BostonHerald.com
Friday, November 2, 2001

Massport panel raising bar in director search
by David R. Guarino

The Massport study commission will call for a new agency director with far
more experience than outgoing chief Virginia Buckingham - even if it means
hiking the job's $150,000 salary.

``We feel strongly that the next CEO needs to be someone with seaport,
transportation and airport experience,'' said Marshall Carter, the former
State Street Bank CEO now leading Swift's commission.

``We are talking a very technical, management job now - these skills are not
something you can pick up on the job, you need someone from that industry,''
he said.

Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift agreed, saying, ``I would be not at all surprised
if they recommend somebody with transportation credentials and that would
be, I think, a good recommendation.''

The comments come as the first real indication of what Swift's panel will do
to change the embattled agency in a report expected Dec. 4. The group,
dubbed the Carter Commission, plans an eight-hour public hearing on Nov. 15
at Suffolk University Law School.

Meanwhile, Swift's critics kept up a steady drumbeat of outrage over
Buckingham's lucrative severance deal.

State Rep. Joseph Sullivan (D-Braintree), chairman of the Legislature's
Transportation Committee, wrote the Massport board questioning the deal. And
the state Democratic Party chief, Philip Johnston, said Buckingham will need
a ``Brinks truck to haul away all the cash.''

Swift refused comment on a Herald report detailing $2 million in additional
severance now being offered up to 100 agency managers facing layoffs.

Carter, though, said the commission isn't focused on the diet of outrage. He
said the six-member commission is meeting twice weekly for hours at a time
and has interviewed more than 100 people.

He said Massport Board Chairman Mark Robinson is in ``100 percent
agreement'' that a transportation official must be tapped.

Given the Port Authority's unique seaport traffic, container business and
airports, Carter said the new Massport chief should be someone who has run a
similar port authority, such as New York - even if it costs more.

``I don't know what flexibility there is, but if you are going to get the
right talent, you have to pay for it,'' Carter said.

Carter refused to tip the commission's hand in other areas, saying they are
still contemplating whether to keep the agency as it is or carve it up into
as many as five separate entities. But he said his leaning is to keep them
together since they are dependent on one another.

Swift again said she'll likely take the reforms without question. ``I
anticipate I'll embrace all their recommendations,'' she said.

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