BostonHerald.com
Friday, December 7, 2001

Massport chairman calls for bipartisan hiring review panel
by Ellen J. Silberman

Massport Chairman Mark Robinson yesterday proposed a bipartisan panel to
screen applicants for top jobs, saying the troubled agency needs a release
from Beacon Hill patronage pressure.

``It helps in terms of public confidence to have a further check,'' Robinson
said.

A special commission Monday recommended that the patronage-laden agency
create a personnel-screening committee including outside experts to evaluate
candidates for top security and safety jobs.

Robinson would go a step further, asking Attorney General Tom Reilly, a
Democrat, and U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, a Republican, to sign off on
key personnel, including the agency's executive director, deputy director
and aviation chief.

If the panel were bipartisan, ``it wouldn't simply be the board appointing
them. It would be validation by credible third parties,'' said Robinson,
himself a politically-wired appointee.

The Massport board, at a four-hour meeting, began the process of adopting
the task force's 66 recommendations designed to make the agency run more
like a business. The authority is in the process of producing its first
``Sunshine Report'' detailing patronage hiring requests.

The board also agreed to work with East Boston's Piers Park Sailing Center
to keep the program open next year. Massport created a local uproar when it
announced this fall that it was cutting off its $200,000 annual payment to
the seven-year-old sailing program.

``We need to find some way to transition,'' Robinson said, suggesting that
Massport donate its share of the program - including the sailboats - to the
sailing center. But he said the agency can't continue donating cash to the
program.

Mary Berninger, an East Boston activist and Piers Park board member, called
Massport's plans to walk away from the sailing program and other community
projects ``unconscionable.'' She said the issue could hurt the agency's
delicate relations with the neighborhood.

Also yesterday Auditor Joseph DeNucci released a report criticizing Massport
for wasting more than $12 million on waterfront property it has yet to
develop. The audit found that Massport could have made $13 million in
interest if it had invested its cash in the stock market instead of the
underused land.

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BostonHerald.com
Saturday, December 8, 2001

Pols demand community voice in new Massport appointments
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley

Fearing a reconstituted Massport board stacked with gubernatorial
sympathizers, Bay State congressmen are demanding that airport neighbors get
to choose their own community representatives.

U.S. Reps. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville), Ed Markey (D-Malden) and Stephen
Lynch (D-S. Boston) have sent a letter to acting Gov. Jane M. Swift,
demanding that two new board seats - to be created for community
representatives at the behest of the just-released Carter Commission
report - ``guarantee advocacy.''

Capuano said the congressional delegation doesn't want Swift to appoint new
board members for their ``political view,'' particularly on volatile issues
like a new runway at Logan International Airport.

It would be easy to find a Boston resident who agreed with Swift but opposed
the vocal contingent of airport neighbors, Capuano said.

``Where they live is really unimportant,'' Capuano said. ``If you're going
to have somebody who is called a community representative, that person
should be selected by the community.''

In its letter, the delegation suggests several options, including allowing
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to appoint a board member or holding elections
in other communities affected by the airport.

Swift spokesman James Borghesani said Swift will adhere to the letter of the
Carter Commission recommendations, including announcing intended
appointments and holding a hearing within 10 days.

But on the issue of allowing Menino to make an appointment, Borghesani said,
``We are going to pursue the Carter Commission recommendations, and they
don't recommend that.''

Menino was not available for comment, but during the Carter Commission's
deliberations, he argued for three mayoral appointments, which would give
him a solid voting bloc on the board.

Neighborhood advocates welcomed the congressional delegation's support, but
worried that the new seats won't be added fast enough.

Anastasia Lyman, vice president of Communities Against Runway Expansion,
noted that even if Swift moves rapidly, things could get bogged down in the
Legislature, which would have to pass a new law expanding the board's
statutory membership.

``The greatest concern most of us have is there is no deadline, there is no
timetable,'' Lyman said.

Community activists are also distressed that it could take as much as seven
years to get rid of existing board members, given that Swift intends to
appoint new board members as current terms expire. ``It is time for them to
resign,'' Lyman said.

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