The county commissioners for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket convened a joint Zoom hearing Monday night about a Steamship Authority bill filed by state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Falmouth.
After a number of officials voiced disapproval of the lack of public process that preceded the filing of the bill, the commissioners resolved to write a joint letter in opposition to the bill. The hearing came following a wave of criticism over the bill from officials of both islands, and a fear the bill could be an invitation to tinker with the legal DNA of a ferry line in unforeseen ways — something Cyr and Fernandes have said they wouldn’t let happen. The bill adds a chief operating officer (COO) position to the ferry line’s management structure — a moot point since the SSA board has since agreed to hire one — and places term limits on board members. It also cleans up an audit requirement, at the request of the SSA. Fernandes previously said the COO portion would be pulled from the bill because the board’s vote had already accomplished the task.
SSA Nantucket board member Robert Ranney said the ferry line was designed to compensate for the two islands’ geographic lack of access to the state highway system.
Ranney said the state designed the SSA so that the two Islands, “through their appointed representatives, should control and be responsible for the management and the operation of the boatline, including paying for it — not the state.” Ranney said, in other words, “the people who created it thought that we should be in charge of it ourselves.”
Ranney went on to say, “I’m profoundly opposed to any legislatively whimsical or politically motivated change to the enabling act legislation of the Steamship Authority that has the potential to create an unfavorable precedent, and has not been properly publicly vetted with all of its stakeholders.”
Fernandes wasn’t present at the hearing Monday to hear Ranney or anyone else; nor was Cyr. In their steads were Vineyard legislative liaison Kaylea Moore and Nantucket legislative liaison Charity Grace Mofsen.
“There have been some comments that this legislation is motivated from the events that happened in 2018,” Moore said, in reference to the SSA’s 2018 cancellations and breakdowns fiasco. “And I want to clarify that this was motivated by the quarter-million-dollar audit that was called for by hundreds of Islanders at a meeting on the Vineyard in 2018.”
Since then, Moore said Fernandes’ office has received calls, emails, and had sitdowns with constituents who have expressed dissatisfaction with the SSA, and asked that the SSA be held accountable.
“I also wanted to talk a little bit about the outreach that happened,’ Moore said. “There was an opportunity for public input at the state level. Most bills have about a week or less notice before a hearing. Rep Fernandes has filed I think 40 to 50 bills this session, and many directly impact the Islands. Our office did more outreach on this bill than most of those.”
Moore went on to say Fernandes spoke with county and SSA officials about the bill. She acknowledged there were concerns about the enabling act being opened and amended, but those were overblown, and that the bill is small and will be voted on in an informal legislative session.
Mary Longacre, a Nantucket planning & economic development commissioner who said she was speaking in an individual capacity, lauded the SSA, and decried the bill and its genesis:
“I am impressed with the Steamship Authority’s ability to respond to the challenges that we’ve had over the last several years. I have seen a lot of positive steps forward.”
Contrary to an assertion that no official who was privately told of the impending legislation expressed concerns about it, Jim Malkin, the SSA’s Vineyard board member, said he relayed clear reservations about the legislation to Fernandes when he was told about the bill in a confidential manner.
Tisbury Port council member and Dukes County Commissioner John Cahill said, “I’m stymied by the fact that there was no process.” Cahill characterized the 2018 excuse and the lack of process as things that don’t “add up.”
Nantucket select board member Melissa Murphy said she found it “disingenuous” the bill went to Beacon Hill “without the benefit of community conversation on either island.”
West Tisbury resident Joy Robinson-Lynch, one of the few constiuents to speak, had a different view from most of those expressed at the hearing. “I’m very concerned with the mismanagement of the Steamship Authority,” Robinson-Lynch said.
Robinson-Lynch said she had been riding the ferries for 60 years, and prior to 2018, she alleged, there weren’t cancellations or breakdowns.
“Nobody’s being held responsible,” she said. “All of you who are speaking about process today, where’s your process in holding the Steamship Authority responsible?”