State: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy must cover its own costs
In a stern letter, state Transportation Department Secretary Richard A. Davey today told officials at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy that they should plan to operate without any government money by the end of the decade.
“I believe it is prudent for the Conservancy to begin to wean itself off government support,’’ Davey wrote.
The conservancy, a non-profit organization that maintains the state-owned parkland over the Central Artery in downtown Boston, was “intended to be a self-sustaining entity with the ability to raise private funds,’’ Davey wrote.
However, the conservancy relies on the state to cover nearly half its $4.7 million budget and recently came under fire for declining to release the salary of its executive director, Nancy Brennan, who was awarded a $20,000 raise last year to boost her annual salary to $185,000.
Brennan has said she deserves her salary. Under her contract, she could have been given a bonus of up to half her salary every year.
In an email to the Globe, Brennan wrote that “Davey raises important and fundamental issues about how the Rose Kennedy Greenway will be financed and continue on its path to be a great public space.’’
She said the decision for the state to share about half the costs of maintaining the Greenway was “the subject of years of discussion and debate’’ in the Legislature.
“We continue to believe in the public/private partnership, based on the fact that the Conservancy has raised $18.2 million to supplement public funding of $14.1 million since the conservancy’s inception in 2005,’’ she wrote.
In his letter, Davey urged Brennan to make the conservancy more responsive to public inquiries.
“I believe we all have an obligation to be as transparent and forthcoming as possible with the public when taxpayer dollars are involved,’’ he wrote.
Davey told Brennan he would require her to accept three conditions before he approved a new five-year lease for the conservancy to continue maintaining the Greenway.
He said the conservancy would have to subject itself to the state’s open meeting laws and Freedom of Information Act requests; agree to an independent review of the compensation of senior staff to verify the salaries are comparable to other state-supported non-profits; and submit a business plan that would result in the conservancy being “entirely self-sufficient’’ by the last year of the lease.
He added his department would seek legislation to give voting rights to the two state officials on the conservancy’s board.
The Boston Herald last month reported that Brennan, who had provided 2010 data, initially declined to provide her latest salary.
Brennan has said the state’s contribution has dropped in recent years, and the conservancy needs more money to accomplish its mission.
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