The Steamship Authority’s new general manager has laid out a sweeping improvement plan for the boat line over the next 18 months.
At a meeting with the Steamship board of governors Tuesday morning in Hyannis, general manager Alex Kryska said his goals include clarifying the boat line’s governance and accountability, restructuring its financial controls and developing long-term planning strategies for both capital expenditures and daily operations.
“There’s a lot of layers to this onion, and you’ve got to really peel it apart and figure out where everything is [and] who’s in charge of what,” said Mr. Kryska, a former West Coast ferry executive who was hired in November and replaced former general manager Robert Davis in January.
Mr. Kryska’s first days on the job came amid calls for change after state inspector general (IG) Jeffrey Shapiro issued a withering report in December, taking the Steamship Authority to task for a mismanaged website project that cost $2 million before it was abandoned.
“A lot of these [planned improvements] are, if not directly as a result of the IG report, they’re tangentially a result of the IG report,” Mr. Kryska said Tuesday.
The first step in his plan is clarifying the authority’s oversight, a process Mr. Kryska said is already underway as he works through one-on-one meetings with senior staff and mid-level managers.
“I do expect that to expand, not [to] just Falmouth, but also terminal managers, agents, reservation center, everybody,” he said.
“I want to get to know everybody, but I also want to understand what their roles are, how they see the Steamship Authority, where the opportunities and challenges lie. It’s been very informative so far,” Mr. Kryska said.
He will then develop an updated decision-making matrix and a streamlined reporting template for routine business at board of governors meetings, and add a quarterly strategic review with the board, Mr. Kryska said.
The next phase of his plan focuses on restructuring the authority’s financial and strategic planning efforts, to align them more directly with boat line operations and to enable longer-range planning.
“A couple of our boats are over 50 years old, so we need to have a plan in place for how we’re going to replace them, what we’re going to replace them with and where we’re going to get the funds to do that, because they’re not getting any cheaper,” Mr. Kryska said.
He’s also looking to shift the Steamship Authority’s internal culture and improve accountability, he said.
To begin with, Mr. Kryska said, all board members are expected to undergo governance training through the state inspector general’s academy. One of Mr. Shapiro’s recommendations in the December report was to require that board members take the training, titled Boards & Commissions: Know Your Responsibilities.
Mr. Kryska also will be asking the board of governors to develop its own goals and to perform self-evaluations.
To promote more transparency and encourage the public’s trust, Mr. Kryska said, he intends to establish a quarterly, public performance dashboard, an annual “state of the Authority” report and a tracking system to follow up on progress toward remedying the flaws cited in Mr. Shapiro’s report.
“We really want to get the Steamship Authority’s trust built back up in the community,” Mr. Kryska said.
The plan drew praise from James Malkin, the Vineyard’s representative on the Steamship Authority board.
“It’s something that we at the board have talked about for a number of years. I’m happy to see that he’s brought it forward and formalized it … not so much for the benefit of the IG but frankly, for the Steamship Authority itself and the board and its employees and its community,” he said.
The Steamship Authority has launched similar efforts in the past, including a page dedicated to the actions taken in response to the landmark 2018 review, known as the HMS report, that detailed systemic shortcomings at the ferry line.
In a draft response to the inspector general’s report, Mr. Kryska wrote last month that it echoed many of the HMS report’s findings and that he viewed them together as a road map for the Steamship Authority.
On Tuesday, he promised more transparency in boat line policy-making and more access to SSA leadership.
“I think the Steamship Authority has done an incredibly great job of representing the public, and especially the Islanders and the full-time Island residents, but it’s something we need to really kind of communicate,” said Mr. Kryska, who hosted two online forums last week on the Steamship Authority’s proposed reservation policy changes.
He wants to meet with the public more frequently, in both organized forums and more informal settings aboard the ferries and at Island coffee shops, Mr. Kryska said.
Other senior staff also will be getting out of the administrative office in Falmouth this winter, to meet with members of the Woods Hole business community and bicycle coalition on traffic solutions for the area around the terminal, he said.
“We need to get out into the public and let them know that we’re not there just moving boats, we’re there to keep the lifeline going,” Mr. Kryska said.
Board chair Peter Jeffrey said the general manager’s plan, which lays out each goal by listing several tasks, associated deadlines and next steps, will help the board of governors to develop its own work plan for the year.
“I want this to be … not a response necessarily to the IG report, but informed by the IG report,” Mr. Jeffrey said.
The inspector general’s recommendations included a review of the board’s policies to clarify the professional relationship between the general manager and the former general manager, Mr. Davis, who has stayed on as a special advisor.
First, however, the board needs to come up with its goals for Mr. Kryska ahead of his first job evaluation in July, Mr. Jeffrey said.
That will be the task at next month’s board meeting, he said.
Both Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Malkin cautioned Mr. Kryska that the 18-month schedule for his work plan might have to be extended.
“You may need to push your timelines out a little bit. That’s pretty compressed with a lot of stuff, so set yourself up for success,” Mr. Malkin said.
Mr. Kryska acknowledged that his draft plan sets an ambitious pace.
“I know some of the dates are a little bit tight, but … this is the initial stepping-off point,” he said.
This article appears in February 20, 2026.
It’s weird having the leader of the SSA sound competent and outline a plan that seems coherent and accountable. I really hope we give him a chance to implement it. There’s a lot that needs fixing.
I like this guy so far! Be ambitious. Change the stagnant SSA culture!
Watch the meeting online here https://youtu.be/D2a1sW7GbZo?si=FeSu0dx5LpURkprm&t=142
Thanks for this!
I hope they will set metrics to monitor pollution from the entire SSA operation, including the trucks and cars on their property and, of course, the ferries. The State has stated (legislated?) goals and SSA has been going in the wrong direction (fast) with the acquisition of the 3 freight ferries.
This sounds great! New leadership! Fingers crossed!
These are responsible steps by Mr. Kryska, I applaud the ambition and the timelines, which I think are appropriate. I decline to endorse self-evaluations, just imagine if our federal leadership at the presidential level were to perform these, it would be a mockery of attention to improve.
Considering that the Board of Governors usually have high marks to the previous leadership, which shocked us Islanders repeatedly, a shock borne out by the IG report and numerous media coverages of failures including in the Gazette, we have to see what we can achieve by the overhaul.
It is hoped the Board can provide better support and we can find out why they kept the previous GM on in a paid advisory role, considerably a waste of our money and our time. Mr. Kryska is working hard. One last example, I have suggested for years that the GM, no matter who, should be riding the boats, just like the mayor sometimes rides the subways in cities, to really sense the culture and continence, and sometimes riding anonymously. One small suggestion.
As a governance geek, I’m encouraged to read of the new GM’s focus on aligning the system’s foundational elements with daily operations and long-term planning. It’s also a good move to spend time listening to long-time employees who know what’s broken, and to acknowledge the need to rebuild public trust. So far, so good.
Nothing will change
Mr. Kryska’s plan to move the SSA forward sounds solid. I would recommend that the Board of Governors adopt a similarly strong plan for their own governance, including mandatory training as to their fiduciary and oversight responsibilities. In addition, I strongly recommend that they follow the advice of the Office of Inspector General and immediately part ways with the former General Manager, Bob Davis. We don’t have to pay two General Managers, especially since the former one was responsible for many of the flaws stated in the scathing report.