Two ex-transit leaders are advocating for a stronger MBTA advisory board that might take over security oversight of the T from the Department of Public Utilities.
Given its staffing scarcity and present construction, the DPU is “in no way adequate” to take care of the challenges going through the T, mentioned Fred Salvucci, a former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, throughout a Tuesday MBTA advisory board discussion board.
The DPU, which has been tasked with MBTA security oversight for many years, was discovered to be ineffective in that position as a part of a federal investigation into each companies this summer season.
“There are other places you could put it, but I think there’s a big role for expertise here,” Salvucci mentioned. “I would take a hard look at putting it in the advisory board.”
“But whoever gets the responsibility, if they don’t have the funding to staff up, then you’re just setting up a fall guy,” he added.
Joe Aiello, a former chairman of the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, agreed, saying that inserting the accountability within the arms of a stronger advisory board — which incorporates management from 172 MBTA communities — “would have merit.”
He famous the DPU was unresponsive when the FMCB commissioned the 2019 security evaluate panel report, which seemed into MBTA operations, and was discovered to be “passive” about its oversight perform once more within the FTA’s closing report.
Whatever entity takes on that position, Aiello mentioned salaries should be greater, like what’s seen with the MWRA and Massport, to make sure staff with transit security experience are employed and retained.
All three ex-transit leaders on the panel agreed that inserting the oversight perform in MassDOT wouldn’t be an excellent possibility, because of the secretariat’s direct line to the governor.
Dan Grabauskas, former transportation secretary and MBTA basic supervisor, urged that oversight might be assigned to a powerful, however unbiased place in authorities, such because the inspector basic or auditor’s workplace.
If that perform have been to stay with the DPU, Grabauskas mentioned one resolution might be a brand new appointee with a time period restrict, which might give that particular person the liberty to name out issues on the T that could be embarrassing to the subsequent administration.
“That’s what we’re all really dancing around,” he mentioned. “Here is how you make sure that the people we need to tell the truth can feel that they can do that without the interference of politics.”
A stronger MBTA advisory board was a typical theme among the many ex-transit leaders, who mentioned it ought to regain its price range vetoing authority, which was stripped by the state legislature in 2009, to get T funds again on monitor and make higher investments.
However, Andrew Bagley, vice chairman for coverage and analysis on the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, cautioned that the feds would nonetheless seemingly be the authority dictating MBTA spending for the subsequent a number of years.
“They are going to have input in changes in both the operating and capital budgets predicated on their priorities they’ve established in the safety requirements,” Bagley mentioned.
And if these directives aren’t met, the FTA can withhold federal funding from the T, he mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”