Thursday, 4:30 PM
Amorello agrees to resign
(David L Ryan/Globe staff)
Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, talked about his resignation at a press conference today at a small park under construction near Hanover Street in the North End.
By Andrea Estes and Russell Nichols, Globe Staff, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Matthew J. Amorello agreed to step down as Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman early this morning because his termination hearing in the governor's office scheduled for today was a "foregone conclusion."
"I have stated to all of you that I would not resign because I didn't think it would fix anything or magically make all the issues associated with the Big Dig go away. I still don't believe it will," said Amorello, speaking at a press conference at a North End park where the elevated Central Artery once stood.
"But to go into a hearing with a foregone conclusion makes no sense for me, my family, any of those who have taken part in this process or the public," Amorello said.
The chairman, who had repeatedly rebuffed calls for his resignation since a motorist died in the partial collapse of a Big Dig tunnel, lost a bid Wednesday to block today’s hearing before a state Supreme Judicial Court justice.
Amorello, who will leave the Turnpike Authority Aug. 15, signed a six-month severance package which includes health coverage. He makes $223,000 a year and will continue to be paid through February 2007.
Governor Mitt Romney heralded Amorello’s department as a new era for the Turnpike Authority, which oversees the $14.6 billion Big Dig project.
"Patronage will be replaced by professionalism," Romney said. "Secrecy will be replaced by openness."
The governor mentioned state Secretary of Transportation John Cogliano as a likely candidate to replace Amorello as the agency moves toward a new leadership model that includes a chief executive.
"I'm not putting that in concrete yet," Romney said of Cogliano’s appointment, "but that's a likely direction."
Romney signed a 1 ˝ page agreement finalizing Amorello’s departure after a long night of negotiations. Amorello signed the document this morning.
"Clearly it will save the taxpayers and the ratepayers the cost of an extensive legal battle," Romney said. "And it also allows the citizens and toll payers to have confidence again the Turnpike Authority."
On July 10, 12 tons of concrete ceiling tiles cascaded into the Interstate 90 connector tunnel and killed Milena Del Valle, 38, of Jamaica Plain. The connector, which links Massachusetts Turnpike with the Ted Williams Tunnel, has been closed since the accident. Officials have shutdown additional sections of the tunnel system after inspectors found more potentially dangerous bolt fixtures.
Amorello, 48, a former Republican state senator, was appointed chairman of the Turnpike Authority by Governor Jane M. Swift in February 2002. This morning he continued to defend his tenure as chairman.
"The Big Dig ... it does grind people up," Amorello said. "Someone said a couple years ago, it's like big fish that just eats you up.
"I love this project," Amorello said. "And I'm proud of this project, and I'm proud of the men and women who have worked on it."
At the same time, since the July 10 accident Amorello said he has "laid awake at night, trying to figure out what happened, how it could have happened, what I could have done."
Turnpike Authority board member Jordan Levy said Amorello's departure should refocus attention on the problems at hand.
"I hope that now, with the poster boy for everything that is wrong with the world is gone, we can start concentrating on the people who failed here and I'm hopeful and confident the governor will do that," Levy said. "He totally controls the board."
Of Amorello, Levy said: "At this point, there was nowhere else to go. Even if he won, he lost. The court of public opinion was so against him ... he could no longer be an effective leader."
On Thursday, SJC Justice Francis X. Spina rejected a petition from Amorello to block this morning’s hearing, clearing a legal hurdle for the governor as he tried to oust the chairman. Spina ruled that the closed-door hearing could have gone forward today because if Amorello lost his job, but was reinstated, he would have likely gotten his back pay. Therefore, Spina said, Amorello had not demonstrated that the proceeding would have caused irreparable harm.
Romney charged in a letter dated July 17 that Amorello had "substantially mismanaged" the Big Dig project. The governor wrote that he "failed to ensure that the bolt fixtures supporting the concrete ceiling slabs were timely and properly inspected."
The faulty bolt fixtures in the connector tunnel are at the crux of the investigation into the ceiling collapse and have been found elsewhere in the Bid Dig.
After the accident, others joined Romney’s call for Amorello to step aside, including the leadership in the Legislature and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who said this morning that the chairman "did the right thing."
"I believe his decision will at last bring an end to the distraction he brought to the critical work before us," Reilly said in a written statement, "getting to the bottom of the tragic collapse that killed Milena Del Valle, ensuring the tunnels are safe for drivers and restoring the public’s faith in the project."
Christy Mihos, a former Turnpike Authority board member and now an independent candidate for governor, called Amorello's resignation "long, long overdue." He said that Amorello's declaration after the ceiling tile collapsed, killing a Jamaica Plain woman, that the tunnels were safe was all the evidence Romney needed to fire Amorello.
"The hearing today in front of Romney would have been a colossal waste of time and money," Mihos said. "I think he violated his fiduciary responsibility on a number of occasions."
John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Governor Mitt Romney in front of his office at the State House speaks to media about Matthew J. Amorello, Chairman of Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, who resigned this morning.
(David L Ryan/Globe staff)
