Massport panel rejects key reform proposal

By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff, 10/18/2002

The Massachusetts Port Authority board yesterday said it would not adopt a key reform measure to end patronage by requiring public disclosure of conversations about jobs and other favors with people outside the agency.

The monthly ''sunshine reports'' would detail all requests for jobs, contracts, charitable contributions, and use of Massport facilities and property made to board members or agency employees.

The measure was a recommendation by a gubernatorial commission that portrayed patronage as impeding Massport's professionalism. The agency operates Logan Airport.

But board members said they feared the proposal would hamper their ability to do business, open the door to unfair media scrutiny, and thwart the hiring of qualified job candidates.

While still pledging to end patronage at Massport, they asked staffers to rewrite the proposal to make it more workable. Board members did not offer any suggestions on revamping the plan.

''It sounds like we have to go back to the drawing board,'' Massport CEO and board member Craig P. Coy said following the board's meeting.

The monthly reports were part of the recommendations of the Carter Commission, formed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Board members and Massport staff members would be required to ''promptly'' report all contacts from outsiders involving patronage requests to Massport's deputy chief legal counsel, Karen Nober, who would keep a record of the contacts. Coy said that employees could be disciplined for not reporting a case of ''undue influence.''

The sunshine reports would not include the name of the person who was discussed but would include the name of the board member or Massport employee contacted and the person who made the call, Coy said.

Massport spokesman Barbara Platt yesterday refused to release a draft copy of the proposed guidelines, saying they had not been finalized. ''Obviously there needs to be more discussion on this,'' she said.

If and when the details about the reporting are finalized, they would be one of the first internal documents that Massport - an agency with a reputation for being stingy with inside information - willingly releases.

Despite the seven-member board's unwillingness to endorse the current sunshine report proposal, Coy said he still believed he could fulfill his and the board's commitment to reforming the much-maligned agency.

At the same time, however, ''we don't want to create the appearance of something inappropriate going on when there's nothing inappropriate,'' he said. ''Networking and constituent services are normal business practices ... They're a good idea. It's the issue of undue influence and undue pressure for jobs ... that's what we're really going after.

''We're simply trying to figure out a way to write it down that will stand the test of common sense and logic,'' he added. ''It's not as easy as you would think.''

Massport board member Lucy A. Flynn said during the meeting that she feared the monthly reports would allow ''someone from the Globe to come in and write about this out of context.''

Board vice chairman James M. Coull said recommending a qualified candidate for a Massport job ''would become a reportable offense.''

Intense media attention after Sept. 11 led to the resignation of Virginia Buckingham, Massport's CEO, whose appointment was considered symptomatic of the agency's reputation as a patronage mill.

Marshall N. Carter, who chaired the commission created by Acting Governor Jane Swift, did not return phone calls yesterday. Commission member Wayne A. Budd, executive vice president and general counsel for John Hancock Financial Services Inc., declined comment.

The patronage issue has lost steam since Swift dropped out of the gubernatorial race. For example, legislation she backed to remake Massport's board by adding two seats for local communities died without much fight from the governor's office.

In the Carter Commission's executive summary, patronage at Massport was said to be ''a four-headed monster'' that resulted in the hiring of unqualified individuals, the creation of new positions to accommodate applicants, the awarding of contracts to companies with inside connections, and financial contributions to charities and outside parties ''that go beyond community goodwill.''

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 10/18/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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