A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
Massport's new boss

4/13/2002

AFTER THREE executive directors whose chief qualifications were their standing in the state Republican Party, the Massport board was wise to pick as its new CEO a former Coast Guard officer with no ties to state politicians. But it is disconcerting that Craig Coy has no experience running anything that resembles a complex public transportation and economic development agency that oversees three airports and a seaport.

In this new era of heightened concern about security, the board and the former members of the governor's Massport commission who assisted in the search were impressed by Coy's past work in counterterrorism. But this qualification would be more suitable for the agency's new security director, who is still to be named. Massport badly needs someone who can do what the last three CEOs so failed at: improving transportation while balancing the interests of everyone affected by Massport's operations.

This includes passengers, all the communities that Logan, Hanscom, and Worcester airport planes fly over, the airline industry, and the businesses in eastern New England that depend on efficient operation of the airports and the seaport. The last three directors specialized in finding patronage jobs for GOP friends and doing the bidding of the aviation industry. Coy might prove to be a first-rate skipper for Massport, but his selection would command greater public confidence if the board had permitted a public vetting of his and two or three other finalists' names before making the final decision.

Coy, who quit last August after two years as CEO of a Waltham human resources company, will not have to wait long to prove he can work with competing public and private interests, even though this has not been part of his professional background. Massport's controversial plan to build a new runway at Logan to relieve delays could soon come to a head with the release of an environmental impact statement by the Federal Aviation Administration head, Jane Garvey.

Last month Garvey sent letters to Mayor Menino and Acting Governor Swift indicating she might include a restriction on use of the runway to days of high northwest winds, which limit use of other runways. If the restriction sets a threshold of genuinely strong winds - 15 knots per hour or more - it could mitigate neighbors' concerns that Massport wants a free hand to expand.

Such limited use, however, might make the $70 million runway investment less attractive to Massport. As a new boss at Massport, Coy could both save money and reduce delays by first instituting a peak-pricing system to reduce rush-hour flight operations - if Garvey herself does not require that, as she should.

To attract good candidates for Coy's position, the board raised the salary from $150,000 to $250,000. While this is probably justified because it reflects what airport chiefs command, it has inadvertently boosted the salary of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chief's job, which has been linked to the Massport pay. That linkage should end.

This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 4/13/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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