T board needs more juice
Transit advocates are pushing for the governor to quickly fill three expired seats on the MBTA Board of Directors, with more aggressive members who will work to keep agency leadership accountable.
Advocates say this MBTA board, which was created through legislation signed by former Gov. Charlie Baker and includes five Baker appointees, is less effective than the Fiscal and Management Control
Board it replaced in 2021.
“The core problem is not if they were appointed by Charlie Baker or appointed by Maura Healey,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of LivableStreets. “The question is, are they going to show up, actively engage, ask hard questions, which we just haven’t been seeing from the board.”
She added, “Compared to the Fiscal and Management Control Board, they’re significantly less active and engaged, and they just have not had nearly the impact that the previous board had.”
On his final day in office, Baker — who convened the panel that recommended the establishment of the FMCB in 2015 — appointed Chanda Smart to the MBTA board of directors. Smart replaced Travis McCready.
Healey chose not to repeal the appointment, per a 60-year-old state law that would have given her the opportunity to do so within 15 days as a new governor.
Robert Butler, Scott Darling and Mary Beth Mello occupy the three other seats that expired in January.
Board Chair Betsy Taylor’s term doesn’t expire for at least another year, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch was appointed by the MBTA Advisory Board, and the final seat is held by Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca.
“Many of us sort of thought that the new governor would come in metaphorical guns blazing and put her own people in there and start trying to get to the bottom of things, but we have seen a different approach to that one,” said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board.
Karissa Hand, a spokesperson for Healey, said the administration and Fiandaca “are committed to building a strong team to improve the MBTA’s safety and reliability,” and expect to share more on board appointments in the near future.
TransitMatters Executive Director Jarred Johnson said there needs to be a happy medium struck between the hours of public comment that occurred at FMCB meetings and the lack of live comment solicited by the current board.
“I think that was something that people appreciated about the FMCB, even if you didn’t always agree with every single decision they made,” Johnson said. “You knew that this was a place where you could go and have your voice heard, and that oftentimes the board would adjust things based on what they heard. And I think that’s the way government should work.”