To the Editor:
The Dukes County Commission appoints the Island’s representative to the Steamship Authority board of governors. As the fiscal year ends, we thought it would be helpful to provide our view of the performance of our appointed representative, Jim Malkin, and our view of important objectives for next year.
We are deeply appreciative of the work Jim has done during his time as governor. Despite having a minority vote in every board decision, Jim has been instrumental in achieving a number of significant accomplishments:
- Playing an instrumental role in the effort to seek a new general manager, including leading the search committee to conduct a global search, guided by the development of very specific and appropriate qualifications;
- Hiring and managing well-qualified outside consulting expertise to improve the Authority’s woefully outdated IT infrastructure and reservation system;
- Increasing public communication with listening sessions, presentations at County Commissioner open meetings, and high levels of responsiveness to inquiries and comments.
- We especially appreciate Jim’s ability to maintain his poise and focus while dealing with both the volume and, at times, the tone of the input he receives.
We see four Steamship Authority objectives for the new fiscal year:
- Continuing to increase communication with all stakeholders;
- Increasing focus on reliable transportation and maintaining boat schedules throughout the day;
- Selecting a new general manager capable of steering the Authority to be consistently customer-facing and service-focused; and
- Involving the community in the implementation and rollout of the new reservations system.
We look forward to working with Jim, Port Authority members Joe Sollitto and John Cahill, and the community in our continuing efforts.
Christine Todd, chair
Dukes County Commissioners