December 22, 2025 — One month after the state’s Inspector General released a report detailing “mismanagement” of the Pope’s Island Marina, the New Bedford Port Authority has responded, saying the report’s findings were “flawed” and its recommendations “pedantic.”
“As financial investigations go, this was not a serious effort,” wrote Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA), in a Dec. 18 letter to the Inspector General.
“In the course of its two-year investigation, the [Inspector General] sought to interview neither the NBPA’s Executive Director, CFO, its General Counsel, the manager of the Pope’s Island Marina, nor any other NBPA employee,” Carr wrote. He said the investigators “did not request copies of the NBPA’s foundational financial records, such as its audit reports, annual budgets, or profit and loss statements.”
“There is no indication in the report that [Inspector General’s] officials ever set foot in New Bedford to examine the marina,” according to Carr.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Inspector General did not respond to specific questions, but offered the following statement: “The Office of the Inspector General stands by our letter.” The Inspector General’s critique of the marina was previously reported by The Light.
Carr and the local port authority responded to most accusations with two defenses: first, that the investigation missed key information or misunderstood what it found; and that the lack of evidence (especially for rental payments) did not substantiate the findings.
Carr pointed out that law requires agencies to retain records for a limited period, and said that all such “missing” records were outside the retention period. He said the findings were similar to saying, “If a person cannot produce his grocery bills from 20 years ago, the possibility that he was shoplifting food cannot be ruled out.”
On issues of maintenance, the Port Authority said the Inspector General misunderstood ongoing issues, but did not deny that they existed. Instead, the Port Authority said that the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) was to blame.