MTA Board Members Ditched Public Fare Hike Meetings

The Daily News has been keeping score which MTA officials have actually been showing up to the meetings where the public gets to air its opinions about the proposed fare hikes. And now that the meetings are over, the News names the three MTA board members who were no shows: (pictured, from left to right) Andrew Saul (who is Vice Chairman of the Board), Donald Cecil, and Susan Metzger. And mind you, these are members who will be voting on whether to pass a fare hike.

Assemblyman Rory Lancman told the News, "Membership on the MTA board is a privilege, not a right, with awesome responsibilities. Members who can't drag themselves to even one fare hike hearing to face the riding public not only shouldn't be allowed to vote for a fare hike, they shouldn't be on the board at all." Additionally, some voting members have only attended one meeting.

Interestingly, Saul, who seemed to support the fare hike before the News made light of his no-shows, released a statement saying he would "review all viable options" that might avoid a fare hike. And Metzger told the News that she was on a vacation that she and her husband had been planning for a year and promised to read transcripts. However, the Staphangers Campaign' Gene Russianoff told CBS 2, "If you believe they read the transcripts of the hearings, I have a bridge I sell to you."

What does Governor Spitzer, who could move to stop a fare hike by increasing funding to the MTA, think? "I'm not going to justify anybody's not attending. I will personally make sure that any board member who votes on this has immersed himself or herself in the factual presentations and diversity of views." Yeah, good luck with that.

And the Daily News has an editorial demanding that Metzger, Cecil and Saul be kicked off the board: "For all the benefits heaped upon them, board members have limited duties. These three failed to carry out even those."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on November 15, 2007 9:16 AM

Comments [rss]

tomtomtom

Forget these dishonest people and forget the dishonest MTA. The MTA is nothing but a bunch of professional CROOKS. Spitzer and Bloomberg should fire every last one of these lying theives and replace them with people who actually believe in honest work and know that their job is to provide a service to the hardworking New York taxpayer. Yes, the answer is very simple, but I fear the crooked politicing and greedy fat cats will prevail here as has been the case in recent years. What a shame we even have to look at their ugly faces.

books

i bey she was a sexpot back in the 40s...shes still got the high cheek bones

freddyhere

So who's the sexpot with the frames...?

JenChungsBaby

These three are just being honest: they don't care what anyone has to say so why bother showing up at a bunch of meaningless public hearings?

Politburo

That would be a title attribute.. the alt attribute is not meant for that usage (thanks microsoft), though it looks like Gothamist already misuses the alt by putting the filename in there. It's all one image, so it couldn't be attributed properly anyway.

Reality Czech

I agree with rtd2101. These folks don't care what people have to say.

rtd2101

Either way, the public hearings are a joke. They are going to do what they want, this is just about placating the little people with a hearing or two.