Transit chief Pollack leaving for fed post
Transportation secretary will join Federal Highway Administration.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack will depart Gov. Charlie Baker’s cabinet next week after six years as one of the most visible secretaries for a leadership role at the Federal Highway Administration, a decision that Baker called “incredibly bittersweet.”
Pollack will step down Tuesday to become FHA deputy administrator, Baker’s office announced Thursday morning. Registrar of Motor Vehicles Jamey Tesler will take over as acting transportation secretary, and RMV deputy registrar and chief operating officer Colleen Ogilvie will rise to the role of acting registrar.
Pollack’s departure shakes up Baker’s inner circle, and comes as travel patterns and transit budgets have been upended by the pandemic, the MBTA is cutting service, and the state continues to pursue major projects such as a South Station expansion, replacement of the Cape Cod bridges, and an Allston highway megaproject.
Baker said Thursday that Pollack did a “terrific job” at what was “in many respects one of the most difficult jobs anybody faced coming into our administration.”
“Before she joined the administration I met her when somebody suggested that I should interview her for the job. Neither one of us thought that was gonna go particularly well and we were both really surprised when it did. I think she’s done a terrific job under enormously difficult circumstances,” Baker said.
The governor pointed out Pollack’s deep understanding of the state’s transportation landscape and pointed out that in her new role she could influence the future of projects that are important to Massachusetts.
“Stephanie is going to
play this as a public servant, because that’s kind of in her DNA, so the idea that she would walk in there and try and treat Massachusetts profoundly differently than she treats anybody else, that’s not going to happen,” the governor said. He later added, “It just never hurts to have relationships with people in high places.”
Pollack joined the Baker administration in January 2015 from Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, where she had built a reputation as a knowledgeable and vocal transportation expert who advocated for increased public transit funding.
Her tenure brought stability to a role that had been marked by turnover. Baker’s predecessor, Gov. Deval Patrick, cycled through four permanent transportation secretaries over his two terms: Bernard Cohen, James Aloisi, Jeffrey Mullan and Richard Davey, followed by a short stint with Frank DePaola as acting secretary.
“The Governor and Lt. Governor have my deepest gratitude for entrusting me with the stewardship of MassDOT and their leadership as transportation champions,” Pollack said in a statement on Thursday. “Massachusetts has become a leader in delivering a transportation system that puts people first and provides them with safer and better choices for walking, biking, using transit, or driving and I am confident that Jamey will be able to continue that good work.”
While leading MassDOT, the department has significantly increased its capital spending on the MBTA, a point that draws frequent praise from Baker.
“Throughout her career, Secretary Pollack has partnered with our organization to improve the quality of life and economic opportunities found in Massachusetts,” said Rick Dimino, CEO of the business group A Better City, in a statement. “We know she will continue to operate as a tireless, dedicated leader focused on building back better for the people of this country and meeting our climate impact goals.”
Pollack has also been front and center of the administration’s response to several high-profile crises.
She started during the disastrous winter of 2015, when record snowfall prompted multiple MBTA service shutdowns and creation of a new oversight board.
In the summer of 2019, lawmakers started a probe into the Registry of Motor Vehicles after it failed to suspend the license of a driver later involved in a deadly crash. That winter, an independent panel concluded the MBTA did not sufficiently prioritize safety culture.
Some activists aimed criticism at Pollack — and the Baker administration as a whole — upon her departure, arguing that MassDOT under their watch has not done enough to address worstin-the-nation congestion or an aging public transit system.
“The outgoing Transportation Secretary has presided over avoidable cuts to the MBTA and unproductive machinations to shape the Allston I-90 Multimodal project into a highway-first project,” the group TransitMatters said. “Numerous priorities such as the Rail Transformation Process and low-income fares also saw little progress since they were adopted by the FMCB. We hope that we may now enter a new period of collaboration that will support a strong, equitable and sustainable post- COVID economy.”