Gov. Baker: MBTA To Launch Search For Permanent General Manager
BOSTON (CBS/AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker says he will hire an outside firm to help in the search for a permanent chief of the MBTA and extend the transit agency's fiscal control board until 2020.
The Republican governor made the announcements during an address Thursday to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is currently led by Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve, who has also been acting general manager since July.
Baker praised Shortsleeve's efforts since he took over after the departure of former General Manager Frank DePaola in 2015, including his "combination of on-the-ground smarts about how the T works operationally, along with very heavy business and sort of financial and operations and performance management skills."
Baker says the T is making progress by improving winter operations, cutting its operating deficit and changing its culture, but more needs to be done.
He says the search is on to find what he calls a "CEO-style" manager.
"The next general manager of the T ought to be somebody who has those business skills, those performance management skills, and capacity to sort of create the kind of no-nonsense, forward-looking professional environment that it's going to take to continue the turnaround at the T," Baker said.
The T's Fiscal Management and Control Board was created two years ago following a winter that brought the agency to a standstill. It was established under a three-year term with the option for five.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports
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