Correcting the Big Dig culture
AFTER last week's Big Dig accident, public attention properly focused on the loss of Milena Del Valle, the tragedy for her family, and learning who bears direct responsibility for the collapse of those deadly ceiling panels.
But there is more here to confront than the negligence of a handful of contractors. The state must also confront the ``Big Dig culture" on Beacon Hill -- which is one of neglect and inaction, where politics is more important than governing -- because that culture created the conditions for last week's calamity.
As far back as 1998, the state inspector general issued warnings about safety issues with the tunnels. Recent flooding and falling debris provided more reasons for concern about the project's structural integrity. Questions about cost overruns have been with us even longer. Yet few elected leaders showed the least curiosity about potential design flaws or where the money went.
The failure of the Big Dig, in other words, is a failure of politics-as-usual. It is the failure of leaders to do the jobs they were elected to do. The Big Dig culture of Beacon Hill allowed corners to be cut and oversight to be lax. The culture is a failure to take the role of government seriously.
After years of known cost overruns, leaks, defective concrete, and lax management, the buzz of activity over the past week by elected officials is late -- too late for the Del Valle family, but hopefully not too late for the rest of us. Here are some suggestions:
Appoint an independent special inspector general: The governor is right to call for a ``stem-to-stern" review of the structural integrity of the project. But the state needs a truly independent professional to do it. Political contributions from Big Dig contractors and personal and political relationships with Bechtel, the project manager, leave current officials with the appearance of conflicts of interest, even as the public's confidence needs to be restored. The state needs a professional with engineering and project accounting experience to determine what can make the tunnels safe, to assure the public that the necessary work has been done, and to examine why the project has so grossly exceeded its budget. The governor should use his new powers to bring in independent experts to review the entire project and give those experts the authority and resources they need.
Reform the Turnpike Authority board: Chairman Matt Amorello should go. But the leadership's shortcomings at the Turnpike Authority go beyond and certainly predate Amorello. The board appointed during the past 16 years has not had the expertise to oversee a project this complex. Let's expand the board to seven members, and make new appointments of people with demonstrated expertise in transportation engineering and planning.
Hold the contractors accountable: The state must hold accountable the firms that designed and built this project. Let's give the special inspector general responsibility for identifying those contractors whose substandard performance compromised safety and blew the budget, and then let's land on them with the full weight of the law. That includes banning those contractors who don't cooperate with the review from any future state work.
Open the doors to the public: Management of this project has been shrouded in secrecy, and the state has suffered from it. The public would benefit from greater transparency and access to information. The special inspector general should brief the public regularly on the progress toward repair and redesign until that work is complete. Existing confidentiality agreements between the attorney general's office and contractors are counterproductive and should be voided. Finally, the state ought to eliminate patronage at the project, and ensure an open process for hiring and contracting based entirely on qualifications.
It should not have taken the tragic death of Milena Del Valle to spur our leaders into action. It's time the rest of us took action, too, and demanded the kind of political leadership that acts because it should, and not because tragedy makes it unavoidable to do so. Without that, we will face other collapses -- if not in our tunnels, then in the quality of our schools, in our healthcare system, and throughout our government.
Deval Patrick is a former corporate executive and senior official in the Clinton administration. He is a candidate for governor of Massachusetts. 
