Patronage seen stifling board that runs Logan Airport

By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, 12/31/2001

The Massport board of directors, which oversees Logan Airport, met only 10 times in the last year, approving with little discussion and no dissent a set of agenda items prepared by agency staff.

The seven-member board, all political appointees intended to be the final source of authority in a powerful independent agency, came under fire following the Sept. 11 attacks for allowing a bureaucracy seen as weak and patronage-laden to infest the agency and its airport.

A special commission appointed by Acting Governor Jane Swift concluded that Massport was hampered by a culture of patronage. But the commission left the board largely unchanged and still in power. The board is now expected to implement the commission's findings.

But minutes of all Massport board meetings over the past two years obtained by the Globe indicate the board was often uninvolved or oblivious to the challenges facing the agency. Never in more than 180 votes was a single dissenting vote cast by board members, a display of unanimity that troubles some business professors.

The minutes recorded no member voicing an opinion on any issue, merely approving the agenda supplied by the Massport staff, which wrote draft resolutions for the board to vote on.

''This shows how badly out of touch the board is,'' said state Representative Robert DeLeo, a Democrat of Winthrop. ''The fact that there is no disagreement at all shows the board is following what the governor wants, not what the traveling public wants.''

DeLeo said the board members, all appointed by former governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, are focused only on the modernization and expansion of the airport. He said the board has refused to debate some of the important and divisive issues.

''It's about time there was some independent thinking going on at the Massport board,'' he said.

Massport board chairman Mark Robinson defended the tightly controlled meetings, saying there's no dissent because members work behind the scenes to reach consensus.

''By the time an agenda item comes up at meetings, it's been vetted and is all teed up for the board,'' he said. ''You don't want a brawl breaking out at your meetings.''

Robinson said the minutes do not reflect the ''ton of discussion that goes on at meetings,'' mostly in executive session. But he insisted the secrecy of executive session was necessary to deal with complex business and legal matters.

He conceded the board lacks the ''creative tension'' that sometimes helps an organization make decisions. But as chairman, he said, ''You don't get to pick your fellow board members.''

A Globe review shows the board members have extensive political ties, but are hampered by a lack of experience in port issues, conflicts of interest, and - in one case at least - lack of attendance.

George Cashman, the local Teamsters president, did not attend 10 of the 12 meetings prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He was the most prominent union official to support Cellucci for governor. Cashman, 53, heads a union representing 500 Massport workers and another 500 working for Massport contractors - a conflict of interest cited in the special commission's report. He has said his poor attendance was because of scheduling conflicts with his union duties.

Robinson himself has been obliged to recuse himself from numerous board decisions, citing conflicts of interest in Massport business decisions involving the many clients of his law firm, Bingham Dana & Gould, one of New England's largest.

Robinson, 47, acknowledged that the public visibility and contacts he makes as Massport chairman enhances his private interest in attracting clients to his firm. All his deals have been approved by the state Ethics Commission, he said.

The Globe reported last year that Robinson did legal work for a pension fund supervised by Cashman, his fellow Massport board member. His firm received $2.4 million in fees. Robinson said he did not see a conflict of interest in that case.

A former chief of staff and budget chief under Governor Weld, Robinson is, like most board members, heavy on political experience and light on expertise running ports.

Directorships are not paid, but appointments are highly sought after because of the agency's clout and multibillion-dollar budget. The seven-member board is required to have a four-three split in the political party affiliation of its members.

Still, all seven current members, and in some cases their relatives, contributed to the campaigns of Cellucci or Acting Governor Jane Swift, giving $39,735 in total since 1997. Many of them have worked on past campaigns of powerful politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

James M. Coull, chairman of J. M. Coull Inc., of Concord, a company that specializes in construction for high-tech firms, was appointed by Cellucci. Coull was an important fund-raiser for Cellucci in the 1990s while serving on his finance committee. His company does not contract with the state.

In an interview, Coull said he donated many hours to board business as a matter of public service.

Cellucci appointed another fund-raiser, John Cogliano Jr., chairman of the Sullivan and Cogliano Companies of Waltham, an information technology business. Cogliano and his relatives have contributed $21,000 to Cellucci and Swift since 1997. His company did $632,281 in work for the state in the last 18 months, according to state records. He declined comment.

One of the more active members of the board is Lucy A. Flynn, a longtime Democratic operative and bank executive. Flynn was appointed by Weld in 1996 to shore up the governor's standing with women voters in his upcoming race for US Senate, according to news reports published at the time of her appointment. Flynn declined comment.

Board member John F. Monahan Jr., a Democrat, is a retiree and friend of House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran. He is the longtime treasurer for former state representative James Brett of Dorchester. A Dorchester resident, Monahan is the only board member who lives in Boston.

Monahan was appointed by Cellucci. Finneran has long enjoyed a good relationship with Republicans, whose support was crucial in gaining Finneran the speakership.

The final member is Lois Catanzaro. She was appointed by Cellucci and reappointed by Swift. She is media affairs director of AK Media, one of the state's largest owners of billboards. AK Media did $119,493 in business with the state in the last 18 months. Catanzaro, who lives in Chelsea, recuses herself in matters involving advertising. She declined comment.

According to the board minutes, the agenda is made up of ''action items'' set by the staff. Almost all the items dealt with matters relating to the airport's expansion. Security issues do not appear in the minutes at all.

Most meetings opened with a five-minute oral report by former executive director Virginia Buckingham. The board then proceeded to vote unanimously on a list of contracts and appointments prepared by Massport's staff.

Business school professors familiar with corporate and nonprofit boards said the Massport records indicate a weak board, one susceptible to manipulation by Massport's executive staff.

''To the extent that the board is making policy, you wouldn't expect them to rubber stamp or routinely endorse whatever the executive staff brings to them,'' said Joe Raelin, professor at Boston College's Carroll School of Management.

Added Harvard Business School professor Jay Lorsch, ''Without a strong board, an executive staff tends to take over and manage the board, instead of the board managing the staff.

''Someone has got to stop and think about getting people on the board for what they will get accomplished on the board, not for the political or personal reasons,'' Lorsch said.

Globe reporter Raphael Lewis contributed to this story. Sean P. Murphy's e-mail address is smurphy@globe.com.

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 12/31/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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