When “snowmageddon,” an unprecedented succession of blizzards, shut the MBTA down in 2015, Beacon Hill created a five-person Fiscal and Management Control Board to right the organization. Control was the operative word in the board’s name, and led, at least initially, to long, weekly meetings delving into all aspects of the organization. The board brought badly needed transparency to the MBTA, but was criticized for taking up too much of the staff’s time.
When the control board expired in 2021, it was replaced by a new seven-member board that operated very differently. Meetings were held once a month. The board was reactive, not proactive, taking a hands-off approach to the agency and asking relatively few questions.
Now the MBTA is facing a crisis that some believe is worse than in 2015. Safety is a major concern. Slow zones cover a fifth of the subway system. Hiring is lagging. Ridership is stagnant. To address the situation, Gov. Maura Healey has hired a new general manager, a new transportation safety czar, and replaced three members of the T board, including the chair. The new chair is Thomas Glynn, a former MBTA general manager who has also run or helped run a number of other high-profile organizations.
Glynn is feeling his way, playing the role of Goldilocks looking for the “just-right” recipe for overseeing the MBTA, which he suggests is somewhere in between the approach of the old control board and the most recent board.
“The governor has indicated she wants an activist board. She wants a proactive board. She wants a board that’s focused on safety and focused on accountability,” he said on The Codcast. “We’ve been encouraged to be more engaged and have a sense of urgency.”
But Glynn said the board’s goal is not to micromanage. He says the board will continue to meet once a month, although he said this week’s budget meeting may roll over to a special meeting in June to provide sufficient time for deliberation.
At recent meetings of the board’s subcommittees, there was an early glimpse of the new board’s style. Glynn, for example, asked staff how much Big Dig debt the MBTA was carrying. He said a number of people have asked him that question so he decided to get some answers.
He learned the T originally absorbed $3.6 billion in Big Dig debt as part of an effort to spread the burden of the over-budget highway project across several agencies. That number has been whittled back to $1 billion, but it is still costing the T roughly $200 million a year in debt service payments. Glynn says some transit advocates believe the state should take over that debt, freeing up money at the MBTA for other pressing needs.
Glynn calls the Big Dig debt a “significant contributor to the T’s financial situation,” but he quickly adds that the board hasn’t even discussed the issue. He also expresses uncertainty about whether it’s the T board’s job to advocate on Beacon Hill, saying that’s the domain of Healey, Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca, and MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng.
Like everyone else, Glynn said he is waiting for Eng to develop a financial plan for the MBTA and to explain what caused the current slow zone crisis and when it will be fixed. Glynn said Eng may deliver his plans at the end of his first 100 days on the job, which would come around July 10. “He’s working on it,” Glynn said.
Glynn is agnostic about adding two new members to the T board, including a representative for the city of Boston, as the House has proposed in its budget proposal for fiscal 2024. He noted, however, that some have raised concerns about adding board members who represent a specific constituency.
“There’s a notion when you’re on the board you’re representing the interest of the whole T. So If the T becomes a constituency-driven organization, does that change the way it’s supposed to function?” Glynn asked. “A lot depends on who is sitting in the seats.”
Others have raised concerns that a board totally controlled by the governor would be wary of asking tough questions of T leaders. Glynn brushes aside those concerns, saying everyone in the administration is on the same page when it comes to the T.
“At the moment, there are no indications that there is anything other than total agreement between the board that just got appointed, the general manager, the secretary [of transportation], the lieutenant governor, and the governor,” he said. “I wouldn’t foresee any real major disagreements.”
BRUCE MOHL
FROM COMMONWEALTH
Growth slows: Massachusetts economic growth slows, and is projected to go negative. Read more.
OPINION
Get statue out of storage: Jeffrey Boutwell says city officials should get the Emancipation Group statue out of storage and use it to tell the whole story about Boston’s role in the slave trade. Read more.
End vocational school discrimination: Andrea Shepphard-Lomba, Dan French, and Lew Finfer of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition call for an end to discriminatory admissions practices at vocational schools by instituting a lottery to award seats. Read more.
Online lottery opposition: Robert Mellion of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association says an online lottery will be another government-induced blow to Main Street retailers. Read more.
Racial gaps: Kimberly Lyle of Dorchester Bay Economic Development and Marc Dohan of NewVue Communities say the state’s economic development strategy must include plans to address racial gaps in business ownership. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
A Globe editorial delivers a broadside to Beacon Hill’s closed-door, top-down ways, saying democratic vitality and debate have been all but extinguished from the Legislature.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The New York Times drops in to take the pulse of Michelle Wu’s mayoralty, focusing on the pushback she’s faced by established Boston interest groups.
Wu says the city is close to clearing the last permitting hurdles to rebuild the bridge to Long Island, home of a now-shuttered drug-treatment campus, but she also raises the idea of ferry service to the island instead. (Boston Globe)
YouTube videographers are recording people in local municipal buildings in what they call “First Amendment audits,” often aiming to provoke them in order to, well, it’s not clear what. (Boston Globe)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Three civil rights groups issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning tourists that recent laws passed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the legislature are “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.” (Associated Press)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission revoked the liquor license of national delivery company Gopuff, after an investigation determined the company sold alcoholic beverages to underage Boston College students multiple times in 2021. (MassLive)
EDUCATION
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll receives an honorary doctorate from Salem State College, her alma mater. (Salem News)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The looming shutdown next year of the state’s largest power plant, in Everett, has Jon Chesto wondering whether the LNG terminal next to it could meet the same fate – and what that means for the state’s effort to move away from fossil fuels, but not have the lights and heat go off in the process. (Boston Globe)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira will remain behind bars while he awaits trial for leaking highly classified military documents. (Associated Press)
MEDIA
The Boston Globe agrees to a $4 million agreement to settle an online privacy lawsuit. (Universal Hub) Dan Kennedy also chimes in. (Media Nation)