The MBTA is scheduled to resume service Wednesday morning; Governor Charlie Baker didn’t make the decision.
In fact Gov. Baker doesn’t have any direct say over the T, period. When it comes to the transit authority, the power of the Governor’s Office extends only as far as state Department of Transportation secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack, who sits on the agency’s powerful board of directors.
“I don’t have any direct authority over the MBTA,” Gov. Baker said in a Tuesday press conference, responding to reporters’ questions about the much-maligned transit authority’s poor performance in recent snow storms.
The seven-member board is the only governing body the T – a MassDOT entity, with a separate legal status – has to answer to. Fact.
Meet the members.
Stephanie Pollack: MassDOT chief, and Gov. Baker’s voice on the board.
John R. Jenkins: The chair of MassDOT board of directors, a former member of the state Turnpike Authority board. Jenkins is the president of West Insurance Agency, Inc.
Dominic Blue: A Boston College grad who holds both a JD and an MBA. Blue is the VP and assistant general counsel of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. He also serves on the board of directors of the Greater Springfield YMCA.
Joseph C. Bonfiglio: Business Manager for the Massachusetts and Northern New England Laborers’ District Council, representing nearly 20,000 construction workers and public service employees.
Robin Chase: The founder and former CEO of Zipcar. Chase previously served on – among a list of other committees – the Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force.
Janice Loux: The first female president of Local 26, representing more than 6,300 hotel and food service workers in Boston. Before her time on the MassDOT board, Loux was a member of the T’s board of directors for 12 years, serving under five different governors.
Professor Andrew Whittle, ScD, P.E: A geotechnical engineer, who currently serves as an Edmund K. Turner Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
