Like Romney before him, Patrick wants to take control of the the Turnpike Authority and Massport:
“I want to make sure that the government is organized in a way that enables us to drive the agenda we were elected to drive,” Patrick said as he prepared to hold his first Cabinet meeting yesterday. “I don’t want to have to wait for control of this or that quasi-independent. I just want it to be simpler and more straight forward.”
Yup. Isn’t it funny how in “insulating” these agencies from political pressures, they’ve devolved into hack bonanzas?
In the vast majority of cases, political pressures are good, as long as that pressure openly comes from the public and not through sneaky back channels. That requires the lines of responsibility to be clear and well-defined: A real pyramid of authority, not some wacky fractal. If the Governor gets control of these agencies, we know whom to blame — or hopefully, give credit.
Romney was right to try to get direct control of the agencies. The legislature should have given it to him. One hopes that the (allegedly) more cozy relationship with Patrick will result in the lege giving him the responsibilities.
It’s easy to blame the state of these to agencies on their relationship to the State, but is that really legitimate?
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Are Massport and the Turnpike Authority the way they are because of their relationship to government or perhaps the way they are managed?
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It does seems fair to say that their relationship to government does effect how they are managed, but is this a bad thing? I don’t know.
To whom are these “quasi-public” corporations responsible? Who over sees what they do?
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What kind of transparency is there for their Board meetings, their minutes, their personnel decisions, their budgets?
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Answer: I cannot find transparency for them. Can you? Where is the accountability?
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Such agencies and Boards actually do not report to anyone and I do think that is a problem. Their management and boards are not elected, not accountable, and in the past, there has been minimal over sight.
..and get a comprehensive audit of how mcuh money is skimmed off for ‘administration’.
Romney was right to try to get direct control of the agencies.