Lonely job in desolate depot a punitive one, T worker says
The smell of sewage permeated the musty air as Terrence Ward showed off his workplace.
"When you get home, don't take those shoes in the house," he said, using a flashlight to pick his way through the abandoned MBTA garage in Roxbury littered with torn sofas, strewn decks of playing cards, mounds of insulation, a moldy pair of blue boxer shorts, and excrement.
For 16 months, Ward has arrived for work at this bus yard at 6 a.m., using bleach and mice poison to maintain the one clean office in the building, where he sits at a desk with a phone that does not work.
What is his job? "Just watch out for nothing," he said.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, so full of debt it is threatening to raise fares and reduce service, pays Ward $51,209.60 a year to spend his days, he says, reading the Bible and dodging raccoons and mice.
Ward was assigned to monitor the Bartlett Garage after a long history of friction with MBTA management - he has filed nine discrimination complaints and settled at least one lawsuit with the agency confidentially - and his former co-workers at the Albany Street Garage, where he worked as a bus cleaner.
His solitary assignment was designed specifically for him. No one held the job previously. No one relieves him when his shift ends at 2 p.m., nor is there anyone watching the old bus depot before he arrives.
MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas declined an interview through his spokesman, Joe Pesaturo.
"There was increasing incidents of trespassing at the facility, and we felt it was important to have someone there," Pesaturo said.
Asked why the MBTA monitors the property only one shift per day, from early morning to early afternoon, Pesaturo said that is when most of the trespassing occurs. Still, two reported break-ins have occurred at night since Ward began his assignment. And personal belongings on the site appear to have been left recently.
There have been no trespassing arrests at the bus depot since Ward's duties began, Pesaturo said.
Pesaturo said Ward asked for the assignment, an assertion that Ward and his lawyer call disingenuous.
A November 19, 2007, letter the MBTA provided called the assignment temporary and said Ward and his lawyer were agreeable to it. According to the letter, written by a private labor lawyer the MBTA hired, Ward's primary duty is "to be watchful of the garage and its environs and, in the event of an attempt by third parties to improperly gain entry to the property, to call the Transit Police."
The letter said Ward's assignment would end when the lawyer, Suzanne M. Suppa, finished investigating complaints between Ward and co-workers at the Albany Street Garage.
The investigation ended a month later. But Ward's assignment to the Bartlett Garage has not changed. Ward and his lawyer said he accepted what he believed was a temporary assignment at the garage because it was the only way to get out of Albany Street, which he said was a hostile work environment.
"I think they [recently] had some homeless people living here," Ward said during the tour, but added that he has never seen an intruder in the building.
The MBTA provided the Globe with a heavily redacted copy of the Dec. 21, 2007, investigation report of the problems between Ward and his colleagues at the Albany Street Garage.
Suppa largely faulted Ward for problems at the garage, saying he "engaged in a lengthy campaign to provoke his co-workers." She recommended keeping Ward out of the Albany Street Garage, but did not suggest an alternative workplace. Ward, who had filed a suit against the T recounting accusations of threats and intimidation at the garage, refused to be interviewed for the investigation, Suppa's report said.
Ward and his lawyer said that the Albany Street Garage was a racially hostile environment (Ward is both black and Native American, according to his suit) and that his safety was at risk.
The current assignment, Ward said, is retaliation for his history of complaints against the agency. He wrote Governor Deval Patrick a four-page letter this week, complaining that "the MBTA is trying to punish me" and asked Patrick "to come see how I spend my eight hours." Robert L. Hernandez, Ward's lawyer, said his client has asked for a job transfer, most recently in a December court filing. Pesaturo said Ward has not asked his supervisor to transfer him.
Ward, who joined the MBTA 22 years ago, has filed nine complaints with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination since 1997, according to the agency's records. Eight of the complaints were closed or removed by Ward before action was taken, in most cases so that he could pursue them in court, a commission spokeswoman said, citing records. A ninth complaint was denied by the commission.
A federal lawsuit Ward filed against the MBTA was settled confidentially in 2005. Ward said he received some back pay for lost wages, but that he was bound by the settlement from discussing details about further compensation. The Globe has asked the MBTA how much it paid Ward, because the agency depends on public money and normally must disclose its expenses. Pesaturo said the request was being handled by the agency's legal department, which has 10 days to respond, under the state's public records laws.
The MBTA made headlines in 2000 after the Globe reported that dispatcher Robert Moses, a Lebanese American, was assigned to an equipment room without duties for two years following complaints about discrimination.
"For them to resort to this again is kind of really hard to believe," said Moses, who eventually got his job back and retired two years ago.
The Bartlett Garage where Ward now works, located near Dudley Square, was closed in 2004, after local organizations complained about the diesel fumes, which contributed to the state's highest asthma rate for neighborhood children. The building was sold to a developer for $4 million in 2007 and will be transferred in June, according to MBTA documents.
Pesaturo would not say what will happen to Ward after that, adding, "We don't discuss personnel matters with the media."
Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com. 