The MBTA’s transition from being overseen by the Fiscal and Management Control Board to a new Board of Directors comes at a challenging time for the T: It’s facing an impending financial crisis, ridership changes due to COVID-19 and several safety challenges.
“The creation of the Fiscal and Management Control Board was one of the most important milestones in the MBTA’s history,” said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board and a former MBTA director. “We now understand the importance of an agency as important and as busy as the T having its own governance body.”
Kane was referring to the period from 2009 to 2015, when MassDOT absorbed the role of an independent MBTA board, leading to an “epic failure” in T oversight, he said. After a disastrous 2015 winter for the MBTA, Gov. Charlie Baker created the board with the intent of fixing the T’s financial, organizational, infrastructure and accountability challenges.
The new board has big shoes to fill. While the FMCB, which had its last meeting in June, had a clear mission – which advocates say the board successfully fulfilled – the new body’s mission is slightly less clear.
“Some would say this is a tough time to take this mission on,” said Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler in opening remarks at the new board’s first meeting last week. “I would challenge that. … We stand today here with an opportunity to really deliver on that potential to serve and meet that need, and to really fulfill the opportunity that transit can be.”
He added that the pandemic brings about additional challenges.
During that inaugural meeting, several transportation advocates called for the continuation of a vote from the prior board to institute a low-income fare pilot program. While Kane said that initiative would “be great to do … these things also have to get paid for somehow,” adding that the T’s revenue has dropped even further due to decreased ridership during COVID-19.
That impending financial crisis is another area advocates say the new board must focus on. “Just two years from now, we’ll be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars of red ink,” said Josh Ostroff, interim director of Transportation for Massachusetts. Kane said that advocating for federal funding to address the T’s infrastructure issues should be another major priority for the board.
Joseph Aiello, the former chair of the FMCB, emphasized the urgency for the Board of Directors to get these safety and structural issues under control.
“The state of disrepair still looms large, and it’s really a race against time to to be able to to continue to invest in and replace elements of the system before they become completely dysfunctional,” he told the Herald.
The T had several mishaps this summer, including derailments and crashes on the Red and Green lines, the malfunctioning of an escalator and a rusted-out staircase, leading to multiple injuries and one death.
Kane also noted early indications that the board will place a heavy emphasis on safety given its appointment of Scott Darling, who previously served as the chief of safety, security and control center operations for the Chicago Transit Authority. During the inaugural meeting, Darling was appointed as the head of a safety subcommittee.
Kane said safety “has to be their number one priority.”
Jarred Johnson, executive director of Transit Matters, said the new board could face an accountability issue — while the FMCB met two to four times per month and would take two to four hours of public comment, the new board will only meet about once a month and accept 45 minutes of public comment at two minutes per comment.
“We could be in a situation where we have a democracy deficit, so to speak, but we’re really gonna have to come up with ways to get around that,” he said.
Kane said he sees this as an indication of the new board’s priority on holding decision-heavy meetings focused on getting things done.
The board’s next meeting will be held on Nov. 18.
"board" - Google News
October 31, 2021 at 05:28AM
https://ift.tt/3mqopQO
New MBTA Board of Directors inherits host of challenges - Boston Herald
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "New MBTA Board of Directors inherits host of challenges - Boston Herald"
Post a Comment