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New 6 Figure MTA Worker Has Skeptics

Posted by
on July 18th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

12 days ago, I wrote an entry about the MTA continuing its cost cutting measures in the blue-collar workforce as they laid off 120 more workers. In that same story in the New York Daily News, it was announced that the MTA hired a new state commissioner to fill a newly created managing director post that comes with a 6 figure salary, $217,000 to be exact.

The new post was awarded to 54 year old Diana Jones Ritter, who served as a state commissioner in the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities agency. The main task of her new job is to oversee consolidation & cost cutting measures within the MTA’s administrative area. As could be expected, I & others questioned this new position & salary considering the pace the MTA is currently eliminating blue-collar jobs.

However it turns out that these are not the only concerns about the new position or Diana in question. Skeptics are out in full force as it turns out she does not have a stellar track record for the tasks she was hired for. Michael M. Grynbaum of the New York Times has more:

It may be one of the toughest tasks in New York government: taming the bloat of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, long considered one of the most unwieldy bureaucracies in the state.

The latest official to be given the job is Diana Jones Ritter, 54, who was tapped this month to oversee consolidation and cost-cutting at the authority’s administrative office after serving four years as commissioner of a similarly cumbersome agency, the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Any effort to reform the transportation authority is likely to be met with skepticism. But Ms. Ritter has raised eyebrows even before she starts work at the agency on Monday.

Of particular concern, critics say, are reports issued this year by the State Senate and the state inspector general that described her previous agency as marred by runaway overtime, nepotism and wasteful spending — the very vices Ms. Ritter has been instructed to combat in her new job.

Mr. Walder said that he had created Ms. Ritter’s position because he wanted an administrator solely focused on remaking the authority into a leaner, more efficient operation. Her first task will be to lead a merger of several departments, which is expected to save $10 million a year.

Click here for the complete report.

Should I be surprised that she comes from an agency overrun with overtime abuse, nepotism, & wasteful spending? Honestly those three phrases could be used to describe at least 90% of government agencies locally & up to & including the federal level.

Personally I will not trash her specific work as I have no first hand knowledge of her work. Needless to say, I will be keeping an eye on her as I am sure can be said for others. Hopefully she pans out as if she does not, nothing less but an elimination of her position will do.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Looking Into The Next MTA Fare Hike

Posted by
on July 18th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

There are two words that scare just about any rider regardless of what service branch of the MTA they use, fare hike. Unfortunately those two words will be tossed around a lot for the remainder of the year & into the next as the MTA dishes one out across the board in an attempt to raise revenue while attacking a huge budget deficit.

The talk really heated up of late when the New York Post first broke the potential specifics of the fare hike which included a “MetroCard Tax” of $1 & the elimination of off-peak fares on commuter railroads. Then we had talk about their being a cap put on the amount of rides provided by an “Unlimited” Weekly or Monthly MetroCard. Lastly, we all read about how single ride paper MetroCard tickets would rise to $2.50.

Tomorrow’s New York Times takes the latest look into the fare hike which includes a change in plans with off-peak fares on the Long Island Rail Road. Michael M. Grynbaum has more:

Riders of New York’s transportation system are about to learn a tough lesson of recessionary politics: In times of crisis, nothing is sacred. Some of the more hallowed, burned-into-your-brain assumptions of traveling around the region are now on the chopping block as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeks to curtail yet another budget deficit — this one projected at $400 million.

The off-peak discount on the Long Island Rail Road, for instance, would become smaller than it is now, meaning that riders would have to pay more to travel into the city on weekends, afternoons and late nights. Riders would also pay peak fares for morning trains that head east from Pennsylvania Station or Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, under a proposal being considered by transit officials.

And the authority intends to strain the English language, along with riders’ pocketbooks: limits could be placed on the so-called unlimited MetroCards, which offer monthly and weekly passes for the bus and subway system. The monthly pass, in turn, could cost about $100 a month, up from $89 today.

Analysts at the transportation agency had initially considered eliminating all off-peak railroad fares — as New Jersey Transit did this year — but that option was eventually discarded. Situations that involved fare increases of more than 10 percent were also considered, according to several individuals familiar with the plans who asked for anonymity because the discussions were intended to be confidential.

The “limited unlimited” plan, first reported by The New York Post, would cap the number of rides that can be taken on a monthly pass to about three a day, requiring heavier users of the system to pay more if they exceed the limit.

Other surcharges, like a $1 fee for obtaining a new MetroCard rather than refilling an old one, are expected to be levied as well.

Click here for the complete report.

Until the MTA releases official documentation on the fare hike, expect the details to keep changing. So at this point, the best I or anyone else can do in opining about it is to base it on potential. Either way you slice it, unless the MTA’s financial house gets corrected, we as riders will continue to pay more for less which is never good.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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3 Metro North Workers Caught w/ Whiskey & Pot

Posted by
on July 18th, 2010 at 10:41 pm

In a story that will sure be used an example of why MTA workers are overpaid & undeserving of their jobs, 3 Metro-North Railroad workers were caught in an office underneath Grand Central Terminal with whiskey & pot. Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News has more:

Grand Central was Party Central for a trio of on-duty Metro-North Railroad workers busted for having whiskey and pot in an underground office, the Daily News has learned.

Investigators with the MTA inspector general’s office interrupted the three men – a maintenance supervisor, a crew foreman and a mason – just 20 minutes into their overnight shift inside the historic terminal Thursday night, authorities said.

Acting on a tip, investigators and MTA police detectives discovered the men sitting around a table with a small amount of marijuana in plastic bags and a half-empty bottle of the hard stuff, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.

A Breathalyzer test indicated one of the men drank the alcohol, according to the MTA.

Supervisor Stephen Hussey, 43, of Massapequa, L.I.; foreman Eugene Sokolowski, 45, of upstate Highland, and mason Thomas Palazzola, 47, of St. James, L.I., each received a summons for alleged marijuana possession, Donovan said.

They are to appear next month in Midtown Community Court. They couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Metro-North took action against the employees while launching an internal investigation.

Click here for the complete story.

I am absolutely appalled at the alleged actions of these workers. Ignoring the fact that I am 100% against any sort of drugs & consider weed to be one, workers who are on the clock have zero business horsing around with such substances. One has to wonder if a co-worker turned them in as to know where to find these guys tells me it could not have been a rider.

Regardless of how the MTA Inspector General’s office was tipped off, I feel these workers should be fired if these events turn out to be true. It is one thing to fall asleep while in a token booth for instance, but it is a whole other ball game when alcohol & drugs are involved.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 07-17-10

Posted by
on July 17th, 2010 at 2:13 pm

I just updated the “Service Diversions” page by removing all of the scheduled work that wrapped up by 11:59 PM last night. The weekend diversions which I posted earlier have now moved to the top followed by the subsequent work during the week.

I suggest printing out a copy of the diversions to carry with you or use your mobile device to access the mobile version of Transit Blogger. The next update will be sometime after 5:01 AM Monday when all of the weekend diversions will officially be wrapped up. As always, stay safe & cool during your travels.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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MTA White Collar Jobs Continue To Be Saved

Posted by
on July 16th, 2010 at 9:15 am

Over the last few months, the biggest story on this blog & in the world of local mass transit has been the MTA’s financial crisis. The crisis has been the biggest sticking point in the latest round of the never ending war between the much maligned transit agency & Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU Local 100) in which the union is fighting to save jobs in which the agency is desperate to eliminate.

Throughout this process, one of my major sticking points was how the MTA needed to not only focus on fiscal savings through job cuts to its blue-collar workforce but in the severely bloated white-collar management workforce as well. It seemed report after report focused on how they wanted to cut blue-collar jobs but little to nothing was coming out in terms of fiscal savings on the management side.

So it comes as no surprise that a report in today’s New York Daily News reveals how many white-collar jobs continued to be saved from the chopping block while blue-collar ones are not. Pete Donohue has more:

Only a handful of six-figure executives at MTA headquarters were shown the door in a recent payroll purge that put dozens of mid- and low-level employees out of work, the Daily News has learned.

Even though more than 200 headquarters staffers were making between $100,000 and $350,000 a year before the budget ax fell this month, just five of the 49 laid off administration workers earned that much, according to data provided by the MTA.

At the other end of the pay ladder, 22 employees making $55,000 or less – including seven secretaries – were pink-slipped, according to the MTA data.

“It’s really amazing,” a veteran staffer said of the purge. “It’s a lot of secretaries and assistants and very few big shots.”

One MTA official speaking on condition of anonymity said it should come as no surprise that few upper-level managers were released in the agency’s attempt to close its budget gap.

They were, after all, the ones following a directive by MTA Chairman Jay Walder to reduce administrative payroll in their areas by 20%, so they couldn’t be expected to lay off themselves, the official said.

Click here for the complete report.

This report comes as absolutely no surprise to me as I have seen it play out like this the entire time. I have lost count on home many times I have opined on how if the MTA is serious about proper fiscal management, they need to eliminate positions all across the board & not just to the meat & potatoes of the operation. Yet it seemed that at every turn, they displayed a narrow minded focus on such jobs.

Enough is enough, stop attacking the people who make this system run while ignoring the excessive waste in terms of spending & job positions in the white-collar section of the agency. Stop portraying an image of seriously looking to cut back if all you are doing is attacking the little guy & saving the asses of those who don’t need it!

xoxo Transit Blogger

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