Mass. Gov. Baker swaps out five MassDOT board members

Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker yesterday named five new members to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's (MassDOT) board. The seven-member board oversees the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

Baker's picks will replace five current members, per recommendations from an earlier panel report he commissioned. Baker previously requested the resignation of all current board members, excluding Stephanie Pollack, who serves as MassDOT's secretary and chief executive officer.

Baker is expected to fill the board's seventh seat next week, according to the Boston Herald.

New board members include transportation consultant Ruth Bonsignore, as well as Brian Lang, president of the UNITE HERE Local 26 union for hotel and food service workers.

Baker's other choices are: Betsy Taylor, director of finance and treasury at the Massachusetts Port Authority; previous MassDOT board member Dominic Blue, currently vice president and assistant general counsel at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.; and Steven Poftak, executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard Kennedy School.

"The MBTA panel uncovered monumental challenges in the aftermath of this harsh winter, and I look forward to this new board expanding and working alongside our proposed Fiscal Management and Control Board as we strive to do better than the status quo with our transit systems which left riders stranded and tax dollars squandered," Baker said in a prepared statement.