Days after News exposé, Lieber updated recusal terms with MTA on casino bids, records show

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber expanded the terms of a recusal agreement with the transit agency he heads — but only after the Daily News reported his ownership stake in a property that his former employer is floating as a casino site, newly revealed public records show.

In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by The News last year, the MTA recently released two recusal memos involving Lieber.

One of them, dated June 2017, shows that Lieber agreed to recuse himself from “participation in any financial and contractual issues” concerning Silverstein Properties, where Lieber worked previously.

The second, more detailed memo is dated Oct. 24, 2023 — three weeks after The News first revealed Lieber’s ownership stake in the West Side property that could be the site of a casino. It stipulates that Lieber would “expand” upon the first recusal to include “any and all matters that come before the MTA which specifically and directly involve any potential bidder’s actual or potential involvement in the casino bid.”

In that memo, which was sent to Lieber by Lamond Kearse, the MTA’s chief ethics and compliance officer, Kearse notes that Lieber requested that the MTA “update, clarify and expand [his] longstanding recusal” given Silverstein’s intention to seek a casino license and the fact that other entities the MTA interacts with “may also seek such a license.”

Under the expanded terms of Lieber’s recusal, he is prohibited from participating in any MTA board or committee votes, as well as any discussions and decisions that involve any potential casino bidder’s involvement in the bid.

The News reported in October that Lieber holds a 3% stake in 514 11th Ave., the Manhattan parcel where Silverstein looks to build a casino. At the time, The News made a formal request for all recusal documents, but didn’t receive a response until last week.

Silverstein and its partner Parx Casino are two of several entities competing for three highly coveted casino licenses in downstate New York.

Another entity vying for one of those licenses is the Related Companies, which is also seeking to build a casino on Manhattan’s West Side.

Related announced in 2022 that it intends to put a casino on the undeveloped western portion of Hudson Yards, which overlap with rail tracks owned by the MTA. More than a decade earlier, in 2008, the MTA hammered out an agreement with Related to develop that land.

The News also revealed last October that the MTA had been involved in discussions with Related about the property more recently. State lobbying records showed that reps from Related met with Lieber, MTA Chief of External Communications John McCarthy and four elected officials to discuss the “development of [Western Rail Yards]” in early 2023.

Those records did not indicate that Lieber recused himself from the meeting with Related.

At the time, Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said the situation “reeks of a massive conflict of interest” and demanded a probe into the matter.

MTA General Counsel Paige Graves said that the “recusal memorandum from 2017 remained in full effect until it was updated in 2023.”

“The current recusal also will remain in effect indefinitely,” Graves added. “Beyond that, the recusal memoranda speak for themselves.”

Graves would not say how Lieber’s expanded recusal agreement came to be or why Lieber waited to amend the terms — even though Silverstein made its plans to compete for the casino license public in June.

Last year, on Oct. 2, MTA spokesman Tim Minton said that “in the event the Silverstein organization should decide to apply for such a [casino] license, Chair Lieber has pledged to recuse and refrain from all contacts on that subject with any bidders for casino licenses.”

At the time, though, Lieber had not yet agreed in writing to any recusal terms specific to casino bidding, according to the records provided by the MTA. Those terms were memorialized in the second memo dated Oct. 24.

Lieber’s updated recusal agreement also contains other new requirements.

In it, Kearse notes that Lieber must consult with him “for advice on whether recusal from a particular matter is necessary in instances when ethical questions arise, or recusal is unclear.”

In considering whether recusal is warranted, Kearse said he’d factor in whether Silverstein or a potential bidder would benefit from a particular transaction with the MTA and whether “the significance of [Lieber’s] involvement outweighs the likelihood that such participation would be perceived as improperly influencing the MTA and the monetary value of the transaction.”

The MTA itself is expected to ultimately benefit from the casino siting.

Last year, Gov. Hochul announced that tax revenues generated from the winning bids would go to the agency, which could see an estimated revenue influx from anywhere between $231 million and $413 million as a result.