SSA manager search committee considers member from the public

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More public input may be on the way in the search for a new Steamship Authority general manager. —MV Times

More public input may be on the way in the Steamship Authority’s search for a new general manager. 

During a Tuesday meeting, the recently formed Steamship Authority general manager search committee expressed its support of having a person outside of the ferry line be a nonvoting member. Currently, the four-person committee consists of representatives on the Steamship Authority board and Port Council. 

Martha’s Vineyard board representative Jim Malkin said if a member of the public were to enter, it would be important to find someone with “outside experience” in municipal hiring, and evaluating candidates who understood the issues surrounding the Steamship and the port communities. 

“I don’t want to stop this process,” Malkin said. “It is really, really important.” 

Vineyarders have been pushing for the public to have a voice in the hiring process. Public participation in the finding the next general manager was one of the top concerns of a newly formed group of Island and Woods Hole residents called the SSA Citizens’ Action Group, who have called for better management at the ferry line in general. 

At Tuesday’s search committee meeting, committee members Nathaniel Lowell from Nantucket and Robert Munier from Falmouth, both Port Council members, concurred it would be beneficial to bring aboard a member of the public.

“This is a different era,” Lowell said. He underscored that hiring a general manager has grown more complex than in prior years. “There’s a lot of eyes on the Steamship, there’s a lot of people angry about the Steamship, and I think [having] a member of the public, outside of us, is a healthy idea.”

Committee member Robert Jones from Hyannis had reservations, questioning whether the individual would be allowed in the committee’s executive sessions. “I don’t know what can be brought forward by outside people,” Jones said. 

Terence Kenneally, Steamship general counsel, said bringing on a member of the public is legally sound. He recommended that recomposition of the committee should be reviewed by the board, which appointed the current members. 

Still, Kenneally also had reservations, saying the public continues to have opportunities to comment. “I think we’re trying to be as transparent as we possibly can,” Kenneally said. 

The board will review restructuring the committee during its Feb. 18 meeting.

The committee will also be interviewing four search firms to hire the next general manager.