Malkin grilled over O.B. terminal

Updated April 16

Steamship Authority chairman Jim Malkin came before Dukes County commissioners Wednesday afternoon to give a report on the deficiencies at the Oak Bluffs terminal, specifically structural faults with the drive-on pier significant enough to keep trucks and cars from passing over it. Malkin got an earful from commissioner Christine Todd, who is also director of the Oak Bluffs Association. “There’s a lot of damage control that needs to be done with this,” she said.

Malkin said despite gains made by implementing portions of the HMS report, an independent top-to-bottom review of the agency that came after a series of ferry breakdowns, it wasn’t lost on him that the SSA still has problems. Preventive maintenance remains one of those problems, he said. Malkin went on to say as soon as he learned of the problems the terminal was suffering in March, he directed SSA general manager Robert Davis to reach out to officials in Oak Bluffs and Tisbury and apprise them of the situation.

Oak Bluffs selectmen chairman Brian Packish reiterated his call for Davis to be replaced. He said Davis is responsible for “extensive” management problems at the ferry line.

“I stand by my long-term request to remove Mr. Davis,” he said. 

Malkin said he did not have the power to fulfill “the calls for Mr.Davis to be sacked” by himself. 

“Mr. Davis is appointed by a five-member board . . . nothing can be done unilaterally,” he said. “And Mr. Davis has the support of the [board].”

Earlier this week, SSA spokesman Sean Driscoll said Davis would have no comment, but intended to speak with Packish about his concerns. Driscoll added that an engineer’s evaluation found that 35 pilings are in “critical need of repair.”

Malkin said some people in SSA appear to have had prior knowledge of the problems at the Oak Bluffs pier and that won’t be the way things work at the SSA going forward. Malkin said engineers have been asked to craft “a safe quick-fix to get us to through the season . . . I don’t want one of our truck drivers going off the pier and into the water and I don’t think anybody does.”

Malkin said the SSA estimates the work can get done, bids to completion, by June 15.

He said one caveat is the pile drivers’ union has suspended work due to COVID-19.

“But I think given the emergency situation we have, that can be worked around,” he added.

Todd asked Malkin if what he’s saying is “the pier will be operable, that the boats will be coming in” by June 15.

“Yes,” Malkin said. “That is my intention as one member of the board . . . And I have no indication that there would be any opposition to doing that.”

Todd remained skeptical about June 15 and even if repairs are finished then, she said, “this is significantly going to impact Oak Bluffs . . .”

She joined Tisbury selectman Jim Rogers in criticizing the tardiness of informing Tisbury of the problem at the Oak Bluffs terminal given the traffic increases that will be triggered in Vineyard Haven. 

“To not have them immediately in the loop is just unconscionable,” she said. She went on to rail against the SSA for not being more proactive in communicating with all Vineyard towns about the problems at the terminal. 

“We have an issue that’s going to impact the whole Island,” she said.

Malkin said town administrator Jay Grande was informed of the problem early on.

Asked by commission chairman Tristan Israel how Oak Bluffs terminal work might impact the SSA budget, Malkin made a bleak forecast for the ferry line’s overall finances.  

“Based on what we currently see for bookings and for traffic through now, and the books [going] forward — the best guess that I got this morning was that revenues will be off significantly to the $40 to $50 million tune.” State and federal grants were being sought to offset the red ink, Malkin noted. The SSA has also written to Gov. Baker for assistance. 

Israel expressed concern over the solvency of the ferry line. “In the end, if there’s a deficit it’s the people in Dukes County who are going to have to foot that bill, one way or another. So I have grave concerns on that front.”

Commissioner Leon Brathwaite said per the enabling act, it would be Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven specifically, along with the three other port communities, left responsible for such financial shortfalls.

Neither Brathwaite nor Israel had it right, according to SSA spokesman Sean Driscoll. Driscoll said should the SSA incur a deficit it cannot recover from on its own, all port communities are assessed at the following percentages of whatever sum is needed: Barnstable 10 percent, Falmouth 10 percent, Martha’s Vineyard 35 percent, Nantucket 35 percent, and New Bedford 10 percent (despite no longer having a terminal).

Though Martha’s Vineyard constitutes the lion’s share of Dukes County, the Elizabeth Islands, which contains the town of Gosnold, also make up the county. Gosnold is not levied in such a deficit situation, Driscoll noted. Driscoll said such an assessment has occurred only once since the modern Steamship Authority was created. It happened in 1962 when the ferry line was saddled with debt incurred by previous incarnations of itself, he said.