In 2018, an exhaustive review found the Steamship Authority needed to make sweeping changes. Five years on, the ferry line has made progress but still has work to do.
The Vineyard’s representative on the ferry line’s governing board said this week that the board and its advisory council have begun discussing a succession plan for the authority’s top job.
The Steamship Authority workers that have been challenging the ferry line’s Covid vaccine policy have had their arguments again rejected by a federal judge.
The Steamship Authority needs to overhaul its information technology systems as soon as possible, according to a long-awaited report presented Tuesday at a joint meeting of the boat line board of governors and port council.
In a state committee hearing Tuesday, state Sen. Susan Moran told fellow legislators she requested that state auditor Diana DiZoglio conduct an audit of the authority in order to help “identify the current weaknesses of the authority as well as provide transparency and effective oversight.”
Jonah Mikutowicz, the owner of 41 North Offshore, came to the Steamship Authority board meeting Tuesday to float his new plan after receiving interest from potential customers.
The handling of the Sankaty incident this summer has fractured the Steamship Authority’s generally unanimous board of governors, who took opposing positions at their regular meeting Tuesday morning in Falmouth.
The Dukes County Commission took the rare step Friday of appealing to the full governing board of the Steamship Authority, calling events surrounding the incident in which the Sankaty slipped from its mooring this summer “extremely disturbing.”
The Steamship Authority’s governing board never saw the results of an internal investigation into the M/V Sankaty incident of July 27 until they were released to the press this week, board member James Malkin told the Gazette.
