Ramping up his criticism of Steamship Authority management, 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.
At a Dukes County Commission meeting Wednesday, Steamship board member Jim Malkin laid out what he believed were some of the largest issues facing the ferry service. His three chief concerns were the looming information technology crisis at the Steamship Authority, the need for an operational plan for the ferry line’s vessels and what he viewed as a lack of accountability by leadership.
But Mr. Malkin, a Chilmark resident, also said that the board needs to consider what to do with the general manager job when Robert Davis’s current contract ends in July 2025.
“The other issue that is certainly part of this is the Port Council and the board have talked about a succession plan,” he said. “Our current general manager has a year and a half left on his current contract and it’s something that the board needs to deal with in terms of how we go forward into the future.”
The Steamship board appointed Mr. Davis to the general manager position in 2016, and he resumed the role the following year. At the time, he had been serving as the Steamship treasurer for more than a decade and has worked at the Steamship Authority since 1986.
Despite a patchy start to his tenure — in 2018 the ferry line to Nantucket and the Vineyard went through a string of mechanical problems and a wide-ranging report pointed to a cultural problem at the Steamship Authority — Mr. Davis had largely received positive reviews from his board over the years.
In 2022, he received a glowing evaluation from the board and was awarded a new three-year contract.
Last year, however, he received mixed reviews. Mr. Malkin gave Mr. Davis a 65 out of 100 during an evaluation in September and Falmouth board member Peter Jeffrey graded him at a 53.
During Wednesday’s meeting with the Dukes County Commission, Mr. Malkin did not specifically say he would vote against renewing Mr. Davis’s contract and didn’t lay out a timeline for the succession plan. But he did say in the future he wished to have a wide-ranging search for the high-level position.
“You saw that the [chief operating officer] was brought in from outside; Mark Higgins came from Casco Bay,” Mr. Malkin said. “It is my intention that when we get to a succession planning stage, and we get to the hiring stage, this will be a global search and the best possible candidate will be hired for the Steamship.”
Mr. Malkin has been critical of the Steamship management in the past, and he came before the county commission Wednesday to talk about how the authority handled the untethering of the Sankaty freight boat from the docks in Woods Hole this past summer.
In the wake of that incident, Mr. Malkin and Mr. Jeffrey argued the authority should have been given the full results of the boat line’s internal investigation. The three other board members, who represent Nantucket, New Bedford and Barnstable, found no fault with the way Mr. Davis handled the incident.
County commissioner Doug Ruskin said he was baffled that the other port communities were not as concerned about what the Vineyard saw as serious issues with the Steamship’s management, citing the IT concerns, recent cost overruns and the Sankaty incident.
“I’m at a loss for words about why the island of Nantucket doesn’t think any of those things apply to them,” he said.
Mr. Malkin said the different port towns all have their different concerns and use the Steamship Authority differently, but the communities were becoming more united in concern over the information technology issues and other priorities.
“I think there is a recognition across the board that there are a number of issues that need to be addressed and with some urgency,” he said.
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