Somerville shares heavily redacted Public Library investigation
It’s been over a year since three Somerville Public Library West branch employees resigned after learning that a staffer who had allegedly harassed them would be returning to work. It’s unclear how the decision to have the employee resume his position was made, given an eight-month human resources investigation that found “sufficient evidence of violation/s of the City of Somerville’s Equal Opportunity Policy.” The employee was placed on paid leave during the investigation and then received a 20-day unpaid suspension.
Unfortunately, the PDFs, which are mostly emails, are heavily redacted. None of the documents show the body of any emails. The city claims they fall under what’s called the privacy exemption of the state’s public records law, which is meant to prevent the sharing of records the law says might create “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” for public employees. Only the alleged harasser’s name and work email are visible in several documents, as are the names and contact information of several other staffers.
According to records law, municipal records custodians are supposed to apply a “balancing test” to assess whether the records’ value to the public outweighs the risk of privacy violation. Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC), says it’s unclear who’s being protected, given that the case is already public. “If the employee’s name is already public knowledge and many of the facts of the particular case are already public knowledge, then there isn’t as much privacy to protect,” he said, adding, “The city should be giving far more information than it is.”…