
Speaker 3: of bringing this to the ballot. It took a lot
Speaker 3: of work to get this on the ballot. I want
Speaker 3: to thank everybody who helped on this. If you're sitting
Speaker 3: at home listening and you are somebody who helped the
Speaker 3: goalect signatures, thank you because we've got over one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand signatures dan to get this issue on the ballot
Speaker 3: so that voters you listening at home, can make it
Speaker 3: crystal clear to our state legislature that we expect them
Speaker 3: to follow our constitution which calls on them to it
Speaker 3: all times, be accountable to we the people, And this
Speaker 3: audit of the legislature will ensure increased transparency, increased accountability,
Speaker 3: increased successibility. The list goes on it won't solve all
Speaker 3: of the problems. Legislators themselves need to take action to
Speaker 3: address the toxic culture that does exist within the legislature.
Speaker 3: But this issue will at least give us some insight
Speaker 3: into the finances and give us insight into some of
Speaker 3: the processes and procedures and some of the breakdowns that
Speaker 3: need to be addressed. I cannot do this without you.
Speaker 3: Please vote yes on one Bring on the Sun.
Speaker 2: So if the majority of people in Massachusetts who vote
Speaker 2: on November fifth vote yes, that is it. You then
Speaker 2: have that ballot approval and the legislature will not be
Speaker 2: able to fight you, or will they then try to
Speaker 2: go to court and stop you? And what do you
Speaker 2: think happens next?
Speaker 3: They could certainly try to fight it, Dan, But I
Speaker 3: consistently remind our legislators that if the legislature does fight
Speaker 3: this issue, they're not fighting me. They're not fighting the
Speaker 3: woman from the fillin who happened to hold this elected
Speaker 3: office right now. You know, by the grace of God
Speaker 3: and things to you at home for your vote. I
Speaker 3: appreciate it, But they're not fighting me. They're not fighting me,
Speaker 3: They're fighting all of you. If they choose to fight
Speaker 3: this The voters of Massachusetts already made it clear that
Speaker 3: they wanted this issue to be They wanted this issue
Speaker 3: to be something that was worked on. They wanted this
Speaker 3: audit to be done when they went to vote. I
Speaker 3: had been very transparent, but this is what I was
Speaker 3: going to do if I was elected. I was duly elected.
Speaker 3: I am trying to fulfill the will of the voters,
Speaker 3: and I am being stone involved. Now there's another opportunity
Speaker 3: for us to make crystal clear to legislative leaders how
Speaker 3: we feel about this in a much more direct and
Speaker 3: explicit manner, which simply just talks about this audit in
Speaker 3: and of itself, because they seem to still be confused
Speaker 3: about what the law says, uh and about my responsibility
Speaker 3: to the taxpayers. I do need voters to go out
Speaker 3: and make that crystal clear if I'm going to be
Speaker 3: able to do this good work on behalf of taxpayers,
Speaker 3: and it is on behalf of taxpayers that we do
Speaker 3: this work. Look, all the audits that we conduct, those
Speaker 3: all are matters of public records. So whenever we learn
Speaker 3: things about these agencies and these entities and these departments,
Speaker 3: that means that all of you learn about these things
Speaker 3: and I need to say that.
Speaker 2: In my opinion is this is not a partisan issue.
Speaker 2: You're a democrat, The legislature is overwhelmingly democratic. All you're
Speaker 2: looking to do is to again open up the books.
Speaker 2: Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant. One thing you said which I
Speaker 2: did not realize, Madam Auditor, and that was that when
Speaker 2: was the last time or when or were the leg
Speaker 2: was the legislature sure audited on a regular basis? Were
Speaker 2: going back twenty years, fifty years, one hundred years.
Speaker 3: The regular audits seemed too so we have as many
Speaker 3: records as we could find. A lot of them were buried,
Speaker 3: Some of them were in the State House library. Most
Speaker 3: of them were actually tucked in the back of the
Speaker 3: Auditor's office in some old dusty books that were on
Speaker 3: some backshelves. But from what we can find, and I
Speaker 3: clarify with that because there could be more information that
Speaker 3: comes forward. From what we've been able to find, it
Speaker 3: seems as though those regular audits stopped in the early,
Speaker 3: very early nineties. There was an it audit that happened
Speaker 3: I think in the early two thousands. Actually that was
Speaker 3: just of some of their information technology systems. But the
Speaker 3: one that actually ended in the early nineties, there was
Speaker 3: actually an audit of an issue with a court officer
Speaker 3: collecting payments apparently fraudulently within the House of Representatives in
Speaker 3: the legislature, and when the issue was raised to the
Speaker 3: state's attorney general at that time, the Attorney General referred
Speaker 3: the matter to the state auditor and said, this is
Speaker 3: a matter for the state auditor to review because it
Speaker 3: is a state entity. And he said, I'm the attorney general,
Speaker 3: this is the state auditor's purview. Referred to the state auditor.
Speaker 3: It was investigated at that time, and fraudulent payments were
Speaker 3: found to have been occurring, and that issue was able
Speaker 3: to be remedied due to the state auditors audit now
Speaker 3: because of their refusal.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, that gives you some pretty good legal precedents.
Speaker 2: I have full phone lines and I want to get
Speaker 2: to as many callers as I can. My guess is
Speaker 2: the state Auditor the Commonwealth, Diane de Zaglio. She is
Speaker 2: fighting for transparency. She wants to have the ability to
Speaker 2: audit the state legislature. This is not a Republican Democratic
Speaker 2: issue Democrat. The legislature is overwhelmingly Democrat. She is a
Speaker 2: rebel with a cause in my opinion, Back on Nightside.
Speaker 2: If you're on the line, get your questions, you have
Speaker 2: comments together quickly because I want to get to as
Speaker 2: many of you as possible between now and the ten
Speaker 2: o'clock hour. Back with the State Auditor Diana Dezaglio right
Speaker 2: after these brief messages.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get right to the call. IM going
Speaker 2: to ask everybody to be as brief as possible. We
Speaker 2: covered a lot of territory tonight. But whatever questions of
Speaker 2: comments you have, let's go with Dave in Hudson, New Hampshire.
Speaker 2: First up, Dave Coard, Ahad e Rowin State Auditor Diana
Speaker 2: do Zauglio. Go ahead, Dave, hey.
Speaker 4: Are doing Thanks for taking my call. Thirteen of the
Speaker 4: fourteen unions at the NBTA commuteril have been working under
Speaker 4: an expired contract that expired in twenty twenty two. Should
Speaker 4: the Commuterial Operate a ciolas be allowed to bid on
Speaker 4: the next operator contract if they don't have current remiss
Speaker 4: in place what they work force?
Speaker 2: Okay, not sure if that is an area that the
Speaker 2: auditor has already over, but she may have an opinion.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Diana.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Dan, and thanks for raising that issue
Speaker 3: pertaining to Kiolas. We're actually auditing KYO less contracts right
Speaker 3: now for a certain audit period. We're not able to
Speaker 3: audit present happening, but we are able to audit things
Speaker 3: that have already occurred to try to shine a light
Speaker 3: on potential contractual issues, things that should have been in
Speaker 3: place that might not have been in place, issues and
Speaker 3: challenges that need to be identified so we can prevent
Speaker 3: those things from happening moving forward. But couldn't agree more
Speaker 3: that we need increased scrutiny overall at the MBTA, where
Speaker 3: we've had safety challenge after safety challenge, performance issue after
Speaker 3: performance issue. We did recently conduct an audit of a
Speaker 3: contract or a private company known as Block by Block
Speaker 3: that was actually executed during a loophole period where the
Speaker 3: Taxpayer Protection Act was not required to be implemented and
Speaker 3: be followed during that time period the contract was executed.
Speaker 3: We found significant challenges in the contract and the result
Speaker 3: was instructions were not being done in a timely fashion
Speaker 3: according to what the agreed upon timeframe was between the
Speaker 3: MBTA and the contract provider, and also employees were not
Speaker 3: being trained on safety in accordance with the way they
Speaker 3: were supposed to be trained to prepare them for going
Speaker 3: out into the field, which puts writers at risk, puts
Speaker 3: employees at risk, and also risk taxpayer funds as well.
Speaker 3: But we did identify those challenges. We made recommendations to
Speaker 3: the MBTA and called on them to augment their performance
Speaker 3: to increase their oversights significantly. So did inform them that
Speaker 3: it was unacceptable. They have said that they're going to
Speaker 3: work to address those challenges that were identified, and we
Speaker 3: do continue to audit issues at the MBTA. I will
Speaker 3: say that even though we are auditing the Keyless contract
Speaker 3: right now, that we have a lot more work that
Speaker 3: we would like to do pertaining the audit. Pertaining to
Speaker 3: auditing the MBTA, I have requested repeatedly an audit unit
Speaker 3: for the MBTA and transportation in Massachusetts be implemented in
Speaker 3: my office, that it be funded, and that audit unit
Speaker 3: that I've asked for funding for to be able to
Speaker 3: address these constant transportation challenges that we're having in Massachusetts
Speaker 3: that has not passed legislative committees. And we've also asked
Speaker 3: the administration to weigh in and to support us on this,
Speaker 3: and we haven't received support for that proposal from the
Speaker 3: administration yet. So if you're interested in more audits and
Speaker 3: more oversight of the MBTA, please call your legislators and
Speaker 3: call the administration and ask them to support that MBTA
Speaker 3: audit unit that our office has been requesting to make
Speaker 3: sure that we can consistently do that work instead of
Speaker 3: just having to based on limited resources, do these one
Speaker 3: and done audits that can only focus on a few
Speaker 3: issues at a time.
Speaker 2: All right, Dave, thank you for the call. I hope
Speaker 2: that answers your question. I also want to make it
Speaker 2: very clear you can't talk about audits that you may
Speaker 2: be in the process of conducting, and I understand it
Speaker 2: that you will be looking at the expenses in the
Speaker 2: state has expanded for the shelter for migrants coming into
Speaker 2: the state, which is now about two billion dollars, and
Speaker 2: particularly some of the contracts that are characterized as no
Speaker 2: bid contracts.
Speaker 3: That you will Yeah, we are conducting. Yes, we are
Speaker 3: currently conducting an audit of housing across Massachusetts, including examining
Speaker 3: the emergency shelter system. And you are correct, while we're
Speaker 3: not allowed to discuss an ongoing audit in detail. What
Speaker 3: I can say is that all of that information will
Speaker 3: be made available as a matter of public record for
Speaker 3: anyone who's interested, and we will certainly be sharing our
Speaker 3: findings with everybody as soon as that other reques.
Speaker 2: I want to have you back that when that's completed.
Speaker 2: Let me try to get one or maybe two calls
Speaker 2: in quickly, Michael and Amesbury. Michael, you'll have to stay
Speaker 2: to auditor Diana de Zogla. You go right ahead, Michael.
Speaker 4: Thanks Dan. It's unbelievable how much of our tax dollers
Speaker 4: are being used her non disclosures across government. Why is
Speaker 4: this still happening?
Speaker 2: Great question, Yeah, that's quick answer, if you can go ahead,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'll try to keep it short. Dan,
Speaker 3: I will tell you Michael first, thanks for calling in
Speaker 3: on this. It's it's incredibly an important issue. Look, for
Speaker 3: years as a legislator, I was fighting to ban the
Speaker 3: abuse of tax dayer dollars from going towards funding these
Speaker 3: non disclosure agreements, and we made, you know, some small
Speaker 3: strides the Senate ban these taxpayer funds from going towards
Speaker 3: non disclosure agreements and the Senate. Actually, while I was
Speaker 3: a state Senator, we repeatedly, unanimously and in a bypartisan fashion.
Speaker 3: I might add, all the Republicans and all the Democrats
Speaker 3: joined in passing the legislation that I filed to ban
Speaker 3: these agreements across state government. That unfortunately was not a
Speaker 3: welcome notion to the House of Representatives, nor was it
Speaker 3: a welcome notion to the previous administration, who repeatedly stated
Speaker 3: that they supported the state government's ability to use your
Speaker 3: tax dollars to fund the silencing of people in state government.
Speaker 3: So the pushback from some incredibly powerful people on Beacon
Speaker 3: Hell is really what's behind the reason why this sit
Speaker 3: and passed? Might ask, why would anybody push against this? Well,
Speaker 3: it might have something to do with the fact that
Speaker 3: the House of Representatives alone has executed at least thirty
Speaker 3: three agreements that we know about, but refuse to tell
Speaker 3: us what they were for, how much was spent on them,
Speaker 3: and they refuse to make the meaningful reforms that are
Speaker 3: necessary to prevent those agreements from being abused moving forwards.
Speaker 3: So it is some of these powerful politicians who are
Speaker 3: the ones who want to be able to continue to
Speaker 3: use these agreements to potentially benefit themselves, their friends, other
Speaker 3: people that they are politically connected with. So you know,
Speaker 3: it might be the case that they don't want to
Speaker 3: pass these reforms because they would be passing these reforms
Speaker 3: and impacting their own ability to use these agreements.
Speaker 2: Well said Diana, This has been a great hour and
Speaker 2: I think you have shown the light shine, the light
Speaker 2: of sidlight in so many areas. Please continue to do
Speaker 2: this work, Michael, thank you for your call. Those of
Speaker 2: you on the line, stay there and I will talk
Speaker 2: to you and try to get to your questions after
Speaker 2: the ten o'clock news. But it is well passed the
Speaker 2: order to spend time. Thanks for spending an hour with us,
Speaker 2: and let's do it again, Okay, Dan, I.
Speaker 3: Just want to say thank you so much. Thank you
Speaker 3: to all of the folks tuning in. Please stay in touch,
Speaker 3: send along your request to the Auditor's office. We'd love
Speaker 3: to hear from folks in our communities and love you
Speaker 3: all very much. Have a great night. Thanks again, and
Speaker 3: we will.
Speaker 2: Totally support you. You have my personal support. I know
Speaker 2: I will be voting yes on ballot question number one,
Speaker 2: trust me on that.
Speaker 3: Ess On one, Bring on the Sun all right, I
Speaker 3: love the slogan.
Speaker 2: I love the slogan. Thanks again, State auditor die In
Speaker 2: die zactly. We will be back right after the ten
Speaker 2: o'clock news if you're on the line, if you'd like
Speaker 2: to comment on what you had to say, great, And
Speaker 2: then we have some other topics we want to get
Speaker 2: to as well, back after the ten o'clock news on
Speaker 2: night Side