Massport chief promises change

By Associated Press, 5/3/2002

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and past criticisms of patronage practices at Massport will make it easier to bring change, the agency's new chief executive said yesterday.

''I have an advantage that perhaps some of my predecessors didn't have, in that this unfortunate event of 9-11 has made people rethink how we're going to do things, how organizations should behave, how we should handle some of these issues,'' Craig Coy said. ''There's a willingness to change.''

Coy, 52, took charge at the Massachusetts Port Authority last month after a five-month search to replace Virginia Buckingham, who resigned in November.

Coy pledged to follow the blueprint laid out by a governor's commission formed to review the agency after the terrorist attacks, two of which were launched from Logan International Airport.

The commission concluded that Massport is overstaffed, with duplication of function and fragmented planning. It said reporting relationships were ''confusing and inappropriate.''

Coy, who has a master's degree in business from Harvard University, said he hadn't made any decisions on changing the organization or people, but he's in favor of giving managers more decision-making authority.

''Staff supports operations, not the other way around,'' he said.

Security will be his top priority, he said, with airport staff preparing for the year-end deadline when 100 percent of all baggage must be screened.

''Massport needs somebody looking at security from an overall strategic standpoint from what is Massport's role in security, not just at the airport but the port,'' said Coy, former deputy director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council.

He cautioned, though, that there are no guarantees that another terrorist attack won't originate at an airport.

''If somebody were willing to take enough risks and willing to commit themselves to create havoc, I'm convinced that they can create havoc,'' he said. ''It's not an easy problem.''

Coy was never asked about his politics when he was recruited, he said, and added that he plans to run Massport ''on a straight up basis.''

''I don't anticipate I'd be responding favorably to suggestions that we hire somebody for the sake of hiring somebody,'' he said.