Governor Romney Continues to Impress
http://www.boston.com/new…_big_dig_tests/
Governor Romney obviously is in charge of this situation. The thing that impresses me the most is that he means business. He’s not sitting on his hands waiting for someone to make a decision, or delegating things to other people. He’s in firm control of the situation. This is the kind of leadership this county needs, a “Chief Executive” who pardon the pun digs in, and accomplishes things. If you read the parts of this article before the following quotes (click the link, and read it at The Globe), it details precisely what is being done to inspect and test the tunnels. It is indeed what the Governor called a stem to stern review.
Back in the Statehouse, Romney huddled with his staff to review their options for seizing control of the Turnpike Authority.
A day earlier, Amorello yielded to weeks of pressure and announced he would resign Aug. 15 as the agency’s chairman and chief executive officer. At the same time, a justice on the Supreme Judicial Court ruled against a series of bylaw changes he pushed through during the most recent board meeting on June 29.
In the aftermath of the ruling, Romney is contemplating putting together a “SWAT team” of state transportation and finance officials to conduct an immediate assessment of the Turnpike organization, focusing on functions such as legal, accounting and public relations that could be merged with the state Transportation Department, said gubernatorial spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.
The governor said Thursday he also planned to separate the duties of board chairman from the day-to-day responsibilities of chief executive officer, and to begin a nationwide search for that new CEO.
That search has been aided by his earlier call for a stem-to-stern review of the entire Big Dig following Del Valle’s death. Some of the engineers and inspectors applying to assist with that review may be considered for the CEO’s job, Fehrnstrom said.
While Amorello announced Thursday morning he was resigning effective Aug. 15, the bylaw ruling later in the day by Justice Francis X. Spina means Turnpike board members loyal to Romney could call a meeting immediately, as well as suggest agenda items.
The governor had not planned a meeting until Aug. 16, the day after Amorello left, but the Spina ruling would allow him to achieve the same goals earlier. Since Romney appointees now represent a majority on the five-member panel, Amorello would be powerless to prevent them from approving the new management structure.
It’s very clear that Governor Romney is not going to settle for anything but the best, the search is nationwide. So, whoever gets the job is going to be more than qualified to do the job. Plus, the other board members that are already loyal to the Governor are going to act to make sure everything goes smoothly even before that person gets the job.
Amorello spent Friday in his office at the Transportation Building, said spokesman Tom Farmer. Not only is Amorello being replaced, but his top echelon of managers — including Chief of Staff Marie Hyman, General Counsel Michael Powers, Chief Operating Officer Michael Swanson, Chief Financial Officer Dominic Tringale and Communications Director Mariellen Burns — may also lose their jobs.
The governor said Thursday he expected to retain Turnpike engineers and other professionals working on the Big Dig, a group that would include Big Dig project director Michael Lewis, but some turnover at the top should be expected. Romney said it will, in part, be attributable to redundancies eliminated by a planned merger between the Turnpike Authority and the Transportation Department scheduled for July 1, 2007.
“It’s not like there’s going to be an `everybody’s gone’ mentality,” Romney told reporters. “Certainly I would expect that there’s going to be some savings, and I would expect a new chief executive officer will want his or her own team. That’s pretty standard when a new chief executive comes into a position: they change some of the senior positions.”
Who else believes that it makes sense to bring in new people for those senior positions? The new CEO needs people that he or she can rely on, and know that they’re going to get the jobs that they are tasked to get done, done. Keeping the current people in those positions just reinforces what has already gone wrong. A fresh start needs to occur. To think otherwise would be like asking a new Presidential administration to keep on the previous ones cabinet level positions.
