Half of Vineyard select boards support SSA term limits

State legislation that would limit the number of terms that Steamship Authority board members can serve has received mixed reaction from Island town select boards. Half have voted to support the legislation, while the remaining three have chosen not to.

Earlier this year, the Steamship Authority Citizens’ Action Group launched an effort to get the question before each town board. During a final push in Tisbury on Tuesday, the town’s select board voted 2–1 to have town administrator Joe LaCivita draft a letter supporting the legislation. John Cahill, who also serves on the Steamship Authority Port Council, was the sole dissenting vote. 

Bill S.2395 comes amid frustrations over poor management of the Steamship, and with some board members serving as long as 12 years or more. It proposes limiting board members to three three-year terms. The bill was refiled in January by state Sen. Dylan Fernandes, who represents Falmouth, and it’s awaiting a hearing date. If successful, it would also be the first change to the ferry line’s enabling act since 2002. 

Tisbury follows Aquinnah and West Tisbury, who also voted to support the proposal. Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and Chilmark select boards decided not to support the bill. 

The Dukes County Commissioners, the appointing body for the Vineyard’s representative to the Steamship board, also unanimously voted to send a letter supporting the bill. 

“We just felt in general it was very good business practice,” Christine Todd, commission chair, said during the Oak Bluffs Select Board meeting on July 8. She added the commission was also considering whether to have term limits for itself. 

On Tuesday, Christina Colarusso, Tisbury Select Board chair, who has a maritime background, suggested that the Steamship board could use some new blood. She highlighted at her town’s meeting that many of the municipal representatives did not have maritime backgrounds. She also said some port communities, like Nantucket, do not feel the same strains from the Steamship operations as does the Vineyard because they don’t use it as frequently; a shakeup in leadership was needed to “break up the monopoly.”

“They don’t feel it like we feel it, because they’re the golden child,” Colarusso said. 

Colarusso previously served as a merchant marine, and underscored the importance of good leadership, especially for maritime environments. 

“Leadership is a very interesting thing,” she said. “On a ship, when you’re at the mercy, absolute mercy, of a captain, all those lessons in leadership [are] being paid in blood.” 

Colarusso also said she’d consider sending her own letter if the town’s version “tastes like water.” 

From mid-July to early August, action group members came before each Vineyard town’s select board requesting that it send a letters supporting Bill S.2395, “An Act improving oversight and operations of the Steamship Authority.” The action group had been supporting the bill for months now, saying term limits are a necessary step toward bringing fresh ideas and more transparency to the ferry line, and breaking “voting blocs” — namely Nantucket, Barnstable, and New Bedford. Additionally, the advocates say, the ferry board is the primary way to enact change at the Steamship Authority, and that longer tenures discourage people who may be able to bring new approaches from applying for the seat. 

While term limits wouldn’t solve all of the issues the action group has with the Steamship Authority, they feel it would move the needle in a positive direction. 

“It’s not about Martha’s Vineyard. It’s about a board we are deeply impacted by,” Beth O’Connor, a founding member of the group, said at the Tisbury Select Board meeting.

However, town officials opposed to the bill were worried the proposal could strip the Vineyard of the ability to keep a great representative working as long as possible, and could cede too much power to the state. Some highlighted that there might not be enough interest to keep the seat filled if it had term limits. 

“Don’t tie our hands,” Art Smadbeck, Edgartown Select Board member, said at a recent hearing. 

There was also a concern that opening up the enabling act could lead to further, potentially unwanted changes at the state legislature. Some officials didn’t like the bill’s approach, since supporting it was essentially telling other municipalities what to do, and felt proposed changes should be taken directly to the respective communities. 

“I don’t disagree with you on the term limits, just not the way we’re going about it,” Cahill said to action group members. 

Joe Sollitto, Oak Bluffs’ representative on the Port Council, said if people didn’t like how Jim Malkin, the Vineyard’s Steamship board member, was working, they could vote out the county commissioners at the ballot box, and said that the proposed legislation was a “mistake.” 

“I just think it’s bad politics, and I think the county commissioners are aggregating their responsibility as county commissioners,” Sollitto said to the Oak Bluffs Select Board. 

Malkin had previously told The Times he thought three terms was a “proper amount for any situation.” At the Oak Bluffs Select Board, he expanded on this, saying that this was his preference. 

“In terms of this ugly issue that’s in front of you, having been a select person, there are certain powers that a select board has,” Malkin said. “I always loathe to have someone take away powers from an appointed or elected board.” 

It’s uncertain how much support the bill has overall among the other port communities, but at least one has supported it. The Falmouth Select Board, which appoints its town’s representative to the ferry board, unanimously voted in June to send a letter supporting the proposed bill. New Bedford spokesperson Jonathan Darling said Jon Mitchell, the city’s mayor, had not yet made a decision. 

Meanwhile, the chairs of the Barnstable Town Council and the Nantucket County Commission, which appoint the ferry board representatives of their respective communities, were not immediately available for comment. The town managers of Barnstable and Nantucket were also not immediately available for comment.