Haverhill
City Now Refuses to Release DPW Report Because It is Being Sued for Discrimination
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The City of Haverhill has declared a new reason for denying WHAV access to a secret investigation of its Public Works Department: the department is being sued for discrimination. The city’s outside counsel, attorney Michelle E. Randazzo, notified WHAV Monday she would not release the 83-page police investigation as ordered last month by State Supervisor of Records Rebecca S. Murray. WHAV previously appealed the excessive amount of blacked out—or redacted—sections. Randazzo said the city faces a claim filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination by a former employee. “While we believe that this complaint has no merit, we are obligated to defend it and will do so vigorously,” she said, adding the unnamed individual “directly implicates the matters addressed in the requested record.”
Randazzo further explained the city will use information from the 83-page “Highway Department Investigation” to “determine its defenses” and “evaluate potential witness testimony.”
Since last November, WHAV has been denied complete access to the report authored by Haverhill Police Chief Alan R. DeNaro.