LIRR cop checks OK
Gov fine with MTA police eyeing OT ‘fraud’
Gov. Cuomo on Sunday stood behind the MTA’s decision to use armed police officers to take attendance and oversee overtime filed by Long Island Rail Road employees.
The deployment of cops to LIRR workplaces last week outraged union officials and transit workers. Soon after the move became public, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials rescinded the decision.
Cuomo told the Daily News that he did not make the decision to deploy the police, but said random workplace checks were necessary after reports showed the MTA does not have an effective time and attendance management system.
Cuomo stressed that he approved overtime increases through the $836 million Subway Action Plan launched in mid-2017. “It’s not about overtime. Everybody knew we were authorizing overtime,” Cuomo said at a press conference Sunday.
The real issue, he said, is overtime fraud and abuse. “This is about stealing. This is about fraud. This is about people saying they worked and charging the taxpayers when they didn’t work,” Cuomo said.
A report last month by the Empire Center for Public Policy found the MTA spent $1.3 billion on overtime in 2018, up $100 million from 2017. A few employees filed more overtime hours than is physically possible to work in a year.
MTA Chairman Patrick Foye said Friday the agency has disciplined five LIRR employees for suspected overtime abuse. He has backed the appointment of an independent investigator to look further into the fraud issue — an idea pitched by Cuomo-appointed MTA board member Larry Schwartz.
Union representatives complained loudly about the crackdown at an “emergency” MTA board meeting held Friday. Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen told The News Friday that Foye can “screw himself” after he sent cops into union shops.
The governor stressed Sunday that the MTA has an obligation to crack down on fraud following numerous reports on the issue. “If a union president wants to support criminality, then that’s a very basic problem, and I think a basic mistake,” Cuomo said.
Samuelsen was not placated by Cuomo’s comments.
“If a governor wants to support the racist deployment of armed police into MTA workplaces, that’s a very basic problem,” he said. “What is the mind frame of a person who sends armed police into a workplace?”
“The MTA disciplines thousands of workers a year,” Samuelsen added. “If there’s criminality, it’s at MTA HQ at 2 Broadway and with the consultants who are feeding on the trough of public money to the tune of $2.1 billion over the last five years.”
A Cuomo administration official said it was “disturbing” that Samuelson appeared to be more concerned by the efforts to prevent theft than the theft itself.
The tense back-and-forth comes amid MTA and TWU contract talks. The current contract expires Wednesday.
Cuomo said the timing of the fraud crackdown had nothing to do with the contract negotiations, and noted that officials have an obligation to immediately respond to reports of criminal behavior when they become aware of them.
Foye and other MTA leaders have acknowledged the need for the agency to install a unified time and attendance management system. It currently has a mishmash of systems in place to manage its 74,000 employees — MTA engineers are working to implement technology that will force employees to use their fingerprints to clock in and out of work.