MassDOT member holds $96G contract with state agency
A MassDOT board member scored a $12,000-amonth, no-bid consulting contract for a task force led by the very state agency she oversees, raising concerns of conflicts as the group identifies priorities to reshape transportation in the Seaport. Ruth Bonsignore started the eight-month, $96,000 contract in November after the Massachusetts Port Authority hired her firm, Flink Consulting, to serve as a project manager for the South Boston Waterfront Transportation Implementation Plan. Officials from both Massport and MassDOT cochair the working group, which is tasked with phasing in recommendations from the voluminous 2015 plan to overhaul transportation on the South Boston waterfront. Gov. Charlie Baker included $25 million for various projects tied to the effort in a five-year capital plan released last year. Bonsignore, as Massport’s lone consultant for the group, is expected to play a key role. Massport officials called her a “leader for the implementation” of the 2015 plan, which she worked on under a previous consulting firm prior to her appointment to the MassDOT board. And Bonsignore herself described her role as being the “spoke for all the agencies” involved, which beyond MassDOT, also includes the city and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. A civil engineer and consultant by trade, she said the arrangement was approved by the state Ethics Commission, and vowed to recuse herself if any of the group’s recommendations go before the MassDOT board. But she said, “There’s nothing on the horizon. “I have no intention of doing anything that doesn’t meet the ethics requirements,” Bonsignore told the Herald. “I’m following the procedures that have been identified for me. But I am entitled to make a living.” She also questioned the newsworthiness of her contract. “I just don’t see the story,” she said. Mary Z. Connaughton, a former Massachusetts Turnpike board member now at the Pioneer Institute, said while Bonsignore is technically under contract with Massport, she’s still working closely with MassDOT officials on matters related to the agency. “Legal technicalities aside, there are two big problems here. First, it’s hard to imagine there is no conflict, since the contract oversight falls on both MassDOT and Massport,” Connaughton said. “Secondly, one of the main reasons for procurement laws is to prevent insiders from getting the inside track on public contracts. With a sole-source contract, the public is left in the dark on whether or not the deal was fair.” Massport defended its decision not to put the contract out to bid, citing Bonsignore’s familiarity with the plan and state ethics regulators’ approval. “Ruth Bonsignore has exceptional experience as a civil and environmental engineer and transportation consultant,” Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said. “(She) has proven herself to be one of the best people in the city to do this type of work.” MassDOT spokeswoman Jacque Goddard said the agency is aware of Bonsignore’s contract and “expects Ms. Bonsignore to continue to take steps as required by state ethics law guidelines.”