Gov MTA pick under scrutiny
See conflict in naming of budget chief
Gov. Cuomo’s move to put his state budget director on the MTA board may violate a state law, according to the former assemblyman who wrote it.
The Public Authorities Reform Act of 2009 (PARA) requires that board members of public agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority “have an explicit fiduciary duty to the authority and not to the appointing entity.”
Ex-Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) was chief sponsor and author of that law. Asked about Cuomo’s nomination of state budget director Robert Mujica to the MTA board, Brodsky said, “The law makes it clear that board members have one loyalty, not to the person who appointed them, not to the person who employs them, but to the mission of the entity.”
“The question is can you have a fiduciary obligation to people with competing interests, and the answer to that is probably no,” he said. “It [the law] applies to anybody who has a fiduciary obligation to an employer that may be inconsistent with the fiduciary obligation to the MTA.”
Brodsky called Mujica a “smart and able guy,” adding, “the job of the mayor and the governor is to appoint good people [to the board] and leave them alone. If you let conflicted members onto the board, then essentially political and policy determinations are being made that are not in the best interest of the authority.”
Board members of public authorities like the MTA are required to sign an oath before taking office that states that they are allowed to listen to comments from elected officials, but that their “ultimate decision” be consistent with the “mission of the authority.”
Mujica in January said the Legislature should give Cuomo more authority over the MTA. He said Cuomo should be able to make more board appointments and have the ability to hire and fire people within the agency.
Mujica will already need lawmakers to exempt him from a state law requiring MTA board members to live in the 12 downstate counties served by the agency. Sources said Mujica would need a similar kind of written exemption from PARA to serve as both budget director and MTA board member. He has previously gotten such a pass to serve on other public authority boards
Cuomo said Monday that Mujica’s appointment would not break the law, citing city Transportation Commissioner and outgoing MTA board member Polly Trottenberg as an example. “The state budget director serves the state, administers the funding to the MTA,” said Cuomo. “I don’t see that there’s any conflict whatsoever with being the budget director just like I don’t see there’s any conflict with being the transportation commissioner.”
Based on Brodsky’s explanation, Trottenberg’s board seat could be at odds with the law because she has a fiduciary obligation to both New York City and the MTA. “There was never any conflict concerning Commissioner Trottenberg’s appointment,” said a mayoral spokesman.