"Wave maker resigns as Pike chief; Not pushed out, LeBovidge says" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | May 7, 2009
Alan LeBovidge, the colorful and polarizing fiscal watchdog hired to shake up the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, resigned yesterday after the Patrick administration forced him to retreat from some of his more controversial cost-trimming measures.
LeBovidge said - and an administrative official confirmed - that his resignation was voluntary and had nothing - "nada" - to do with the Easter Sunday traffic tie-ups that extended as far as 8 miles and drew calls for his resignation.
Yeah, that would have ticked me off -- especially since they were waiting to pay a toll.
In a letter submitted to the governor's office about noon yesterday, LeBovidge was not openly critical of the Patrick administration, but hinted at frustration. While he was hired to cut costs, LeBovidge wrote, "the last two months have made it clear to me that the basic operating premise has shifted."
After being told for more than a year that reducing staff was a priority, he was recently told to hold off on laying off toll-takers, long seen as a symbol of the agency's excessive reliance on expensive labor. The resignation was effective immediately; Lebovidge was on his way home shortly after lunch, preparing to go to last night's Celtics game. LeBovidge, who retired from a lucrative career in the private sector and donates his salary to charity, said his future plans include tonight's Red Sox game and a round of golf Friday....
There they go with the sports again.
And who is the new guy?
LeBovidge will be replaced by Jeffrey Mullan, the 47-year-old undersecretary of transportation who joined the administration two years ago, following 14 years of legal practice at Foley Hoag.
Mullan, who worked for the state on the Big Dig before entering private legal practice, has been a key behind-the-scenes player and will continue to work on eliminating the Turnpike Authority over the next 14 months and reorganizing other transportation agencies, under plans still being worked out by Governor Deval Patrick and state lawmakers. Colin Durrant, Aloisi's spokesman, did not release Mullan's salary yesterday....
LeBovidge's antics and public statements, however, often made headlines and made him part of the political debate.
Of course, Globe has nothing to do with that.
When he began at the Pike, he said the agency was a cross between a "dictatorship and an absolute monarchy," where employees are afraid to do anything that will get them noticed and depend on consultants to avoid taking responsibility. At another point, he compared the Turnpike Authority's continuing financial struggles to "walking on broken glass."
Even after anger bubbled over on Easter Sunday, he acknowledged in a Globe interview that he had been alerted to the complaints as they were happening, but continued a quiet weekend at home watching sports.
Turnpike board member Michael Angelini called LeBovidge "superb," and said his departure would make repairing the state's transportation system harder. "I think Alan no longer found the job to be fun," Angelini said.
Yesterday, LeBovidge said he could no longer justify taking his $160,000 salary, even if it is going to charity.
The truth is, no politician or government official can justify what they make.
"I've stripped the operations to the bone and the only place - we did some more layoffs last week - and the only place left to do it is in the toll area," he said. "And I can understand the board is interested in customer service, and if that's true, there's nothing left I can do now."
As the tail lights get dimmer and dimmer....
