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There's life after Boston for former MBTA heads
By adamg on Thu, 07/30/2015 - 11:32am
Dan Grabausakas, for example, is building an el in Honolulu (and, hey, the project is delayed and possibly over budget).
Now President Obama has nominated Bev Scott for a seat on the National Transportation Safety Board (which would investigate any crashes on the T).
Via Mike Deehan.
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Comments
Hahahaha. Wow.
Hahahaha. Wow.
This is called "Failing
This is called "Failing upward" and why our infrastructure is crumbling and exponentially expensive under the burden of regulatory and managerial incompetence.
Regulatory?
Right. Because our experience of what collapses and what doesn't isn't important nor should it be put in code.
The problem is creating
The problem is creating regulations for the sake of creating more paperwork to justify employing more useless paper pushers. Bloated bureaucracy delays productive endeavors and siphons off money from getting things done.
Not in the case of Grabauskas
The registry of motor vehicles was actually a reasonably efficient, customer-focused operation when he ran it.
Grabauskas' worst move...
Was taking the T job. A good manager? Yes, but there's only so much lipstick you can put on the pig of an MBTA without a maintenance plan.
Of course, in looking at the wait times at the RMV, him leaving there might have been a bad move for the customers, as well.
Trying to remember
My memory does remember the praise of Grabauskas for RMV reform with contrast of how awful he was at the MBTA helm. Around those years, I had to spend a decent amount of time between getting my first permit and later license and later first renewal and etc. My memory were that they weren't so bad.
But I don't have to go to the RMV much now. Though I do have a report from a friend whom dealt with it this year and had an awful time. Meanwhile I don't have to renew for a few more months. How bad is it now? How has it declined?
Hourlong waits in Roslindale the norm
I hate to rant against the government, but they raised fees and cut staff for the new money to go to the General Fund. The fees would be okay if service didn't suffer.
Not this shit again
Go read some of the February/March threads on UHub about her and the MBTA; it's more than obvious that the failure of the MBTA was not Scott's fault. She got put in charge of a pile of turds that vaguely resembles a public transit system and had been festering for 15-20 years -- deferred maintenance and underinvestment issues that go back to before the Big Dig -- and there was simply no way, with the resources/money at her disposal, she could have done anything to prevent the T from succumbing to its frailty during the repeated blizzards.
The Twitter GIF is amazing.
n/t
"tell 'em..."
sorta reminds me of Large Marge.
I never blamed Bev Scott
For the 30 years lack of investment in the MBTA prior to her stint.
I blamed the batch of governors who promised to cut spending.
We all know who they are.
Same here
I agree. I never thought she was responsible at all. Even now, long after she left, we're still having issues. So it's not her fault at all. She was handed a bag of shit to deal with and could only do so much.
She's a very accomplished lady, I wish her the best of luck and congrats on her nomination. This is a big deal.
Nobody ever cut spending at the T
Quite the contrary - going back to (I think) 2001 and the beginning of forward funding, nobody has remotely cut spending. Quite the contrary. Spending on the T has increased VERY generously. They gave the T a piece of the sales tax to pay off transit related big dig debt and since have committed I think 2 more major revenue streams. However, the T, instead of funding needed capital improvements poured most of it into expanded wages and benefits. There appears to have been an uptick in capital costs over the last 3-4 years as we are finally replacing some equipment but don't delude yourself or others out here - there has not been a cut to the T budget in 14 years (can't really speak to the prior 16 to which you allude). Don't believe it - go check out the actual income statements from the T - they completely contradict the stories that we are underfunding the system or cutting budgets.
Not blaming Scott or others either - sounds like the unions have put pressure on to give them the money rather than improve the system (heard some very interesting reports about what they told Scott when she came in and suggested some changes) - and now we are all paying the price.
As for Bev - I thought she was going to try her hand at rodeo or something?
Often, "cutting budgets" in
Often, "cutting budgets" in bureaucrat-ese means that a bureaucracy requested an increase in the budget for the next fiscal year, but they were only given a smaller increase.
The poor kid
Dr. Scott promised to finally spend more time with her granddaughter. That poor kid must be heartbroken.
Doesn't the NTSB spend most of it's times on Disasters?
Yeah, she'll fit right in.
Frequent Flyer miles & hotel points
She definitely got a bad rap and started behind the 8-ball here. I don't know how much of what really happened last Winter was her fault.
That said, I imagine sitting on that investigation board will provide the title, speaking opportunities, and travel budget that she will enjoy.
Former Deputy Chief of Staff for the MBTA
Lori Nelson was just given a made up (and arguably completely unnecessary) position at the Boston Housing Authority, probably making close to 6 figures, if not more.
Even though the BHA has been crying poor since sequestration went into effect. They've had 2 rounds of layoffs, refused to give any cost of living increases for the past 3 years and is supposedly on a hiring freeze for all but the most critical positions so entire departments are running at 50% staffing levels.
But hey, political patronage and croneyism are par for the course around these parts.
Yet Dan Grabausakas "is also
Yet Dan Grabausakas "is also entitled to an annual bonus of 15 percent of his salary"
and what does he do with said bonus?
“The HART team and I are working diligently and responsibly to reduce costs and demonstrate that we are responding seriously to the public’s call for fiscal austerity and self-discipline. For those reasons, I am respectfully asking the board to forego any consideration of a bonus in my review. Now simply is not the time.”
http://khon2.com/2015/04/02/rail-transit-ceo-asks-to-forgo-bonus-amid-fi...
~~~~~~~~~
And why is it late?
"The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (Hart) leadership has always said delays cost money, but this time they hope it saves money. The train's first 10 miles will be opened a year later than originally expected and Hart leadership hopes that delay will save money.
The delay is because the bids to build the first nine rail stations came in significantly higher than expected. The lowest bid was $110 million higher than projections. Hart admits its pricing was wrong and they need to be right. Today Hart ccanceledthe bids. Now instead of having one big contract to build nine transit stations they'll have three separate contracts to build three stations at a time.
Also instead of forcing construction companies to have the work done by 2017 they'll push back the opening date to 2018 in hopes of eliminating the risk and time crunch on contractors."
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/26491482/rails-initial-opening-delaye...
Rail nightmare lessons
HART is just one. Hopefully California will listen.
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/06/rail-operating-costs-a-looming-financia...
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002719-honolulu%E2%80%99s-money-train
http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=6324#more-6324
Cartoons: http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/rail-book.htm
http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2015/06/honolulus-train-fiasco-cautio...
Silly. Beverly Scott will
Silly. Beverly Scott will never accept the position. She quit her MBTA job early so she could spend time with her grandchildren.