New Mass. transport team looks a lot like old one

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has a new transportation team that looks a lot like his old one, prompting criticism from one prominent legislator and the head of a government watchdog group.

The governor said Friday the bureaucracy taking effect Sunday under what has been billed as a sweeping transportation reform package will be led by a board with a majority of members who are holdovers from the expiring MBTA and Massachusetts Turnpike Authority boards.

Pike member John Jenkins will serve as chairman of the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation board, and former MBTA directors Ferdinand Alvaro and Janice Loux will also be members.

Rounding out the five-member panel are Elizabeth Levin, a Boston resident who is president of a management consulting company serving transportation, design and environmental industries, and Andrew Whittle, a geotechnical engineer and professor who currently heads MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Whittle lives in Boxborough.

The group holds its first meeting Monday afternoon.

"These private and public-sector leaders will be responsible for overseeing the historic reforms underway in our state's transportation system," Patrick said in a late-afternoon statement. "Working together with incoming secretary and CEO, Jeffrey Mullan, their charge will be to achieve cost-savings, enhance customer service and improve safety across our transportation networks."

The appointment of Loux, a hotel labor union official, was immediately criticized by Sen. Steven Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who serves as co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, as well as Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Michael Widmer, who recently sat on a commission that review the state's transportation and financing needs.

"The appointment of Janice Loux undercuts the very essence of reform that the Legislature passed earlier this year," Baddour said. "While she was on the MBTA board, Ms. Loux had always represented a very narrow interest group; furthermore, she does not meet any of the professional requirements set forth by the legislation."

Under the bill signed into law this summer, the five members should include two experts in public or private transportation finance, two with "practical experience in transportation planning and policy," and one registered civil engineer with at least 10 years' experience.

With the pick, the senator said, Patrick "has chosen to look to the past."

Loux was recently in the public spotlight as she rallied union workers after the Hyatt hotel chain laid off 100 Boston housekeepers. Patrick embraced the cause in late September, earning him accolades among labor leaders who will be critical to his re-election campaign next fall.

Widmer, whose group is funded by business interests, said "the board appointments are potentially a serious setback for transportation reform."

In a statement, he added: "It's not clear that at least two of the designees meet the qualifications laid out in the statute. The chair has limited transportation experience, and Ms. Loux represents the narrow self interests that reform was intended to put behind us. Given the magnitude of transportation problems facing the commonwealth, it is unfortunate that the board does not reflect new and experienced leadership."

Patrick's office did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on Baddour and Widmer's criticisms.

Mullan himself was the top deputy to outgoing Transportation Secretary James Aloisi.

In the governor's statement, Mullan announced state highways will continue to be overseen by their current commissioner, Luisa Paiewonsky; mass transit by acting T General Manager William Mitchell; aeronautics by former Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission Executive Director Christopher Willenborg, and; Registry of Motor Vehicles functions by Registrar Rachel Kaprielian.

"Going forward, we will operate as one transportation agency with one mission: provide a safe, reliable and efficient transportation network for citizens of the commonwealth," Mullan said. "Operating as one means breaking down the silos that exist in transportation and focusing instead on customer service and customer safety."

He also announced that on Sunday, the new MassDOT will launch a revamped Web site. He said it was designed "with customer service in mind."

The MBTA and regional transit authority Web sites will not change.