The Boston City Council unanimously voted on Feb. 5 to ban councilors from requiring their staff to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDA) to get a job.
Proposed by District 6 Councilor Benjamin Weber, the measure prohibits councilors from requiring any sort of confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements as a condition of employment and ends any current or future agreements.
“By enacting this policy we show the public we stand together in empowering our staffers to speak out on behalf of the public,” Weber said at last Wednesday’s meeting.
The ban comes two months after District 7 Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested on federal wire fraud and corruption charges. Fernandes Anderson is now the subject of a current investigation in which she allegedly hired a relative, made them sign an NDA, and organized a kickback scheme last year in which she gave them a $13,000 bonus with the condition she’d get some of it back. Prosecutors say that Fernandes Anderson made staff sign NDAs for employment.
Fernandes Anderson was one of eleven votes in favor, though she did not address her upcoming trial during the meeting. She did address her own use of NDAs and said that while she supports the ban, she does see a purpose for them: When expressing “in the moment” anger or trash talk about another councilor, “I don’t want my staff to tell other councilors,” she said.
“There could be different reasons why people have NDAs,” she said. “In fact, I copied mine from a colleague. Many of us have them. But we can get rid of them.”
Shortly after Fernandes Anderson was arrested, Councilor-At-Large Erin Murphy introduced a hearing to discuss an NDA ban for the council and across all city departments. Weber, who has two decades of experience as a worker’s rights attorney, introduced the City Council measure after Murphy’s hearing. Members of the council met last month to discuss the measure in what Council President Ruthzee Louijeune called a “robust discussion” on the “role or lack of a role of NDAs in city government.”
The council voted 11-0 in favor of the NDA ban, with Councilors Gabriela Coletta Zapata and Brian J. Worrell absent.
Councilor Ed Flynn said that signing an NDA “only adds confusion” and makes it look like a person is hiding something.
“I don’t think NDAs, or confidentiality agreements or any other wording we have belong in city government, period,” Flynn said. “I am fundamentally opposed to them on the council and city departments. It only adds rumor[s].”
Murphy and Flynn said that the ban should be extended to all city agencies. They co-proposed an amendment to the ban at the meeting that would have requested that Mayor Michelle Wu’s office issue a similar ban across all departments.
That amendment failed, as other councilors, including Weber and Fernandes Anderson, said that they could only make laws about the council and not other city entities. Opponents of the amendment also said they would rather wait until there was a formal proposal that would mandate a city-wide ban.
Flynn addressed what he called “fair” concerns about weighing in on other agencies’ laws by saying that requesting the city-wide ban is “a value statement” and that it was appropriate they weigh in.
“I respect that,” he said. “My answer to that is: We do that all the time about federal issues, we weigh in on federal issues, we weigh in on that and how they could impact Boston.”
City councilors also cited Gov. Maura Healey’s January issuing of a formal policy prohibiting NDAs across her entire administration. Former Gov. Charlie Baker issued an informal ban during his tenure, but Healey issued the official ban last month after a recent audit from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio found that NDAs had been used for years across state agencies.
“I’m glad we’re going to move forward with the policy brief that councilor Weber put forward, and Councilor Flynn and I have filed a [petition] for next week to expand this for all city agencies…” said Murphy. “This is the first step and we do need to go further.”
Weber said he was concerned by the increased use of NDAs that private and public employers now require to be hired. He said that although no NDAs would be enforceable under the Public Employee Whistleblower Act in Massachusetts, “there is still room for intimidation.”
“We are not only supporting transparency, we are supporting our own staffers,” said Weber.
