Posted on 07/13/2006 9:27:38 AM PDT by raccoonradio
BOSTON -- A Boston law firm has agreed to represent the state for free as Gov. Mitt Romney seeks to remove Matthew Amorello as chairman and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority following the death this week of a turnpike motorist.
WilmerHale -- the entity resulting from the merger of Hale & Dorr of Boston and Wilmer Cutler & Pickering of Washington -- has agreed to represent the state on a pro bono basis, according to Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's communications director.
Amorello is expected to be represented by the Turnpike Authority. A WilmerHale spokeswoman was researching the issue before offering public comment. An Amorello spokesman, Tom Farmer, indicated the chairman would likely respond to the announcement during a Thursday afternoon news conference that would also offer an update on the accident investigation.
Romney himself scheduled a news conference Thursday where he was expected to outline his plans, which include providing formal notice to Amorello, followed by a formal list of charges. The two sides are then expected to meet in a forum that can be open to the public, but closed if one or both parties request it.
The governor declared Tuesday, just hours after 38-year-old Milena Del Valle of Boston was crushed to death by falling ceiling panels in an I-90 tunnel, that he planned to seek to remove Amorello as the Turnpike's chairman and chief executive officer -- but not as a board member. He said he would do so under the outlines provided by a 2002 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that quashed attempt by former Gov. Jane Swift to remove two board members.
"While I take this action in the immediate aftermath of last night's tragedy, I don't take it solely because of that tragedy of course," Romney said Tuesday. "This has been a continuing and ongoing pattern of mismanagement."
The governor accused Amorello of being "secretive" and of resisting oversight, as well as refusing the share information with the Turnpike board, which itself has been the subject of a battle for political control between Romney, a Republican who is mulling a 2008 presidential run, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
The $14.6 billion Central Artery project itself has been plagued by leaks, falling concrete and other problems linked to faulty construction and oversight. The state is seeking millions in compensation from its overseers.
On Wednesday, Amorello again refused calls for his resignation, some emanating from the Legislature, as well as Romney's request that he cede oversight of the Turnpike Authority. He rebutted Romney's accusations, although Amorello conceded that he and his fellow Republican have had a difficult working relationship during the three years their tenure's have coincided.
"It has been a challenging time to work between the administration and the Turnpike Authority," the chairman told reporters. "We have been cooperative in the exchange of information, despite some of the public rhetoric and statements to the opposite of that. We are working where we should be working together. There's obviously a lot of politics involved."
In its May 2002 decision, the state's highest court rebuffed Swift after she fired board members Jordan Levy and Christy Mihos for refusing to enact a toll increase she requested. The court ruled that their difference was over policy, not the performance of their duties, therefore providing an inadequate cause for their removal.
"In order to preserve the Authority's independence, a matter of utmost importance to the public, to bondholders, and to lenders, cause to remove a member should be in the order of malfeasance, misfeasance, or willful neglect of duty, the standard of removal applicable to comparable independent authorities," the court wrote.
By seeking to remove Amorello from day-to-day Turnpike oversight, but not from his broader policy-setting role as a board member, Romney hopes to satisfy the court's standard for removal, Fehrnstrom said.
Usually Republicans (Amorello is one IIRC) would step aside in a case like this while a Dem would stubbornly stay put. Fat Matt refuses to bow to the will of the people, and even his pals in the Legislature are deserting him. Chappaquid-DIG.
For free? Nothing is free, especially in Massachusetts.
Summer is the season for family vacations and cookouts and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has all its resources ready to help you find a fun tourist destination and to get you there safely. As the "Main Street of Massachusetts,'' the Massachusetts Turnpike is the road to summer fun and we have a lot more to offer than the safest and best maintained highway in the nation
We are also working hard to keep the Turnpike safe and attractive with a number of repaving projects and our annual flower planting and landscaping efforts.
I am committed to making your traveling and tourist experience in Massachusetts the best in America. Please drive safely on all of our roadways; keep your seat belt buckled and your children properly restrained in safety seats.
On behalf of all of us at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, I wish you a safe and happy summer.
Sincerely,
Matthew J. Amorello
(Drive safely--and pay no attention to the huge concrete slab that's about to fall on you!)
Denny Crane?
Beat me to it.
"Boston law firm agrees to represent state in Turnpike removal........."
As long as they put another road in it's place.
Which office is that, exactly? What lawyer gets this plumb assignment?
The title of this post gave me false hope. For a second, I thought they were going to remove the entire roadway.
So did I, but I didn't want to alter the title (for the benefit of those who were thinking of posting it and wanted to see if it was already up). Keep the highway, remove the tolls
and the bureaucracy. It was supposed to be paid for/ "free"
generations ago, as it was. Now it's hackerama city.
The actual technical problem seems in retrospect risibly obvious. (Apparently they were depending on adhesion between the epoxy and the concrete. Rots of Ruck. It was probably only due to the fact that the stresses had a horizontal component, causing the hardened epoxy plug to become cocked that they didn't fall out immediately under load.) Even so, any reasonable inspection regime would have uncovered the problem long before anyone was killed. I remember some years ago a bridge on I-95 in Connecticut failed, resulting in at least one fatality, because blocked drainage basins caused a bolt to rust and fail. The bridge's paperwork indicated that it had undergone regular inspections and drainage basin clean outs, but the paperwork had in fact been "pencil whipped", the inspections and clean outs were never performed and people died.
"The tunnel is safe. The tunnel is safe. That's why it's been closed since the accident so we can remove the rest of
the concrete slabs that might fall of you and kill you, but the tunnel is safe."
I have a simpler solution. Why not grant a pardon to Whitey Bulger and offer him the chairmanship of the Turnpike Authority when the position becomes vacant?
Oh, I forgot, the Governor is Mitt Romney not Mike Du-kaka-is.
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