Big Dig chief dug in--Turnpike chief resisting pressure to step down
By Scott Helman and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | July 14, 2006
The Legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill last night to strip Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello of much of his oversight over the Big Dig and give Governor Mitt Romney the power to decide when to reopen a tunnel where a 38-year-old woman was killed in a ceiling collapse this week.
The nearly unanimous votes in the House and Senate showed how Amorello, a divisive figure in his four years leading the agency, lost the support of his most powerful Beacon Hill allies yesterday. Legislative leaders discussed plans to ease Amorello out of his job, but he continued to reject the pressure to step down.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini told reporters at a State House press conference that Amorello should heed growing calls to give up his chairmanship. They spoke three days after Milena Del Valle, of Jamaica Plain, died when concrete ceiling panels crushed her car as she and her husband drove to the airport.
Amorello should step aside, DiMasi said flatly.
Travaglini said Amorello should give ``serious consideration" to ``modifying his position."
According to two lawmakers familiar with the talks, legislators encouraged Amorello to accept an agreement to take a lesser role at the authority but keep his $223,000 annual salary.
In a separate press conference later in the day, Amorello said he had spoken privately with the legislative leadership, but contended he wasn't aware of any plan for him to remain on the board in a lesser role. Amorello said he had decided, after soul-searching conversations with his wife and family, that he had a duty to press on.
``I have taken an oath of office to serve as chairman of the Turnpike Authority until July 2007," Amorello told reporters at the late-afternoon news conference. ``I will tell you that I have done everything humanly possible in my capacity as chairman of this authority to maintain the authority, the stability of the board, to hold the budget price, to open these tunnels, to build the parks on top."
It was a day of immense political intrigue on Beacon Hill over his fate and that of the troubled $14.6 billion Big Dig. There were private and public entreaties from political leaders for him to go. Romney filed legislation to take immediate control over inspections, to conduct a wide-ranging safety audit, and to give his administration authority to decide when the affected Interstate 90 tunnel reopens. Throughout the day, there was rampant speculation among lawmakers and aides about what would come next.
Amorello, though he rejected the calls to leave his job, left open the possibility that he would rethink his role if the ``dynamic changes" and he was forced to make a different decision. ``We'll take those as they come," he said, taking no further questions.
The 48-year-old former state senator was appointed by Acting Governor Jane Swift to head the Turnpike Authority in 2002. He has weathered repeated calls by Romney and other critics to step down since September 2004, when leaking water gushed out of tunnel walls.
Yesterday, lawmakers said they were surprised that Amorello said he wouldn't step down and take a lower-profile role.
``He's been given a great opportunity to have a role in this and work cooperatively," said state Senator Robert L. Hedlund, Republican of Weymouth. ``But I don't think his line in the sand was very helpful for his own personal future. There are a few surprised people in the building. They gave him a great opportunity, and he's not appearing as if he will accept it. He may be alienating those people who threw him a lifeline."
Another person involved in the discussions with Amorello predicted it would be a matter of days before he acceded to the pressure.
``He was paving the way," the person said of Amorello's comments at the news conference.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Amorello's refusal to step aside was ``the definition of a lack of accountability."
``The governor, the attorney general, the speaker, the Senate president, and a majority of the turnpike board all believe that in order to rebuild public confidence Matt Amorello should step down, and yet he refuses," Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail. ``In Matt Amorello's world, he reports to no one."
Also yesterday, an aide to Mayor Thomas M. Menino confirmed that Menino spoke to Amorello Wednesday and urged him to find a face-saving way to leave his job.
``He told him to announce he would step down after the results of an investigation are released," the aide said, adding that Menino focused on Amorello's family, telling him that all the public criticism would be too hard for his family to take.
Romney, who has hired the Boston law firm WilmerHale to pursue the ouster of Amorello through the courts, filed the legislation yesterday to give his administration control over when the I-90 tunnel reopens and to lead a top-to-bottom safety review of the entire project. Romney's bill seeks up to $20 million for that effort. The Turnpike Authority is also conducting a safety review.
``The failures in this project are legion," Romney told reporters at a noon press conference.
``Do I wish we had more time to address this? Yes," House Ways and Means chairman Robert A. DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, said before the House passed the bill. ``Do I honestly feel we have that luxury? No. This is a piece of legislation which I think requires decisive action because of the emergency situation we find ourselves in."
The lawmakers moved with unusual speed yesterday, pledging to restore public confidence in the huge public works project. Senate Ways and Means chairwoman Therese Murray said during the Senate debate that the bill is only ``a first step for us as we move to try to find the problems that are existing in the turnpike tunnels."
``We all feel strongly this is the right thing to do," she said. ``We also feel very strongly there needs to be a next step, and this body will take the next step, hopefully next week."
Before the legislation passed, Amorello said yesterday that the Turnpike Authority would ``appreciate" the additional oversight brought by Romney's bill.
``We have a job to do to make sure these tunnels are safe," he said, adding that his agency has been in contact with state highway officials since 3 a.m. Tuesday, roughly four hours after the accident.
Earlier in the day, Travaglini said Amorello does not deserve all the blame he's been getting.
``I don't believe that Matt Amorello should shoulder the responsibility on his own," he said.
Travaglini, DiMasi, and Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees all said Amorello could still play a valuable role in determining what went wrong this week. Under legislation passed in 2004, the role of the Turnpike Authority chairman in its current form will cease to exist as of July 1, 2007.
Both DiMasi and Travaglini rejected suggestions that the Legislature bore some responsibility for the Big Dig's troubles. DiMasi noted that Republican governors had appointed Turnpike Authority board members. Travaglini said it's the job of federal and state officials, as well as the private firms who built and managed the project, to ensure its safety.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com; Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com. |
