Gov.-elect Maura Healey’s “international” seek for an MBTA GM appears extra like a public relations technique than an actual plan to repair the ailing T.
Simply putting in a brand new basic supervisor — particularly one with no data of how the T works — is just not actual change. Real change could be Healey placing the authority beneath state receivership, with the governor absolutely in cost.
If the T had been a metropolis, it will be in receivership. So why not do what the state would do with any ailing metropolis or college system?
The new T basic supervisor needs to be beneath the governor.
And Healey herself must take duty for the T from day one. She must personal it. It’s one thing Charlie Baker or Deval Patrick by no means did of their years as governor.
No matter who Healey brings in as GM it is going to be simply one other face of the disaster. You may deliver somebody in from Sweden, they’ll nonetheless be coping with the identical previous system and standard inept hackery.
The T has been working independently with none accountability for many years. Hiring a brand new T chief is only one of many issues that should change for the transit authority to change into a functioning and absolutely clear group.
By hiring a global search agency, the brand new governor needs to make it appear to be she’s looking far and extensive for a brand new GM. It’s nearly like she’s in search of somebody with public relations and political expertise, which received’t remedy the issue.
But the truth is the authority wants somebody with the ability and inside data to start out shaking the place up, making substantive modifications with how the T operates.
That particularly consists of placing new individuals in control of the T Board of Directors, which proper now could be a toothless sure man for the GM.
Much like the present New England Patriots, the MBTA is a dysfunctional monster with a horrible file and questionable decision-making on the prime.
There is patronage, excessive salaries, and a complete lack of transparency. Sound acquainted, Coach Healey?
Well, take a cue from soccer and make wholesale modifications to how the T runs. Don’t depart it to the board or the brand new GM — do it your self. The T wants an actual chief on the prime, and never only a PR man or girl.
Healey has been reluctant up to now to speak brazenly in regards to the particulars of what she’ll do as governor.
“I’m sure there are lots of ideas for how to do a bunch of different things,” she mentioned on Wednesday after touring a T facility. “But I think what’s important to us is we’re actually listening to folks.”
Well, relating to the T, the message have to be clear and direct. We received’t tolerate the T because it now operates, and anybody who doesn’t get that message needs to be eliminated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
