Next week, marine consultants from Seattle will begin a twelve-week review of the Steamship Authority’s operations. The review cannot happen soon enough.

The boat line is struggling to regain public confidence this summer following a disastrous string of ferry delays and mechanical failures that happened this spring and continuing issues with a ferry that just underwent a major eighteen-million-dollar refurbishment project.

At a meeting of the Steamship Authority board of governors this week, senior managers noted that the problem with the air conditioning on the Martha’s Vineyard that enraged riders during the recent heat wave is still not resolved. They also made the startling disclosure that the vessel’s side passenger doors are not water tight.

Combined with the spontaneous combustion a couple of weeks ago of a shuttle bus in the Palmer lot — an incident that inexplicably didn’t come up for discussion at all at the meeting on Nantucket Tuesday — it is no wonder that the Steamship Authority has become the target unflattering stories and satirical cartoons in Boston-area media.

Who is protecting the interests of the thousands of Islanders who depend on the ferry service as their lifeline?

After calling for the independent audit and insisting on a special meeting on the Vineyard, Martha’s Vineyard’s representative on the board of governors Marc Hanover has all but disappeared. He was a no-show at this week’s board of governors meeting in Nantucket where his absence forced a delay in the performance review of Bob Davis, the boat line’s general manager, and caused one governor to vote against launching the operational review, saying Mr. Hanover should have been there to weigh in on the project plan.

For his part, Mr. Hanover said he had a business emergency, but it is difficult to imagine a bigger crisis than the one facing the Steamship Authority right now.

If our appointed representative can’t make the ferry service a top priority, maybe it’s time someone else took over.