Six years ago, then-State Representative Diana DiZoglio broke a nondisclosure agreement in the Massachusetts House of Representatives during an emotionally charged debate over workplace sexual harassment policies.
DiZoglio, now the state’s auditor, was ready Tuesday to use this moment of greater spotlight to continue her push to ban the use of nondisclosure agreements in settlements with state employees who have been harassed or otherwise subjected to misconduct.
With many of the state’s top politicians — including Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll — in Chicago at various times this week to attend the Democratic National Convention, DiZoglio said she was told to expect to spend several hours as acting governor on Tuesday. Under the Massachusetts Constitution, the governor’s duties pass down the line of succession when the governor is out of the state.
Ultimately, DiZoglio has not held the acting governor’s post – Secretary of State Bill Galvin, next in line to succeed Driscoll, returned from Chicago before Driscoll left Massachusetts and plans to hold the post through Friday. But DiZoglio said she has been “peppered with questions” about her plans in the role, and that has given her an opportunity to think about how a CEO might approach issues like nondisclosure agreements.
“After seeing and recognizing some of these opportunities, I could no longer ignore the opportunities for significant change in state government,” said DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen.
The auditor prepared a draft executive order, which she presented to reporters at a press conference in her State House office, that would prohibit state agencies under the governor’s jurisdiction from using nondisclosure agreements in agreements to resolve employee allegations of harassment, discrimination or other misconduct.
DiZoglio said she would not have planned to sign the order if she were acting governor, but she plans to present it as a proposal to Healey and Driscoll for their consideration.
Sitting governors have used their office to highlight their priorities before. Notably, as sitting governor in 1998, Galvin introduced a bill to force HMOs to be more financially transparent.
The proposed order comes a day after DiZoglio released an audit report of the Massachusetts Convention Center Agency that mentioned a $1.2 million nondisclosure agreement entered into by the quasi-public agency.
“Years ago, you heard from me as a state representative when I broke my non-disclosure agreement and exposed that this building was using those agreements and your tax dollars to cover up sexual harassment,” DiZoglio said. “It involved six weeks’ severance pay out of a $30,000 annual salary. Today, through our audit released yesterday, we uncovered a $1.2 million non-disclosure agreement funded by taxpayer money that was used to cover up allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation. How many more years will we sit in inaction?”
In 2018, DiZoglio revealed that she had signed a nondisclosure agreement to receive severance pay after being fired from her job as a parliamentary assistant about six years earlier. She said she signed the agreement under duress and was fired based on discredited rumors of inappropriate behavior.
After three terms in the House, DiZoglio won a seat in the state Senate. She continued to push for a ban on NDAs in the legislature and elsewhere in state government. When she ran for auditor in 2022, she campaigned on a platform that included a promise to audit state agencies’ use of taxpayer-funded NDAs.
DiZoglio said the investigation is ongoing and her office is “experiencing delays in providing requested information from some state agencies” in some cases.
A spokesman for Healey said the governor’s office “is cooperating with the ongoing audit and will continue to discuss the matter with the auditor.”
