At another public information session aimed at listening to Islanders’ concerns over the Steamship Authority, many Islanders pushed for making changes to the structure of the Steamship’s board while Island representatives acknowledged the need for a cultural shift at the Island’s lifeline.
Martha’s Vineyard’s representative on the Steamship Authority board, Jim Malkin, and representatives on the Port Council, John Cahill of Tisbury and Joe Sollitto of Oak Bluffs, gathered with fellow Islanders at the PA Club in Oak Bluffs on Thursday evening to hear over 20 of their constituents’ concerns about the ferry service.
This was a more casual listening session than the one held in November, where Islanders grilled Steamship officials over their frustrations with the ferry line. Malkin said the idea was to directly inform the public about the organization.
“What you know about the Steamship Authority may come from your own experience, it may come from Islanders Talk, it may come from the newspapers,” Malkin said. “Some of what you know is real, some of what you know is not real.”
Among the discussion on Thursday, Vineyarders wanted to know how the Steamship made decisions to consolidate ferries, the causes of ferry cancellations, how to strengthen terminals against intensifying storms, and if the Steamship could improve communication with travelers.
A frequently raised question surrounded the make-up of the Steamship Authority and its board.
As a ferry service established under state legislation, changes to the board like potentially placing term limits on members — something the Vineyard representatives are in favor of — need to go through the state legislature.
Vineyarders were not certain on the relationship between the state and the ferry line, and a part of the confusion lay in the Steamship’s description as a “quasi-governmental entity,” leaving some to ask what that means?
“It means the legislature has some control over us,” Sollitto said.
The Steamship Authority was created by the enabling act of 1960 and while the ferry line does receive some state and federal grants, its operations are primarily funded through ticket sales. While the Port Council acts as an advisory body, the board votes on some major Steamship decisions like project approvals, certain policies, and the budget. Still, the general manager is the one who runs the operation with guidance from the board.
“We meet several times a month to discuss things so we go in as a unified body,” Sollitto said, referring to his fellow Vineyard representatives.
However, the board consists of members representing five different port communities with divided interests and demands from the ferry line.
Malkin and Robert Ranney, Nantucket’s board representative, each hold 35 percent of the voting power on the board, so the remaining members from Falmouth, Barnstable, and New Bedford wouldn’t be able to fend off a decision from a unified 70 percent vote. But the two communities’ differing circumstances mean the residents have different expectations of the ferry line. Martha’s Vineyard residents frequently travel to and from the mainland — located seven miles away — which leads to more calls for improvements. Meanwhile, Nantucket residents, living on an Island roughly 30 miles off of the mainland, do not travel as often.
“To the people of Nantucket it’s a ferry service,” Sollito said. “To the people on Martha’s Vineyard, it’s a bridge.”
Malkin also said that Nantucket residents feel they are satisfactorily served by the ferry line. He also clarified what exactly falls under the “lifeline” definition of the Steamship: food, fuel, and medicine, not passengers and vehicles.
Cahill said Malkin has “[banged] his head against the wall” to unify the two Islands for the past four years, but it hasn’t always been successful.
“When I first joined the Port Council, some of my Port Council members … said to me ‘we don’t need to fix things here,’” Cahill said. “For [Nantucket], it works. It doesn’t work for us.”
Although change is being implemented at a slower pace than Vineyarders may like, Malkin said progress is still being made. He also emphasized the voting structure means the Vineyard needs to strike balance in its relationship with other members, remembering a time when there was acrimony among the port communities.
“It wasn’t pleasant, it didn’t get anything done, and it didn’t help the Island,” Malkin said. He said there would be “no point” in attempting to pass measures that would cause unnecessary friction.
The ferry line’s decision-making structure raised a question from Oak Bluffs resident Cameron Naron: Why not let the state take over the Steamship Authority?
Malkin underscored that this would cede control of the ferry line’s operation and budget to legislators in Boston who do not fully understand the importance of the ferry line to the Vineyard. The only member of the state Joint Committee on Transportation who serves a district on Cape Cod is State Sen. Dylan Fernandes, who represents Falmouth and previously represented the Vineyard in the state House of Representatives.
And considering the ferry line loses money eight months out of the year, which is recovered during the summer tourism season, Malkin was not keen on handing over the reins to state legislators who tend to view Martha’s Vineyard as a “vacation Island.”
“I’m not sure I want the state to be looking at the budget for the Steamship Authority and making a decision based on other demands that are [happening] in state spending,” Malkin said.
And, the excursion rate that Islanders receive, which allows residents of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket to make vehicle reservations at a discounted price, could come under more scrutiny than it already has from some state legislators.
“There are people … in the legislature in Boston who feel that it is inappropriate for a quasi-state entity to differentiate between citizens of the Commonwealth,” Malkin said.
While a structural change to the board would require the state, a more immediate hire may bring some needed change to the ferry line.
Malkin emphasized that a culture shift was needed at the Steamship Authority, which is why the selection of the next general manager is so important. Malkin said the ferry line has a “reactive culture” and a “defensive posture” over fears of what could happen, and the next head can bring a change.
“The Steamship Authority’s communication and action needs to be proactive,” he said. “The Steamship Authority has to change the way things are. It has to.”
The Vineyard representatives also went into some aspects of the ferry operations. Additionally, Cahill shared that there are nine companies bidding to provide the Steamship Authority with a new reservation system, which is expected to be roughly eight months away from completion. That would also allow a new website to be built around it, a project that needed to be temporarily shelved in September.
Malkin, Cahill, and Sollitto also encouraged Vineyarders to reach out to them with their concerns. Email forms for the three representatives can be found on the Steamship Authority contacts page.
