NYC Transit Recognizes Bus Operators With New Award
MTA’s New York City Transit division has unveiled a new award to recognize bus operators who provide exemplary service. The award which is called the Govan Brown Presidential Award was presented for the first time to 4 bus operators earlier today during a ceremony held at the New York City Transit Headquarters. Here are more details from the press release:
Piloting a 13-ton, 40 foot vehicle through New York City traffic for eight to ten hours a day while transporting a variety of personalities would not ordinarily be conducive to maintaining a pleasant demeanor, but during his career with New York City Transit retired bus operator Govan Brown was well known for maintaining a cheerful and engaging disposition that belied the daily grind of an extremely demanding job.
During his 21 years behind the wheel of a New York City Transit bus Brown received more than 1,400 customer commendations for his courtesy, professionalism and the sparkling conversations that brightened the days of hundreds of bus riders. The unflappable bus operator was Ralph Kramden’s polar opposite, even being featured in an April 1988 New York Times article detailing the good will he spread as he ferried Manhattan bus customers north and south on the M101. He was also highlighted in psychologist Daniel Goleman’s book, “Emotional Intelligence,” where he was described as “a ‘natural,’ the kind of person who always seems to know just what to do and what to say in any predicament.”
The first annual Govan Brown Presidential Award was presented to four bus operators who performed their jobs in the finest tradition of Brown, who retired in 1989. The awards were presented during a noon ceremony at New York City Transit headquarters on October 28th, attended by New York City Transit President Howard H. Roberts, Jr., MTA Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer Elliot G. Sander, MTA Board Member & NYC Transit Committee Chairwoman Doreen Frasca, Joseph Smith, President of MTA Bus & Senior Vice President of New York City Transit’s Department of Buses and TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. Govan Brown and his family were special guests during the ceremony.
“Our hard working front-line employees deserve greater recognition than they often receive,” said Sander, “This award, aptly named for Govan Brown, will draw attention each year to some of New York City Transit’s finest good-will ambassadors. My heart-felt congratulations go out to all four of this year’s well-deserving winners.”
When it came time to create an award that exemplified the best attributes of a New York City Transit Bus Operator, Transit President Roberts, who served as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Surface Transit during his first tenure, remembered Brown as one of Transit’s most effective good-will ambassadors. “During his career Govan Brown was the ideal of what a bus operator should be – safe, courteous and having that special ability that lets his customers know that they are in good hands,” Roberts explained. “Operating a bus in this environment is a demanding job requiring more than just excellent driving skills. Outstanding people skills are also part of the equation.”
Honored were: Vincent Mashburn of the Michael J. Quill Depot for earning the most customer commendations of any MaBSTOA bus operator through 2007 with a tally of 139. David Abramski, also of Quill, was honored for garnering the most customer commendations in 2007 for MaBSTOA, pulling down 21. Queens Village Bus Operator Roberto Stuart received the award for being the most commended Transit Authority bus operator through 2007 by earning 101 commendations. Jefrick Dean, assigned to the East New York Depot, earned a plaque for being the Transit Authority bus operator receiving the highest number of customer commendations in 2007 with 16 commendations.
As impressive as these achievements are, however, Brown carried away an award naming him the recipient of the Most Customer Commendations in the History of New York City Transit. Now that’s a record we’re all trying to break.
I would like to take this moment to congratulate the inaugural recipients of the award for their excellent service.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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100th Street Bus Depot Is Already Crumbling Apart
When it rains it pours when it comes to the MTA. The agency spent $93 million dollars to build the “100th Street Bus Depot” located on you guessed it, 100th Street between Park & Madison Avenues. The depot was “substantially” completed in 2003 & opened for service in 2004. Now in under 5 short years later, the building is falling apart & needs repairs which will cost approximately $1.1 million dollars. Daily News transit reporter Pete Donohue has more in this report:
The MTA will have to spend more than $1.1 million to shore up a nearly new bus depot that’s already crumbling, officials revealed.
The mammoth $93 million depot on 100th St. between Park and Lexington Aves. – opened in 2004 – is buckling and shedding bricks.
“We will initiate proceedings against the original contractor,” said NYC Transit President Howard Roberts.
To protect pedestrians from being clobbered, NYC Transit – the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s largest division – has surrounded the depot with scaffolding.
A construction company was hired to make emergency repairs to the building’s facade, and outside engineers were called in to devise a permanent fix.
The depot was designed and built by the Perini Corp. and was “substantially completed” in 2003, a staff summary said.
NYC Transit began dispatching buses from the facility the following year, officials said.
At the MTA’s transit committee hearing Monday, Chairwoman Doreen Frasca blasted the contractor for doing “a hatchet job on this building.”
MTA board member Ed Watt, a bus driver and union vice president, questioned whether transit managers did a proper review before signing off on the contract.
Company officials could not be reached for comment last night.
Click here for the complete report.
Lets ignore the fact that these unexpected costs come at a really bad time for the cash strapped agency. What kind of construction was taking place that would lead to a building falling apart in under 5 years? No legitimate construction project should have a finished product falling apart like that in a short time unless the job was not done right to begin with. This obviously seems to be the case here.
If Ed Watt is correct in assuming that transit managers might not have done a thorough review, they should have to be punished & lose their jobs for such a gross oversight. While they are at it, the MTA should look into possibly suing the Perini Corporation for shoddy work. Either way, heads must roll as this situation is completely unacceptable on all levels.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Schedules A Special Meeting
We all know by now that the MTA is in the midst of a huge financial crisis. Just how crazy have things been for the agency in terms of finances? Well chew on this, in February they projected the 2009 budget deficit to be $216 million. Then in July when MTA CEO/Executive Director Elliot Sander released the MTA’s 2009 Preliminary Budget, the deficit figure rose to $900 million. Now due to the current economic conditions factored with a 40% plunge in mortgage-related tax revenue, the MTA will have to revise its budget deficit numbers again. Patrick Arden of Metro New York has more in this brief report:
The MTA called yesterday for a special meeting on Nov. 10 so board members can grapple with revised budget numbers as revenues continue to decline.
While the agency’s take at the fare box continues to exceed expectations, tax revenues from real estate transactions — the reason for surpluses in recent years — have taken a dive. In July, the MTA revised its earlier financial projections to forecast a 2009 deficit of $900 million. That led the agency to plan for an 8 percent fare hike and demand more money from the city and the state.
Now the MTA is revising its numbers for an unprecedented second time in a single year, as its mortgage-recording taxes have plunged 40 percent from 2007.
MTA chief Elliot Sander had earlier warned that service cuts could be a possibility.
Let me be frank here, the news that will come from this meeting will not be for the faint of heart. Do not be surprised if they propose a bigger fare hike along with service cuts. While the riding public does not need or deserve such a fate, it is the reality of the current financial makeup of the MTA. You can only blame them for this so much as our elected officials are the main culprits.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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NY Times Looks Into The Tenure Of Elliot Sander
MTA Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer Elliot G. Sander; Photo courtesy of Mount Vernon Inquirer
William Neuman of the New York Times has written many transit related pieces which I thought were well done. He once again does what is expected & has penned a nice piece looking into what has been quite a tenure for MTA CEO/Executive Director Elliot Sander:
It is often said that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the sprawling agency that runs the city’s buses, subways and commuter railroads, was created to shield governors and mayors, allowing them to take credit in good times and dodge responsibility when times are bad.
Times are now very bad, and the authority’s executive director, Elliot G. Sander, might suddenly seem a very lonely man. Standing at the head of an agency with a ballooning deficit and rapidly shrinking tax revenue, Mr. Sander, 52, who goes by Lee, has only unpopular choices before him: to cut service, raise fares or, most likely, do both.
“Lee is forced to tread a very difficult and sometimes confusing line between the political realities of the day and the fiscal realities of the day, and that is a very difficult line to be straight on sometimes,” said Mitchell H. Pally, a member of the authority’s board.
The crisis comes at a time of transition for the authority and Mr. Sander’s office.
For decades the power at the authority centered not on the executive director, but on the board chairman, a post held at times by civic lions like Richard Ravitch or politically connected businessmen like Peter S. Kalikow. But a 2005 law made the chairman’s job, which has a fixed six-year term, more advisory and shifted control over policy and day-to-day decisions to the executive director.
When Mr. Sander took over the authority in January 2007, he became the first executive director to take full advantage of the expanded powers. But Mr. Sander’s position is also something of an unwieldy hybrid: he has much of the power once held by the chairman but not the broad sway and job security that comes with a fixed term and a vote on the board.
Though Mr. Sander is an employee of the board, he serves at the behest of the governor and can be removed at any time. And the governor he serves today is not the one who appointed him: his friend, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned earlier this year in disgrace. Though Mr. Sander says he has a strong relationship with Mr. Spitzer’s replacement, Gov. David A. Paterson, the two are clearly not as close.
Click here for the complete article.
Personally I am a big fan of Elliot Sander. While he has come under criticism with some being rightfully so such as when he took a pay raise while the agency was crying poverty. Even with that though, he has shown himself to be a strong leader while trying to work around the agency’s financial difficulties while maintaining current service levels.
I admit that he has a long way to go in terms of helping the MTA navigate its way out of the financial crisis but he clearly is the right man for the job. Lets just hope “Lee” can get it done like many of us believe he can.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Doctors Made It Easy For Retired LIRR Employees To Claim Disability
The investigations into possible disability benefits fraud by career LIRR employees continues on to this very day. The New York Times which broke the original story continues to keep track as events unfold. The latest piece was written by Walt Bogdanich (with contributed reporting by Nicholas Phillips, Duff Wilson, & Andrew W. Lehren) & looks into how doctors made it easy for employees to claim disability:
In the years before the investigators arrived, the Long Island office of the Railroad Retirement Board had been a beacon to employees of the Long Island Rail Road, offering the prospect of a comfortable retirement, complete with a pension and disability payments — all at an age when people in other industries were still working.
As word spread that disability payments were easy to get, L.I.R.R. workers trooped up to the office, hundreds at first and eventually thousands, all filing papers to begin the process of securing early retirement on disability.
Now, the retirement board’s Long Island office, in Westbury, is attracting attention for another reason: It is the epicenter of major state and federal investigations into the legitimacy of many of those disability awards.
Of particular interest to investigators is a small group of disability consultants and physicians who have helped the L.I.R.R. attain the dubious distinction of having the nation’s highest rate of disabled retirees even while it was earning awards for employee safety. The New York Times reported in September that nearly all of the railroad’s career employees retire early and file for disability.
One consultant, Marie T. Baran, ran the board’s Long Island office until she quit two years ago and began selling advice to rail workers on how to navigate the system of which she had been a part. Other disability advisers are prominent former union leaders, including one who once represented labor on the board of the L.I.R.R.’s parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Government investigators are particularly interested in learning why L.I.R.R. retirees tend to use the same physicians, while citing the same ailments in numbers far out of line with other railroads. Investigators have issued dozens of subpoenas to consultants, doctors and retirees, among others.
Click here for the complete report.
The overall percentage of fraud boggles my mind. What does so even more is the thought process that this is being blown out of proportion & no fraud is taking place. This rhetoric was recently shared with me by a LIRR employee I know. I looked this individual in the face & just laughed at how ridiculous they sounded. I asked them who were they trying to convince with that rhetoric. The number of claims compared to the average are completely out of whack & just scream fraud. How can anyone not see that when looking at the facts?
Lets throw out other railroad agencies in the U.S. & focus on the comparison between the Long Island Rail Road & Metro-North. The two agencies have very similar operations yet the number of claims vary greatly. I don’t for one second believe that is a coincidence. I seriously hope that anyone who committed fraud is prosecuted & all parties involved work to crackdown on future fraud attempts!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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