Administration & Finance Meeting Minutes

Memorandum for the Record

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization Meeting

February 16, 2023, Meeting

9:00 AM–9:50 AM, Zoom Video Conferencing Platform

Brian Kane, Chair, representing the MBTA Advisory Board

Decisions

The Administration and Finance (A&F) Committee agreed to the following:

• Approve the minutes of the meeting of January 19, 2023

Meeting Agenda

1.    Introductions

See attendance on page 3.

2.    Public Comments  

There were none.

3.     Action Item: Approval of January 19, 2023, A&F Meeting Summary

Documents posted to the MPO meeting calendar

1.    January 19, 2023, Meeting Summary (pdf)

2.    January 19, 2023, Meeting Summary (html)

Vote

A motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of January 19, 2023, was made by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) (Eric Bourassa) and seconded by the Regional Transportation Advisory Council (Lenard Diggins). The motion carried.

4.    Discussion: Operations Plan, Executive Director Hiring Process—Brian Kane, Chair

Documents posted to the MPO meeting calendar

1.    Operations Plan, Executive Director Hiring Process (pdf)

2.    Operations Plan, Executive Director Hiring Process (html)

Brian Kane, Chair, and Tegin Teich, Executive Director of Central Transportation Planning Staff (the staff to the Boston Region MPO), introduced the agenda item and encouraged attendees to participate in the continued discussion of the Executive Director hiring process. T. Teich presented two draft hiring processes for the committee to discuss. Option One consists of a Screening Committee and a Hiring Committee, while Option Two has a Single Search Committee.

Discussion

E. Bourassa asked if there should be a subset of staff selected to participate in the interview process. T. Teich stated that in the previous hiring process, a small group of staff interviewed candidates between the first and second interviews and were given the opportunity to provide feedback. Conversations following the hiring process noted that staff did not feel they had the authority to meaningfully influence the decision.

E. Bourassa asked how many seats will be on the Single Search Committee. T. Teich responded that there will be seven seats and a staff liaison, with the option to add more seats should the committee deem it necessary.

Brad Rawson, City of Somerville, asked if there is precedent in the prescriptive nature of the hiring process document. T. Teich responded that the purpose of the hiring process is to outline the general steps that should be taken immediately after the executive director position becomes available and throughout the hiring process, while leaving enough flexibility for steps and the number of committee members to be adjusted as needed.

L. Diggins advocated for the Regional Transportation Advisory Council to be explicitly involved in both proposed scenarios of the hiring process.

B. Kane stated that from the discussion, the committee is favoring Option Two’s Single Search Committee.

William Conroy, Boston Transportation Department, suggested including the option to hire an independent agency to review candidates.

Derek Krevat, Massachusetts Department of Transportation Office of Transportation Planning, advocated to add language in the initial step of the Single Search Committee related to the diversity of the committee.

5.    Members’ Items

There were none.

6.     Adjourn

A motion to adjourn was made by the Regional Transportation Advisory Council (L. Diggins) and seconded by the MAPC (E. Bourassa). The motion carried.

 

Attendance

Members	Representatives and Alternates
Boston Transportation Department	William Conroy
Inner Core Committee, City of Somerville	Brad Rawson
Massachusetts Department of Transportation	Derek Krevat
MBTA Advisory Board (Chair)	Brian Kane
Metropolitan Area Planning Council	Eric Bourassa
MetroWest Regional Collaborative, City of Framingham	Dennis Giombetti
Regional Transportation Advisory Council	Lenard Diggins

 

Other Attendees	Affiliation
Jon Seward	MoveMass

 

 

MPO Staff/Central Transportation Planning Staff
Tegin Teich, Executive Director
Jonathan Church
Annette Demchur
Erin Maguire