By Gabrielle Gurley
How long will the charade of trying to schedule the Massachusetts Transportation Department’s board of directors to appear before the Joint Transportation Committee continue?
Indefinitely, it seems. Or until the Legislature kicks MassDOT where it lives, in the budget.
All of the members of the board were able to make the announced March 23 oversight hearing. Except one. Janice Loux, the board’s vice chairperson, the one member that lawmakers are the most interested in grilling hearing from. The latest cancellation marks the third time board has failed to appear before committee.
Baddour is clearly frustrated. Frustrating people who sign off on your budget is Bad Politics 101.
“If need be, we’re looking at filing legislation or an amendment to the budget abolishing this board and requiring the governor to appoint a whole new board,” Sen. Steven Baddour told me. Asked to describe what he would replace the board with, the co-chair of the transportation committee admitted, “We’re not there yet.”
Loux declined to appear, citing a “pre-scheduled family appointment,” according to the State House News Service. Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan told the News Service that he’s had “difficulty” getting the five to organize their schedules for what would be their first appearance before the committee.
Microsoft Outlook, anyone? “All three times they were the ones who chose the date,” countered Baddour. The committee has stressed “from the beginning” that all five members had to appear as a group, he added.
Granted, Mullan has the thankless chore of dragging coaxing up to Beacon Hill the one person who’s apparently decided that it isn’t in her best interests to been seen there on MassDOT business. Almost uniformly regarded as a poor choice for the board, Loux’s ongoing refusal to work to improve relations with state lawmakers only reinforces those negative views.
Why won’t the board appear before the transportation committee? Baddour chalks it up to “the mentality of the Big Dig era,” when there was little legislative oversight.
How the board is addressing the issues facing the state’s major transportation problems remains invisible to most people. The board has been in existence a mere three months, but if its public meetings are any indication, it’s still knee-deep in highway and transit contracts. (See my article “All Aboard” in the Winter 2010 issue of CW).
“The board might be doing a great job,” Baddour said. “But we don’t know if they are; they haven’t been around to answer any questions.”
Baddour’s had “great conversations and communications” with Mullan. But Mullan isn’t on the board of directors. “This secretary won’t be there forever, and it’s important that we instill in the board right in the beginning the importance of oversight and communication, not only to the Legislature but to the people,” Baddour said.
The Methuen Democrat hasn’t discussed his predicament directly with Senate President Therese Murray yet. He’s hoping the MassDOT board members finally come through and show up at the next hearing the committee’s currently working to schedule.
And if they don’t?
“If the fourth time comes and they back away from having the hearing,” Baddour said, “I think I can make a very persuasive argument, not only to the Senate President, but to both branches…that this board needs to change.”
