Draft Legislation on Boat Line Break-Up Prompts Furor and Charges of
Bad Faith

By JULIA WELLS and ALEXIS TONTI

An underground group that wants Nantucket to break away from the
Steamship Authority is now circulating draft legislation on Beacon Hill
to establish a commission to study splitting the public boat line in
two.

The group is led by Nantucket SSA governor Grace Grossman, a
well-entrenched Democrat with powerful connections in the state house.

Dropped into the public arena like a small bomb five days before the
Fourth of July, the news about the draft legislation was made public by
outgoing SSA chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin Wednesday afternoon.

"The efforts of Mrs. Grossman and her committee have gone
beyond good faith inquiry. There is active lobbying under way and the
interests of the authority's customers are being trampled,"
Mr. Raskin wrote in a tough letter circulated to regional newspapers.

Structured as an amendment to the SSA enabling act, the proposed
legislation would have the study commission issue a report by Sept. 1 on
the feasibility of breaking the boat line into two entities and setting
up a system for separate accounting.

"[These] efforts are about to wreak significant harm to the
authority's ability to raise needed funds for the Islander
replacement, improvements at the Oak Bluffs terminal and the ultimate
replacement for the Flying Cloud," warned Mr. Raskin in his
letter.

Barnstable governor and board chairman Robert O'Brien
confirmed yesterday that he shared the draft legislation with Mr. Raskin
after it had been leaked to him by a source he would not name.

"I'm rather upset about this, as we all should be.
It's destructive and it's sneaky," Mr. O'Brien
said yesterday.

Mrs. Grossman disavowed any knowledge of the draft legislation.

"I have no idea, I haven't seen anything, this
didn't come from me and it didn't come from the committee
[on Nantucket which has been officially studying the proposed
split]," Mrs. Grossman said yesterday.

But it is understood that in fact Mrs. Grossman did see the draft
before it went out and that the language was written by Thomas Kiley, a
Boston attorney who has been hired to lead the Nantucket committee. Mr.
Kiley was out of town and unavailable for comment.

The Nantucket committee has hired former Cape and Islands Sen. Henri
Rauschenbach as a lobbyist. It is understood that Mr. Rauschenbach saw
the draft legislation and did not approve of it. It is also understood
that the draft was circulated for discussion among members of the
Nantucket committee, which includes several truckers who work on
Nantucket and in Barnstable.

The Nantucket movement to split the SSA in two began late last year.
In February at a public meeting more than 450 Nantucket residents voted
without dissent to launch a formal study of whether to secede from the
boat line which has been their lifeline for over four decades.

There has been growing dissatisfaction on Nantucket in the last year
over rising fares, declining quality of service and a perceived arrogant
attitude from senior management.

The study committee promised to report back to the Nantucket
selectmen in a public meeting at some future date, and then disappeared
from sight.

At the monthly boat line meeting on the Vineyard last week Mrs.
Grossman was asked for an update from the study committee. She said
there was nothing to report.

In his letter Wednesday Mr. Raskin called that response
disingenuous.

Mr. O'Brien said Jack Murphy, the boat line's longtime
Beacon Hill lobbyist, confirmed the existence of the draft legislation.

"We verified this with Jack Murphy - this was for real,
it wasn't somebody's dream that they threw out there. He
confirmed that there is such a proposal," Mr. O'Brien said.

Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel expressed open
confusion.

"I just spoke to Grace and she tells me that she hasn't
seen the proposed legislation and she doesn't know who wrote it,
but I hope whoever is behind it will come forward and explain
themselves," Ms. Roessel said yesterday, adding:

"Before we can know how to respond I think we need to get to
the bottom of the mystery as to who wrote this proposed amendment and
who if anybody is intending to attach it to other legislation. That is
the only way we can know where to focus our efforts."

Mrs. Grossman contradicted herself.

"I have not seen this," she began. She also said:

"It didn't come from me and it didn't come from
the committee, but we did ask to have a study done."

The Nantucket governor openly endorsed the concept of a split.

"From the bottom of my heart, from what I see and hear
it's the best idea I've ever heard," she said.

Both members of the Cape and Islands delegation said the news about
the draft legislation caught them by surprise.

"I've never seen any language," said Sen. Robert
O'Leary.

"I haven't heard a word," said Rep. Eric T.
Turkington.

Mrs. Grossman's own teammate, port council member Flint
Ranney, said he too was caught unawares.

"Everyone at the port council meeting was surprised. I was
surprised, and, frankly, wondering where this might lead," he
said. Mr. Ranney, who is also a member of Mrs. Grossman's
committee, said he first learned the news from the Inquirer &
Mirror, a weekly newspaper published on Nantucket.

Mr. Ranney said the move two years ago to change the enabling
legislation by adding New Bedford as a port still resonates.

"It completely changed the Steamship Authority and in the end
made it more likely that the Vineyard and Nantucket have separate
interests, which they did not before. Now the Vineyard's main
interest is with Woods Hole and New Bedford, while Nantucket's is
with Hyannis. Now they have separate interests and separate demands. In
my opinion, they took what wasn't broken and broke it," he
said.

Mr. O'Leary and Mr. Turkington both said with three weeks left
in session on Beacon Hill before summer recess, there is little chance
that any legislation will reach the floor.

"People can file bills, but I can promise you nothing is going
to get passed," Mr. Turkington said.

Both said they would not support the legislation.

"I think if there is going to be a breakup the only criteria
that even justifies looking at it is, number one, that all the
communities involved think it's a good idea to look at it,"
said Mr. O'Leary. "Beyond that is whether it's going
to create some financial advantage - and your instincts are that
it's going to be a negative. Finally, what gets left out of this
is the people who ride these boats. Are their interests served?"
he added.

"I would be against any arrangement that would have a negative
impact on the people who pay the bills, which is the Islanders,"
Mr. Turkington said.

In his letter Mr. Raskin, who announced last week that he will
resign after two years on the job, lambasted Mrs. Grossman for keeping
her colleagues in the dark.

"I would have hoped with my recent resignation the Nantucket
board member would have made an effort to work cooperatively with the
rest of the board to improve the authority, not dismantle it," he
wrote.

A copy of the letter is published on the Commentary Page in
today's Gazette.

Mr. O'Brien said the next step is unclear.

"I'm not sure where it goes. We've got to discuss
this at the next meeting. Fred has gotten a start and we will pursue it
. . . . This has a fundamental effect on all of the towns, not just
Nantucket," he said, concluding:

"We need some damage control as quickly as we can."