Taming MassPort

By The Globe, 12/4/2001

THE MASSACHUSETTS Port Authority emerges from the pages of a special
commission report as a hydra-headed ''monster'' that spews patronage jobs
and is capable of growing more heads each time one is lopped off. The only
way to tame it is to starve it, prompting Acting Governor Jane Swift to call
on the Legislature yesterday to impose a ''moratorium'' on patronage hires
at the independent public agency that manages Logan International Airport
and the Port of Boston.

''Patronage in all its forms, not just hiring `connected' people, is a
disturbing way of life at Massport,'' reads the report of a six-member task
force, which was formed shortly after the Sept. 11 hijackings of two
airplanes out of Logan that later crashed into the World Trade Center. ''It
erodes public confidence in the Authority's professionalism. It is resented
by Massport's professional staff, which feels powerless to stop it, and it
has exacted a heavy price in time, money, organizational prestige, and the
retention of talented employees.''

The strength of the task force, led by former bank CEO Marshall Carter,
rests with its series of strong, implementable recommendations that should
go far to improve security and safety at the airport. Great emphasis is
placed on ensuring that only top-notch candidates are hired, especially in
''life-safety'' roles. One of the best recommendations is a mandatory
''sunshine report'' that would list the source of hiring requests made to
the agency. Massport is in constant need of disinfecting.

The Carter Commission showed courage by tackling police agencies. It called
for immediate negotiations with the State Police regarding the staffing of
Troop F at Logan Airport, an overtime-rich posting where assignment depends
on seniority. The report rightly calls for Troop F officers to be drawn from
the ''entire rank and file'' to form a specialized unit with tactical
expertise in airport security.

The Carter Commission was more timid with its approach to Massport's
governance. While calling for expansion of the membership of the board and
expertise of its members, it stops short of calling for the immediate
replacement of current members who were appointed by the Weld and Cellucci
administrations. Massport's board is too closely associated with past
practices. It needs a quick overhaul as surely as the top-heavy ranks of
management need to be trimmed.

The report is even weaker in its approach to the airport's relationship with
the community. It seems to make little distinction, for example, between
grasping politicians who pressure the agency to help favored groups or
causes and legitimate efforts to fund Piers Park in East Boston, which
Massport built to offset the effects of airport expansion.

While the safety recommendations are sound throughout, other proposals need
more reflection.

This story ran on page A20 of the Boston Globe on 12/4/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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NEWS ANALYSIS
Changes depend on will of politicians

By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff, 12/4/2001

When Acting Governor Jane Swift yesterday endorsed 66 pages of
recommendations for overhauling the Massachusetts Port Authority, it was
clear she was taking her boldest step yet toward reinventing the agency.

And even though few state legislators had yet to read the so-called Carter
Commission report, it was clear that they, too, would have to be part of
changing Massport, which is reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and
relentless bad press.

After all, the public's appetite for big changes at Massport was not sated
with the arrival of US Marshals and Army reservists at Logan International
Airport, where hijackers boarded two jets that later demolished New York's
World Trade Center.

From patronage to zealous land development to sour community relations,
problems at the authority have created a festering political liability since
Sept. 11.

But while state lawmakers, Boston's mayor, and many activist and
environmental groups yesterday hailed the report as a common-sense blueprint
for change, the potential to implement the suggestions remains foggy at
best.

At least half the six-member panel's recommendations require legislation, in
a Legislature where a 1998 binding voter referendum calling for campaign
finance reform has yet to be implemented.

And many other report proposals require the approval of Massport's board of
directors - individuals whose futures are uncertain and who resent being
cast as political hacks.

Some observers predicted yesterday that the report's findings may be tough
to bring about, but said politicians like Swift, who are looking forward to
Election Day 2002, should make a good-faith effort.

''The pressure's on now. I think this report is definitely different than
most of the reports that came before it,'' said Charles Chieppo of the
Pioneer Institute. ''September 11 gives this thing legs. Public sentiment is
so intense, it gives this a greater chance of being implemented.''

''There's been a lot of rhetoric about changing Massport since 9/11,'' said
Mayor Thomas M. Menino. ''Now, it's time to put real policies in place. I
believe the Legislature will do that.''

On the campaign trail, the report proved to be immediate ammunition
yesterday. Moments after the Carter Commission's bound findings were
unveiled, Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who's seeking the Democratic
Party's nomination for governor, slammed Swift for not immediately replacing
Massport's politically appointed board with seasoned aviation and security
experts.

''Not changing the Massport board forthwith is akin to rearranging deck
chairs on the Titanic,'' he said. ''Governor Swift needs to change the
board - to get the people who are on there off.''

State Senator Robert Havern, an Arlington Democrat, said the Legislature
would immediately review the report and begin drafting legislation to
implement recommendations few would oppose, such as adding two seats on
Massport's board for representatives of local communities.

But other suggestions, such as taking away Massport's control of the
money-losing Tobin Bridge and handing it to either a new authority or an
existing one, such as the Turnpike Authority, would almost certainly
languish, he said.

''There will be no new authorities, and let's face it: no one's going to
want the Tobin Bridge,'' Havern said. ''... Now we have to do what we can
do.''

Stephen Lathrop, a longtime critic of Massport's campaign to build a new
runway, said the call for the appointment of a special master to bring
Massport and the communities around Logan together seemed naive. Who, he
questioned, would be viewed as objective by both sides?

Lathrop also doubted that a suggestion to create a Community Advisory
Committee, led by the Massport board's chairman, would ever come to pass.
The chairman, an unpaid part-timer, would never devote the time necessary to
such an endeavor, he said.

''In the face of a crying need for reform, we're being offered half
measures,'' Lathrop said.

Seth Kaplan, a senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, was
reassured by the report's call for Massport's real estate development
activities to cease. But he, too, said Swift and the Legislature would have
a difficult time plotting the ambitious course, especially in lean financial
times.

''Implementation requires the cooperation of a whole lot of folks,'' Kaplan
said. ''That's not exactly our strong suit in Massachusetts.''

This story ran on page A18 of the Boston Globe on 12/4/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
=====================================================

Swift declares patronage must end at Massport

By Frank Phillips a Nd Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff, 12/4/2001

Acting Governor Jane Swift, embracing the recommendations of her special
task force to overhaul the Massachusetts Port Authority, yesterday called on
Beacon Hill lawmakers to join her in a moratorium on patronage hirings at
the embattled agency.

Swift, who herself was once a $76,500-a-year patronage hire at Massport,
said the elimination of political interference is crucial to improving
Massport's management and, most important, to making Logan the nation's
safest airport.

''The first step in changing the culture at Massport is to change the
practice of patronage,'' Swift said at a State House news conference at
which the Special Advisory Task Force on Massport - a panel she created
after the Sept. 11 attacks - released its report.

But Swift said she would not extend the moratorium on patronage hires to
other state agencies or authorities such as the MBTA and the Massachusetts
Turnpike Authority, where such hires are common.

She said Massport is unique because of its intimate connection to the
terrorist attacks. Hijackers who boarded two planes at Logan steered them
into the World Trade Center, destroying the two towers.

In its 66-page report, the six-member commission, chaired by former State
Street Bank CEO Marshall Carter, found that patronage hires have ''eroded
confidence in Massport, created morale problems for qualified and dedicated
employees, and contributed to inefficiency of the organization.''

Swift's call for a halt to patronage drew a backlash among Democratic
legislators, who noted that she and former governors William F. Weld and
Paul Cellucci have been major players in political hirings at the authority.

''The Weld/Cellucci/Swift triumvirate has had complete control over Massport
for 11 years,'' said House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, a Democrat from
Mattapan. ''They should have the honesty and decency to clean up their own
mess and they should do it immediately.''

Swift will need the Legislature's support if she is intent on transforming
Massport because half the commission's recommendations require legislative
action.

Those include taking management of the Tobin Bridge away from Massport,
adding two more seats to the seven-member Massport board to provide
representation from Boston and other nearby communities, and transferring
the agency's development land to other entities.

Other major recommendations include implementing $60 million to $80 million
of security upgrades at Logan and limiting board members to single terms of
five years. The commission detailed a timeline that puts top priority on
beefing up security and envisions adoption of all recommendations by 2004.

Beacon Hill lawmakers, while willing to consider the Carter Commission's
recommendations, were not as enthusiastic as Swift in endorsing them.

''Of course, we're going to accept this report, and implement suggestions
that we think are good for the agency,'' said Senator Robert Havern, an
Arlington Democrat who chairs the transportation committee. ''But those like
the one for the Tobin Bridge we have to look at very carefully. Everything
looks good from the loge section, but when you're on the field, it's a
different story.''

And regarding patronage hires, Havern said Swift doesn't need a moratorium.
''All she has to do is stop hiring people who aren't qualified,'' he said.
''She's the general, and she's blaming the troops for losing the war. There
is not one board member who is not appointed by the administration.''

Because of close political ties between Massport board members and
gubernatorial administrations, recent governors have enjoyed significant
influence in who has been hired to run the agency as well as to fill top
posts.

The agency also has cultivated support on Beacon Hill and in Boston
neighborhoods on important issues by honoring politicians' patronage
requests.

In the weeks leading to the release of the commission's report, Carter said
that Cellucci and Weld had taken the use of Massport as a patronage mill to
new heights.

Swift benefited from the system when Weld ordered the agency to create a new
job for the former state senator in 1997, after she was defeated in a run
for Congress. The commission said Massport had at times created ''new
positions to accommodate applicants.''

Swift yesterday acknowledged she would not have been hired if the policies
recommended by the Carter Commission were in place four years ago. But she
also would not criticize her predecessors, nor accept blame or apologize for
past practices.

''When I asked prestigious and responsible and thoughtful people to be on
this commission, I recognized they would not pull any punches in their
reports,'' Swift said. ''It was what I asked them to do. It was what they
delivered and it is what I will follow through with and implement.''

But Swift said Massport applicants with political backgrounds and
connections should not automatically be excluded from consideration.

Pressed by reporters about the issue of patronage as it applies to other
agencies, Swift became defensive, saying she has instituted a statewide
hiring freeze because of the state's fiscal problems.

''I think we can all engage in a lot of finger-pointing and fun political
games,'' Swift said, noting the commission had focused solely on Massport.
''We need to be very careful in any hires.''

She also said the commission's recommendation that all patronage hires be
made public at monthly Massport board meetings is an effective check on
State House and City Hall patronage demands. ''Sunshine'' reports would
detail patronage hires and their sponsors, the commission said.

''I do not buy into the belief that political experience is a
non-qualification for any position in state government,'' Swift said. ''I
think that would be wrong and I think it would detract from the public
service spirit that many of the individuals behind me have demonstrated for
the last several months.''

She also said that Carter, along with two other commission members, former
state Senator Patricia McGovern and former Air Force Secretary Sheila
Widnall, will continue to oversee the implementation of the commission's
proposals on a pro bono basis.

Meanwhile, Swift said she has asked the federal government for permission to
allow the future security chief at Massport to have complete oversight on
airport security guards and procedures.

And she said she has written to US Transportation Secetary Norman Mineta
offering Logan as a test site for enhanced airport security systems.

This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 12/4/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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