Will Healey go inside or outside for State Police and MBTA hires?

IF LEADERSHIP IS key to righting a listing state agency, nothing Gov. Maura Healey does in the coming weeks may be as important as her selection of new leaders to helm the problem-plagued State Police and the teetering MBTA, which can only be called a rapid transit system these days with tongue firmly in cheek. 

But as she looks to fill the crucial posts, Healey will first have to answer a question faced in every major hiring decision: Draw from within the organization or bring in someone from outside? 

It’s “a fundamental question about building any leadership team in both the public and the private sector,” said Steve Kadish, who served as Gov. Charlie Baker’s first chief of staff and co-authored a book with him that breaks down how the administration approached hiring and other crucial elements of governing.   

When it comes to the State Police, Healey is the first governor to have the option of tapping an outsider. A 2020 police reform bill wiped away a provision in state law that had required the department leader to be drawn from within the State Police ranks. Critics say that requirement contributed to an insular culture in which widespread overtime abuse continued for years, while charges of race discrimination also roiled the department. 

“My job, my responsibility is to get the best colonel in place. And that person may well come from outside of the State Police, they may come from within the State Police,” Healey told WBUR last month. 

On Monday, Healey named a six-member search committee that will work to find the next leader of the department in conjunction with the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner, said it’s “a sea change” to have the option of hiring an outside candidate to lead the State Police.

“There are benefits and detriments to both sides,” Davis said of the insider vs. outsider choice in filling any big leadership position. “The institutional knowledge and ability to build a team within an organization are benefits to hiring from inside. But going outside can change the culture and can bring other experiences into an organization that might be very parochial because they’ve had internal leaders throughout their history.”  

At the T, a new general manager will face the daunting challenge of running a system where ridership – and fare revenue – cratered three years ago and isn’t on track to reach pre-pandemic levels anytime soon, if ever. Meanwhile, decades of deferred maintenance have led to performance levels today that are worse than those following the 2015 snow storms that many thought represented a nadir for the system. 

Like Davis, Kadish subscribes to the general belief in promoting inside candidates when things are going smoothly and bringing outside leaders in when major change is needed. But he said there is often more nuance to the choice, and the right inside candidates can also be change agents. 

“While the CEO has a critical role, it takes a team to succeed,” Kadish said. When the Baker administration was faced early on with hiring a new general manager for the T, Kadish said, they essentially installed a “triumvirate.” 

Former state highway administrator Frank DePaola was tapped as GM, Brian Shortsleeve, who had private sector management background, was hired as the agency’s first chief administrator, while T veteran Jeffrey Gonneville was named chief operating officer. Together they brought a mix of deep inside knowledge and the fresh eyes of an outsider. Gonneville is now serving as interim GM, where he is getting good marks for his commitment to transparency. 

Despite the consensus that broad change is needed at the T, leaders from outside, who might seem best able to deliver that, have not always thrived. In 2018, Luis Ramirez left after only 15 months as GM. He had run an energy services company in Texas but had no transit experience.

In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu has managed to bring that insider-outsider mix to two top picks,  but managed to do so in each case within a single candidate. She tapped Mary Skipper, who was superintendent of the Somerville schools, as Boston’s new superintendent. But Skipper came with years of earlier experience as a Boston teacher and school leader. Similarly, Michael Cox took the reins as police commissioner last August after a run as police chief in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But it marked a homecoming for Cox, who grew up here and spent decades on the Boston police force. 

In both the school and police picks, Wu seemed mindful of the need for change within the city departments, while recognizing the benefits of bringing on a leader who isn’t starting out cold when it comes to understanding the organization they’re leading – and the political minefields it’s filled with. 

“I think he fit the bill,” Davis, who served on the police commissioner search committee, said of Cox. “He was someone who could get moving quickly because of his history, but also has seen the outside.”