THE MBTA RECENTLY GAVE several private contractors a midnight tour of three of the authority’s bus maintenance garages, which the head of the local machinists union cited as symbolic proof that negotiations over the future of the facilities are taking place out of the public eye.
Michael Vartabedian, the business agent for Local 264 of the International Association of Machinists, said a bus carrying the contractors arrived at the Arborway Garage in Jamaica Plain at midnight two weeks ago and, after a tour there, proceeded on to bus maintenance garages in Quincy and Lynn. The MBTA is seeking bids from private contractors to run the garages and is hoping to cut costs at the facilities by about $12 million a year.
“The governor is not being transparent with this,” said Vartabedian, who accused the T of trying to privatize the bus garages “under the cover of darkness.”
T officials privately say a site visit for the bidders was not unusual. They said the visit took place at night instead of during daylight hours to avoid a union response that could have disrupted the workplace.
Union officials say it was their understanding that five companies toured the garages, including TransDev, based in France; First Transit Inc. of Ashland; and MN Transportation of Dallas. An MBTA spokesman declined comment about which companies participated in the garage visits, but issued a statement dismissing the notion that the privatization was being explored secretly.
“From the start, this process has been very transparent with a publicly advertised RFP and multiple discussions at public meetings of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board,” the T said. “Not wanting to be disruptive during the garages’ busiest hours of the day, the T scheduled the site visits for nighttime when there is less activity in the garages.”
Bus maintenance at the MBTA is a 24/7/365 day operation. But by sneaking in at midnight, the sleeping public would be none the wiser.
I never have a good feeling after reading any article on the MBTA but midnight bus rides so private contractors can tour the maintenance facilities? Come on. I am all for wringing out waste and bringing real efficiencies to the MBTA but this is the ultimate stealthy approach. Someone needs to start keeping track of the sneaky things Governor Baker and his cronies have done. Remember Baker’s early retirement plan from his first year in office? Originally Baker wanted 4,500 state employees to participate and he never provided an upfront projected cost to the public or the state legislature. He just talked about the “savings.” Well lucky for him less than 3,000 state workers signed on because that added hundreds of millions in unfunded liabilities to the underfunded state pension system and is costing the state tens of millions of dollars each year out of the annual budget. Then there was Governor Baker’s sneaky effort to give a developer two prime Beacon Hill parking spaces that were located on the historic State House lawn. Baker kept his comments vague. He talked about a window easement without mentioning exact locations or how much land was involved or how much the developer would pay or even how the price was arrived at. Now Governor Baker’s Department of Conservation and Recreation came up with a backroom deal of the century for Jeremy Jacobs/Delaware North that tops the deal of the last century when a state law gave Jeremy Jacobs/Delaware North air rights and property easements to build the new Garden back in 1993. The only reason Governor Baker has high approval ratings is the news media isn’t covering what’s really going on in the corner office. Baker has crossed the line from being a big disappointment to someone who shouldn’t be holding public office at all.