Boston Park Chief Inadvertently Reveals P.R. Effort on Pay

The head of a publicly funded nonprofit group that manages Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway mistakenly sent a reporter an e-mail intended for her public-relations consultant seeking advice on handling press inquiries about her six-figure compensation, the Boston Herald writes.

In the missive, Nancy Brennan, director of the Greenway Conservancy, asks whether she should ignore a Herald reporter’s questions about her pay, answer immediately, or respond after the daily’s deadline. In a later e-mail to the reporter, Ms. Brennan declined to provide current salary data and directed the reporter to the organization’s most recent 990 tax filing, which covers 2010.

An examination by the newspaper of the conservancy’s finances found that it has paid Ms. Brennan $160,000 in bonuses since 2006 and as much as $225,000 in annual compensation, its 2010 fundraising costs exceeded contributions, and its per-acre maintenance expenses are nearly six times those of New York’s Central Park.

The conservancy receives more than half of its $4.7-million budget from state funds. Maryann Suydam, vice chairwoman of the agency’s board, said Ms. Brennan has received regular bonuses “because her performance was simply spectacular.”