Planning Commission Joins Select Board In Opposing Term Limits For Steamship Board Of Governors

The Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission (NP&EDC) joined the Select Board in endorsing a letter opposing term limits for the Steamship Authority Board of Governors at its meeting on Monday.

The NP&EDC voted 8-1 to endorse the letter, with Planning Board representative Hillary Hedges Rayport opposed.

“It's sad that we have to even be talking about this,” said Nat Lowell, Nantucket’s representative to the Steamship Authority Port Council, which is separate from the Steamship Authority Board. “It takes a long time to get familiarized with the workings of the Steamship. It is very confusing and complex. There's a lot of moving parts.”

Lowell also serves on the NP&EDC.

“I do support, in general, term limits as a best practice for governance,” Rayport said. “Term limits can be useful if you have boards that become insular over time or even tend to cronyism. There are many reasons why someone would argue for term limits.”

A proposal pushed by a Martha’s Vineyard-based political advocacy group known as the Steamship Authority Citizens’ Action Group would limit board members to three three-year terms. A bill to that effect was sponsored by Dylan Fernandes, who used to represent Nantucket in the State House and now represents Plymouth and Barnstable in the Senate, but it has languished in committee since February, with no signs that a vote is near.

On Martha’s Vineyard, the term limit bill has sparked significant controversy, with half of the island’s Select Boards endorsing it and the other half opposing it. The Dukes County Commissioners, the appointing body for the Vineyard’s representative to the Steamship board, is unanimously in favor of term limits, and the Falmouth Select Board supports them as well.

Advocates for term limits argue that they would encourage new faces on the Steamship Authority board and improve accountability. As public consternation with the Steamship Authority mounts, especially on Martha’s Vineyard, some see term limits as a much-needed way to change the composition of the board. Some current board members have retained their seats for well over a decade.

“Term limits make room for new members of the community to get involved without having to confront perhaps a beloved person who's been in place for a long time,” Rayport said. “I don't agree that this would be bad for Nantucket.”

But opponents say it is already hard enough to fill seats on the Steamship Authority board, and point to the practical experience and institutional knowledge provided by veteran board members.

“Only a certain amount of people have institutional knowledge, and we have a smaller pool, so we don’t necessarily want to pre-emptively get rid of that person who might be the best representative,” NP&EDC chair Abby De Molina said.

Some opponents on Nantucket have also characterized the concerns raised as specific to Martha’s Vineyard and argued that the Steamship Authority board already has sufficient turnover.

“There is turnover. The Vineyard just turned over all three positions [on the Board and Port Council] recently. It just happened that way. There is natural change at the Steamship with Port Council members and Board members over time, but you've got to have people who have institutional knowledge, especially from the islands,” Lowell said. “Over here, we have a completely different understanding of the Steamship. The Vineyard, it’s essentially a bridge of boats.”

A similar attempt to institute term limits on the Steamship Authority board drew opposition from the Nantucket Select Board in 2022. It floundered in the legislature, never reaching a vote at the State House.