MassDOT chief Stephanie Pollack claims goodbye ahead of Biden admin job
As MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack starts her new job with the Biden administration on Wednesday, the outgoing Baker Cupboard member on Monday said goodbye to the T’s oversight board — telling them it’s tricky to depart the point out role but she’s looking ahead to the “next problem.”
Pollack, soon after serving underneath Gov. Charlie Baker considering that 2015, will be the deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in the Biden administration.
“Some folks imagine it’s a tiny odd that I’m heading to Federal Freeway,” she mentioned in the course of her remaining look at the MBTA’s Fiscal and Administration Regulate Board conference on Monday. “As many of you have listened to me say, I don’t imagine of men and women as pedestrians or bicyclists or bus riders or transit consumers or motorists. I believe of them as people today who require the transportation system to enable link them to points they want and will need.
“And numerous of all those men and women will occasionally stroll and in some cases bicycle and in some cases push and often acquire the T, so I go into Federal Freeway with a attitude that it can be an agency that supports men and women, fairly than a singular method of transportation,” Pollack added. “And I search ahead to that future problem.”
Pollack in the course of her point out tenure has overseen significant-profile organizations including the MBTA, the Registry of Motor Cars and the point out Highway Division.
She noted the collection of historic blizzards during the “Snowpocalypse” of 2015, with the to start with megastorm hitting 6 yrs back on Monday.
“And out of that came… the exclusive critique panel that to start with proposed the concept of a Fiscal and Administration Handle Board,” Pollack explained, later including, “There was a ton of skepticism about the Control Board and what it would indicate for the T and irrespective of whether it was a excellent idea.”
In the beginning, the strategy was for the board to very last for three decades, but it is however likely far more than five decades later on.
“It’s incredibly challenging to leave this task right after six years of so significantly incredible teamwork and accomplishment,” Pollack explained. “It is more durable to leave it on these kinds of short detect for the reason that I come to feel the abruptness of the transition.
“And it is seriously difficult to go away in the midst of a pandemic when there is no seriously good way to say goodbye and thank you properly to everyone, but in particular to the Fiscal Management and Manage Board,” she additional.
Baker has appointed recent Registrar of Motor Motor vehicles Jamey Tesler as performing secretary of transportation. Baker tapped Tesler to reform the embattled RMV in the fallout over a information-retaining scandal.
Pollack claimed that Tesler is the “unsung hero of the resuscitation of the Inexperienced Line extension.”
Tesler identified as Pollack a “legend,” and included that her leaving for the federal submit is a “huge decline for us right here, but we’re fortunate and lucky to have a close friend in D.C.”
“When legends leave like Tom Brady, we know they are off in some cases to long term Tremendous Bowls, and I believe she is with her new endeavors,” Tesler reported. “I imagine for the relaxation of us, we’re likely to attempt to do perfectly in the long run and carry on to make the playoffs here on our possess.”
