The New York governor has said he wants to drastically overhaul that management structure, but he won’t say how. | AP Photo As Cuomo publicly indicts the MTA, chaos reigns

On Thursday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board delayed its biennial fare hike vote for another month. It’s not entirely clear why.

Then again, MTA politics are confusing these days.


Gov. Andrew Cuomo controls the MTA’s L tunnel plans and the color of its tunnel tiles, but he claims he doesn’t control the MTA. The governor says he has “no faith” in the MTA’s leadership, which he helped appoint. He thinks the MTA doesn’t actually need more than $300 million a year in new fare revenue, because it can just “tighten” its belt and “make the place run better.” But he does think the MTA needs $1 billion a year in new revenue from congestion pricing, which he wants to see imposed on New York City.

“It’s really hard to decipher,” said one board member, referring to the general state of MTA politics right now.

This week’s events have only heightened the feeling of cognitive whiplash.

Board members on Thursday expressed displeasure at the fare-hike alternatives placed before them, even though they were first placed before them in November. The MTA has been on a regular schedule of biennial fare hikes since 2009. There was opaque talk of finding new alternatives. There was a reference made to a still-unclear proposal by Larry Schwartz, Cuomo’s closest ally on the board, to tie fare hikes to some sort of performance metric.

“I’m concerned that we’re making a decision today when we need to be a little bit slower, a little bit more thoughtful, and need to consider a few more options,” said labor leader Peter Ward, a Cuomo appointee. The board — including Mayor Bill de Blasio’s appointees — ended up agreeing with Ward’s desire to delay the vote. Like Ward, many members seemed confused.

In Thursday’s unexpected happenings, the MTA says it saw democracy at work.

“The new leadership team and board members at the MTA are laser-focused and committed on reform, as today’s open, democratic developments and report on cost-cutting measures showed,” said MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek.

Others saw the governor’s hand.

“What happens at the MTA is what governors want to happen at the MTA,” said Joe Rappaport, a longtime MTA observer who advocates for disabled riders.

Certainly, the governor did seem to want the MTA to delay the fare hikes.

In a Tuesday interview with The New York Times, he demeaned those MTA leaders who demanded them, saying he has “no faith” in an agency leadership that he helped pick. The same day he told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer that the MTA is a “multi-headed monster,” which was an apt turn of phrase in no small part thanks to Cuomo.

While the governor was referring to the mishmash makeup of the MTA board and the redundancies that riddle the authorities' operating units, he might as well have been referring to the peculiar construct known as the “Office of the Chairman.”

It was created in deference to Cuomo's former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota. The law says the same person must occupy the roles of MTA chairman and CEO. But Lhota had lucrative and time-consuming business elsewhere, so Cuomo let him delegate to others, hence the creation of the aforementioned “office.” Its latest occupants, per the MTA website, include the MTA president, the MTA managing director, the MTA chief development officer, and the MTA chief financial officer. It’s never been quite clear how some of them divvy up the work.

“The governor has created a shambolic management structure and the Office of the Chairman is a complete fiction, created to accommodate Joe Lhota’s massive conflict of interest,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany.

Cuomo has said he wants to drastically overhaul that management structure, but he won’t say how. The MTA hasn’t had a full-time chairman or CEO since Lhota left late last year.

Further complicating matters is the role of acting Chairman Freddy Ferrer, who on Thursday said he is now also "acting CEO." That prompted a reporter to ask if he was assuming more power than his predecessor.

“Yes, I delegate some responsibilities, but I’m here virtually every day,” Ferrer said.

It’s not clear what that meant, either.

“While acting Chair Ferrer misspoke, he maintains a robust and active role in the daily management of the MTA,” Tarek said.