MTA Bill for Police Overtime:
Lieutenant Paid Over $200K,
Officer Wu Triples His Salary.

By Henry J. Stern
December 14, 2004

Today's principal outrage is described on page A1 of the Times, well above the fold.  It is an article by Sewell Chan, which begins:

"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority paid a third of its police officers more than $100,000 last year, and in some cases officers doubled and tripled their base salaries by working overtime.

At the top of the list of 212 officers whose compensation totaled more than $100,000 in 2003 was Lt. Francis P. Zaino, who made $204,859 on a base salary of $86,705.   Another lieutenant, Thomas G. Nutter, was paid $199,037, more than double his base salary of $85,708.  By that measure, Officer John Wu did even better.  He was paid $196,234, more than three times his $61,102 base."

You can link to the entire sorry story, which jumps from A1 to page B4.  It is most informative, and will tell you a great deal about how the MTA works.  What we learn from it is that overtime pay is out of control at the authority, and that select employees are racking up enormous salaries, not just for one year, but for the rest of their lives and their spouses' lives, because pensions are computed on the basis of the employee's salary, including overtime, for their last five years on the job. Lt. Zaino can retire today; Lt. Nutter can retire next year.  The MTA could end up paying a million dollars in extra pension costs for these two men.
 
The MTA claims that it is cheaper to pay overtime than to hire additional police officers.  In many cases, the overtime occurs when an employee fails to appear, claiming illness, and someone is assigned or volunteers to take the shift.  One alternative is to provide less coverage in these circumstances.  As long as there is a commitment to maintaining a full schedule, day and night, costs will multiply.  Another alternative, suggested by former Mayor Ed Koch, is to rotate overtime among all eligible officers, so no one officer will be able to accumulate enough overtime to add a million dollars to his pension.  It is the responsibility of MTA's management to assign its officers so as to provide maximum coverage with the resources at hand.
 
Spending $15 million on transit police overtime that could be going for more frequent service shows a certain lack of control over the expenditure side of the system.  Since overtime is paid at time-and-a-half, it is usually cheaper to use employees on regular time.  However, the cost of fringe benefits, pensions and health care militate against the hiring of additional employees, and minimize the difference between regular time and overtime.
 
Sound management would avoid rigidity in scheduling, and would assign police officers where they are most needed at a particular time.  If someone does not appear for work, in many cases a modest redeployment would be more effective than paying lieutenants and officers at overtime rates to cover for the vacancy.

Judging from the MTA's bloated payroll for headquarters staff; its stupidity and extravagance at 2 Broadway, which involved the bribery of MTA officials by Mafiosi on a half -billion dollar project to reconstruct an office building which the authority does not even own; and its unrealistic and unfunded program of new construction, there is no reason to believe that the deployment of police officers is done with any greater wisdom or common sense.
 
At this point, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki are doing a minuet around the authority.  The mayor's four appointees will oppose the fare increase, but have not yet presented an alternate plan to balance the authority's budget.  The governor says the authority is an independent body and he would not presume to tell them what to do.  That is so ridiculous that we only report it to note its absurdity.  When it comes to substance, the board consists of puppets.
 
One constructive step the authority has taken is to take staff at 164 locations out of the token booths and make them customer service agents.  That is probably a prelude to attrition, but it does spare employees from layoffs.  We hope they will really help transit riders.  The board has just deferred a service reduction, but if funds are short, that is always a possibility.

The underlying threat to the MTA's fiscal stability is the substantial interest on their increasing debt, which is paid out of the operating budget.  The system is fiscally unstable and reeling.  Those who oppose any fare increase and any service reduction can be as unrealistic as the MTA itself; the two sides differ only in the riders' higher degree of righteousness, sanctimony and indignation.  On the other hand, their ire is often justified by the MTA's demonstrations of incompetence.

No discussion of the MTA would be complete without mentioning the Transit Workers Union (TWU), a vigorous and militant union which has the power to shut down the city by an illegal strike, and has used that power.  As long as the governor and mayor retreat from confrontation on serious matters, the TWU, which can do more short-term damage than the UFT (United Federation of Teachers), will rule the roost.  Public officials come and go; the union stays.  Its detailed contract hobbles any serious effort at operational reform.  They are not monsters by any means, but the system operates by their leave, and you forget that at your peril. 
 
The first step in reforming the MTA is simple, yet difficult: improve its leadership.  Appoint board members who have special knowledge of transportation, management and finance.  These positions are unpaid, but, like the pensioners, you get a free pass for the rest of your life, and then for your widow's life.  There should be less emphasis on rewarding political support, and more on finding expertise.

We are not finding particular fault with anyone who has devoted years to the system without compensation, but wouldn't it be more helpful to select, for these very important policy positions, people who really know the business, and can speak as equals to the David Gunns and Robert Kileys, acknowledged experts in the complex and demanding field of mass transit?

All we are saying is give ability a chance.


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