Overview
Chapter 701 of the Acts of 1960, as amended, established the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority (the Steamship Authority). According to this chapter, “In order to provide adequate transportation of persons and necessaries of life for the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the [Steamship] Authority is hereby authorized and empowered to purchase, construct, maintain and operate necessary vessels, docks, wharves, other vessels, equipment, furniture and supplies.”
According to the Steamship Authority’s 2020 Annual Report, “Our mission is to operate a safe, efficient, and reliable transportation system for the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket with a commitment to sustainability, accessibility, our port communities, and public engagement.”
According to the Steamship Authority’s website, it is headquartered in Falmouth and operates 10 vessels. These vessels provide ferry transportation services for passengers and vehicles between the Massachusetts mainland and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Additionally, the Steamship Authority owns and operates five ferry terminals in Hyannis, Nantucket, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and Woods Hole.
According to Chapter 701 of the Acts of 1960, as amended, the Steamship Authority is governed by a five‑member board. Each member is (1) a resident from one of three municipalities (Barnstable, Falmouth, or New Bedford) or two counties (Dukes or Nantucket) and (2) selected and approved by their respective municipal authority. The Steamship Authority also has a seven-member advisory board, known as the Port Council, that provides financial guidance to the Steamship Authority’s five-member board. Each Port Council member is appointed by municipal authorities from Barnstable, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Nantucket, New Bedford, Oak Bluffs, or Tisbury.
According to Steamship Authority payroll records, the Steamship Authority employed 911 individuals during our audit period. This number includes 200 newly hired employees, some of whom were temporary employees. According to the Steamship Authority’s records, as of the end of our audit period, the Steamship Authority employed 758 individuals.
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) makes federal funds available to urbanized areas (UZAs)1 for transportation-related planning, operation expenses, and capital improvements through the Urbanized Area Formula Funding Program (as outlined in Section 5307 of Title 49 of the United States Code). Using an Urbanized Area Formula Funding Program grant, the FTA allocated $22.7 billion of federal funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—which was signed into law on March 27, 2020 to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, public health, individuals, businesses, and state and local governments—to UZAs to support public transportation providers.
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA), as the designated recipient of CARES Act funds for public transportation providers in the Barnstable UZA, received $16,224,216 in CARES Act funds from FTA. On April 21, 2020, the Steamship Authority and CCRTA entered into a memorandum of understanding wherein CCRTA agreed to reimburse the Steamship Authority using CARES Act funds, up to a total of $9,859,884, for eligible operating expenses, including those incurred before the memorandum was signed. According to the Frequently Asked Questions from FTA Grantees Regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) guidelines on the FTA website, eligible operating expenses were to occur on or after January 20, 2020.
Below is a table showing the total amount of the Steamship Authority’s operating expenses that were eligible for reimbursement through CARES Act funds. Of the total amount of these operating expenses ($26,604,430), CCRTA reimbursed the Steamship Authority the maximum amount allotted by the memorandum of understanding ($9,859,884) on May 7, 2020.
Operating Expenses for the Period January 20, 2020 through March 31, 2020
|
Operating Expense Categories |
Amount |
|
Wages and Benefits* |
$ 11,552,755 |
|
Vessel Fuel Oil |
879,393 |
|
Insurance |
1,048,261 |
|
Maintenance Expenses |
6,720,858 |
|
Miscellaneous Expenses |
6,403,163 |
|
Total Operating Expenses |
$ 26,604,430 |
* This operating expense category includes the following expenses: wages, pensions, and payroll taxes.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Steamship Authority officials told us that the agency follows an undocumented cybersecurity awareness training practice. This practice requires all employees to complete three cybersecurity awareness training courses: Electronic Communications Policy, Email and Phishing Warning, and Safeguarding of Personal Information Policy. These three courses are automatically assigned to all employees through a web-based training system that the Steamship Authority implemented on November 1, 2019. This system tracks course assignments by employee, course, date assigned, and date completed.
Newly hired employees have 12 months to complete their initial training assignment for each course. When an employee completes an initial training assignment, the training system automatically reassigns the same three cybersecurity awareness training courses, as annual refresher training, to each employee. Existing employees have 12 months to complete their annual refresher training assignment for each course. To complete each course, employees are required to read and acknowledge the course’s content.
| Date published: | February 5, 2024 |
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