Cuomo plan to tighten control of MTA on a track to nowhere, say Albany lawmakers

Gov. Cuomo’s hasty push to restructure MTA leadership and firm up his grasp on the agency is on a track to nowhere as the Legislature winds down its session this week, say state lawmakers.

Cuomo late Monday put forward a bill to split the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chairman and CEO role into two separate positions. The CEO would “serve at the pleasure of the governor” and would not require approval from the Senate.

A senator and an Assembly member who sponsored Cuomo’s plan say the proposal is stuck and probably dead.

“Apparently there’s not support for this idea of splitting up the two positions,” said Sen. Dianne Savino (D-Brooklyn and Staten Island), who sponsored the bill on behalf of Cuomo and on Wednesday withdrew it from consideration.

“A lot of members raised concerns, mostly about the idea of separating the two positions and giving the governor full power over the MTA,” Savino said.

Assembly member Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), who introduced the bill in the lower chamber, also confirmed the measure would not proceed.

“The Assembly is not doing it because the Senate is not doing it,” Paulin said. “There were a lot of Assembly members who did not want to do it.”

The bill was introduced three days before the end of this year’s legislative session in Albany — and just hours before a midnight deadline to introduce legislation.

Savino said transit labor groups were upset they were not briefed on the legislation before it was submitted by Cuomo — and lobbied lawmakers to kill the proposal.

“The MTA is now in a very evident recovery from COVID-19 and there’s absolutely no reason to change horses three-quarters of the way across the river,” said Transport Workers Union president John Samuelsen. “Having a CEO that’s not approved by the Senate is not a gambit that the TWU is willing to take.”

Cuomo’s current contentious relationship with lawmakers also likely played a role. Members of his own party have called for his resignation amid sexual harassment allegations, and he faces an impeachment probe in the Assembly.

Legislature sources also said senators questioned why they would want to proactively give up confirmation power for the CEO position.

Rachael Fauss, an analyst at the good government group Reinvent Albany, said it’s crucial for the Senate to have a check on the governor’s power to appoint the MTA’s leaders.

“The law shouldn’t change at the last minute as part of a backroom negotiation,” said Fauss. “Riders deserve a governance structure that makes sense and puts accountability of the MTA leadership first.”

Besides taking away the Senate’s say in the appointment of the MTA’s CEO — Cuomo wants the job to go to Janno Lieber, currently the MTA’s chief development officer — the governor wanted to install NYC Transit president Sarah Feinberg as an unpaid chairperson.

Who will lead the MTA and NYC Transit — the MTA unit that runs the city’s subways and buses — remains unclear.

Cuomo on Tuesday said Pat Foye, the current MTA chairman and CEO, would be appointed interim president of the Empire State Development Corporation effective July 30.

Foye’s choice to leave the MTA’s top job was not his own, according to a source with knowledge of the decision. “The governor wanted to go in a different direction,” the source said.

Feinberg has also told Cuomo she plans to move on from her job running NYC Transit by the end of July whether or not she was nominated as chair, MTA sources said.

The search for Feinberg’s replacement is underway. But it’s still likely Lieber will step up as Foye’s replacement, sources said.

Lieber could either be nominated as chairman and CEO by Cuomo and approved by the Senate on Thursday, the final day of this year’s legislative session — or the governor could appoint him as acting chairman, a position he’d be allowed to hold for up to six months without Senate confirmation.

The reorginzation bill’s fate was similar to a near identical proposal pushed in 1983 by Cuomo’s father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo.

The elder Cuomo pushed legislation so the chairman of the MTA would also “serve at the pleasure of the governor,” but it was also killed in the Legislature.