Massachusetts cities and towns are weighing whether to follow a local select board’s lead in sending a letter to Beacon Hill demanding that the legislative audit be enforced, with some in favor and others opposed.
There has been a ripple effect across the Bay State after the Reading Select Board voted to send a letter to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, demanding the top Democrats open their books.
Following Reading’s action earlier this month, an increasing number of municipalities are taking up the hotly contested issue that has pitted state Auditor Diana DiZoglio against the legislative leaders and AG Andrea Campbell.
So far, select boards in Somerset and Wilmington have signaled a willingness to stand with the voters in their towns who overwhelmingly approved the ballot question in November 2024. The Revere City Council, however, has shot down the idea of sending a letter to Mariano and Spilka.
In Revere, 11,542 residents, roughly 62% of the city’s total vote, greenlighted the legislative audit, election figures show. City Councilor Michelle Kelley brought forward the motion, calling it “straightforward” and acknowledging it would not “create any new policy or obligation.”
“We have a responsibility to formally acknowledge the will of our voters in support of this audit,” Kelley told colleagues earlier this week. “We have the opportunity to be one of the first municipalities to show that we stand behind our voters on this issue.”
But Kelley’s colleagues resoundingly disagreed, focusing their concerns on the legislative audit falling outside municipal jurisdiction, and it is the subject of a lawsuit before the state Supreme Judicial Court.
“We should be mindful of setting a precedent where this council begins weighing in on broader state-level political issues that fall outside our municipal responsibilities,” Councilor Angela Guarino Sawaya said. “The bottom line is this motion, to me, is out of order.”
Councilor JoAnne McKenna added, “What I know, and I might be wrong, but the vote was taken before the AG asked the auditor to answer some questions, and the auditor didn’t, refused.”
This all comes as the legal fight over the audit steams ahead, over 15 months after 72% of the state signed off on the ballot measure.
Siding with legislative leadership, Campbell has claimed that DiZoglio has not answered basic questions on the scope of the legislative audit. The AG argues that the auditor’s review may also violate the state Constitution.
In February, DiZoglio sued House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka for refusing to comply with the audit. The auditor is asking the SJC to allow her to appoint an outside attorney, as Campbell is representing the top Beacon Hill Democrats.
The auditor’s office has repeatedly said that it has answered the AG’s questions for the audit to proceed.
This week, DiZoglio brought to light how Campbell called her personal cell phone a day after an SJC justice moved the legal case to the full court, which the audit claims violates the state’s professional conduct rules.
Somerset Board of Selectmen Chairman Allan Smith says he will “happily” put an item on an upcoming agenda for his colleagues to consider a letter supporting the audit.
“I am a huge fan of State Auditor DiZoglio,” Smith said at a March 19 meeting. “I mean, the work that she has done so far, and the groups and the departments that have been audited, the findings have been significant.”
Within the first two quarters of the current fiscal year, DiZoglio’s office uncovered another $4.4 million in public benefits fraud, including $2.4 million in SNAP fraud, $1.7 million in MassHealth and Medicaid fraud, ranging between July 1 and Dec. 31.
DiZoglio’s Bureau of Special Investigations discovered nearly $12 million in public benefits fraud last fiscal year.
Some 6,791 residents of Somerset, a Bristol County suburb outside of Fall River, approved the legislative audit, or 61% of the town’s total vote.
“I personally question that the more they resist, and the more that they push back,” Smith said of the Legislature, “you just have to ask, ‘What are they hiding?’ If you’re so resistant to this, what is she going to find?”
The Wilmington Select Board has said it will follow Reading’s lead and send a letter to Mariano and Spilka. Election results show that 9,731 residents of the Middlesex County town, neighboring Reading, approved the ballot measure.
The board is set to vote on the letter in an upcoming meeting.
“It is unfortunate that there’s no one holding them accountable, and every time that they try to do so, they just basically say no,” board member Lilia Maselli said. “I just thought it would be a good discussion, and perhaps we can show our support for what the state voted for.”
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