Lieutenant governors are at all times on the lookout for one thing to do.
And governors are at all times on the lookout for one thing to offer them to do.
As issues stand lieutenant governors in Massachusetts have fairly restricted constitutional duties.
One is to be appearing governor if the chief govt is out of state, resigns or is incapable of governing. The different is to chair conferences of the Governor’s Council when the governor doesn’t.
That is all, except Gov.-Elect Maura Healey assigns some undertaking or program for the lieutenant governor to supervise, as outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker did for Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
Polito, a onetime former Shrewsbury city official and state legislator, was Baker’s liaison with the 351 cities and cities within the state. She additionally dealt with the patronage.
Connecting with the cities and cities is one thing that incoming Lt.Gov.-Elect Kim Driscoll, a five- time period mayor of Salem, can do standing on her head.
Healey as she takes workplace Jan. 5 faces a myriad of challenges, probably the most urgent of which is the ailing MBTA, the spine of the state’s transportation system.
While she has named Gina Fiandaca, an Austin, Texas transportation supervisor with Boston roots, to be Secretary of Transportation, Healey has but to rent a normal supervisor for the MBTA to succeed outgoing GM Steve Poftak.
She might have appointed Fiandaca to the MBTA job. Not solely is she a local of East Boston, however she additionally labored her approach as much as turn into Boston’s transportation commissioner for 4 years through the Marty Walsh administration.
And she is aware of the town and the area. She additionally is aware of snow, having been at her submit through the winter of 2015 when Boston was so buried in snow that the MBTA shut down. It was her duty to get the town working once more by using duck boats, working shuttle buses, and clearing most important arteries.
Having grown up in Boston, Fiandaca understands the politics of the town and state, and the significance of interacting with the Legislature and the governor.
And the pay is best too. The Secretary of Transportation, which is meant to supervise the MBTA, is paid $170,406. The normal supervisor of the MBTA is paid $324,000 plus bonuses.
How a public official can oversee a subordinate making twice as a lot cash is nothing lower than a riddle, wrapped in a thriller inside an enigma, as Churchill as soon as famous of workings in Moscow.
To put the MBTA boss’s wage in perspective is to level out that Don Brown, the UMass soccer coach, has a pay bundle of $800,000 a yr. And just like the MBTA, UMass soccer doesn’t carry out very nicely both.
Perhaps. although, Fiandaca correctly turned the MBTA job down, safe within the information that no one actually runs the MBTA. It simply runs itself—when it runs.
Healey, as an alternative of going native, determined to rent headhunters at Krauthammer & Associates to conduct a “worldwide” search to search out somebody to run the MBTA.
Healey might need been higher off simply appointing Deputy General Manager Jeffrey Gonneville. Gonneville, who’s now serving as interim GM till Healey names a alternative, is a seasoned T official who is aware of the system and the political lay of the land.
This is Gonneville’s second time period as interim GM, having served on the submit in 2018 following the departure of one other forgettable normal supervisor.
All of this goes to the center of the matter which is irrespective of how a lot distance a governor places between his workplace on the MBTA, making the trains run on time is finally the governor’s duty. Even Benito Mussolini knew that.
So, on the lookout for an task for Driscoll, Healey ought to drop all different issues and title Driscoll as her liaison to the MBTA. It would present she cares.
Healey can’t run the MBTA by herself. Nor can Driscoll.
But because the governor’s liaison to the MBTA Driscoll might play a significant position within the success of a Healey/Driscoll administration. And the brand new normal supervisor will know that she or he has the governor straight wanting over their shoulder.
It may also give the lieutenant governor one thing to do.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”