The MTA chairman on Thursday called for changes to state laws and union contracts to stop cheating employees from collecting pensions after the agency’s watchdog found shocking instances of fraud and abuse.
“Why should someone💧 who’s eng🦋aged in behavior like that described in the inspector general’s report, that violates law and violates MTA standards, why should they be rewarded with a pension?” MTA chairman Pat Foye told reporters.
“State law will have to be addressed. Perhaps the state constitution will have to be addressed … Obviously collective bargaining agreements.”
A trove of 20ꦚ18 investigations detailed by the MTA Inspector General’s Office this week revealed what it called “troubling instances of waste, frau🎐d and abuse.”
MTA Police Department Assistant Chief Thomas Odessa was caught being absent from h💯is real job for hours at a time and using his work cruiser to get to a funeral home where he had an unsanctioned side gig as a pallbeare💦r.
Odessa — who earned $240,926 in 2017, according to the Empire Center — retired after he was caught, but will still get a ♍$126,918 a year pension, the MTA said.
Long Island Rail Road foreman Raymond Murphy — who raked in more than $280,000 in pay last year — was busted at home while on the clock and collecting overtime.
He will get a $78,554 an🐟nual pension, the 🗹MTA said.
“ღThe conduct that was described yesterday in the IG’s reports — the only word is ‘appallin🧸g,’” Foye fumed.
“The MTA is in a position, given the passage of congestion pricing and other revenue sources in the budget, to have to demonstrate to our customers, t🐬o elected officials, [and] to taxpayers generally that the we’re responsible stewards of that money.”
Foye said he’d spoken with Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the issue.
Long Island Republican state Sen. Phil Boyle said hꦿe “completely agrees” witඣh Foye.
“I do not understand why Mr. Murphy (and maybe others?) would not have been criminally prosecuted if the IG found they sub💦mitted false time sheets. If true, they clearly stole taxpayer [dollars],” he said.
But Democr𒊎atic lawmakers refused to even entertain the idea of changing the laws.
“Absolutely not, I love Pat Foye but I 🔥would completely disagree with him,” said state Sen𒈔. Diane Savino.
“Pensions are property, they are the꧅ subject of deferred salary. They are not taxpayer paid, they are taᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚxpayer guaranteed.”
Sen. Jessica Ramos, the chair of the labor committee, insisted cheating workers had “earned” the retireme𝔉nt benefits.
“A pension 📖is not a reward. Workers pay into a pool. It’s their money. They’ve earned it,” she said.