COCOONED FROM REALITY: Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John
Samuelsen states that MTA Chairman and CEO Jay Walder is 'out of touch'
and doesn't comprehend the security risks associated with terminating
Station Agents because the agency executive rides the subway with 'two
armed bodyguards.' The Chief-Leader/Andrew Hinderaker Transport Workers
Union Local 100 offered its assessment of the public hearings on subway
station-booth closings halfway through one of the first of four meeting
July 13 when its vice president for station workers, Maurice Jenkins,
interrupted the session, urged a walk-out of the meeting and advised the
crowd to tell Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO and Executive
Director Jay Walder to "kiss my ass."

"This meeting is a sham," Local 100 President John Samuelsen said as he
led a pack of chanting union members and transit advocates out of the
Great Hall at Cooper Union in the East Village. "They called two
meetings on the same night two days in a row. They don't truly seek
rider input or community advocacy groups' input. All they want to do is
go through the motions and jump through the hoops, close the booths down
and put the subways in danger. So we've had enough."

ON THE FIRING LINE: Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO and
Chairman Jay Walder barely flinched during public hearings last week in
which union activists and transit riders lambasted his move to cut
Station Agents. He has insisted that the cameras in the subway stations
and the Police Department can adequately protect riders. The
Chief-Leader/Andrew Hinderaker 'Script's Already Written'
He said specifically of Mr. Walder, "I don't think he wants to be here."
Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation
Alternatives, echoed the sentiment, saying, "It's more like public
theater, because the script is already written."

Indeed, last week's hearings occurred only because of a court order,
after the MTA unsuccessfully argued before a Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice that such hearings were unnecessary and costly, and that
hearings on similar service cuts-which it previously had ambiguously
dubbed service "changes"-had been held in 2009.
The MTA has already terminated more than 200 Station Agents whose jobs
were not tied directly to station booths. With the public hearings on
booth-closings completed, the agency can move forward with another 250
layoffs.

Before the walkout, Mr. Walder, sitting on stage and flanked by members
of the MTA board, sat stoically, appearing unmoved and immune to the
chanting of "Fire the MTA" and the river of personal insults union
activists, including Mr. Samuelsen, let loose during the public-speaking
session.

'They're Out of Touch'

"The folks up on that board are completely out of touch with what it's
like to raise children in New York," the Local 100 president said. "It
doesn't matter to them. They can afford to send their kids to private
school."

Mr. Samuelsen continued, "Mr. Walder brags about using the subway. He
uses the subway, and uses it with two armed bodyguards everywhere he
goes. If you remove Station Agents from the subway, it doesn't matter to
you. Everywhere you go you have armed security. What do you care? My
wife doesn't have armed security on the subway. My mother doesn't. It's
not too late for you to do the right thing."

Local 100, along with groups like Transportation Alternatives and the
Straphangers Campaign, has argued that the layoffs will make the subways
less safe, saying that the clerks act as the "eyes and ears of the
system," who are the often the first to report crimes and suspicious
behavior and to assist lost riders.

At Odds on Stimulus Funds

The groups have argued that despite the MTA's need to close a yawning
budget gap, it is allowed to use 10 percent of Federal stimulus money
for operational expenses. Mr. Samuelsen said that Mr. Walder has $250
million in unused Federal funds that could avert route cuts and
booth-closings.

The union leader concluded by saying that the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security was on his side, and that it believed that "Station
Agents and the booths are a vital layer of security, which is integral
to the security of the New York City subway system."

Mr. Walder has stood firm in his refusal to move capital dollars for
construction to the operational budget, arguing that it would lead to
the deterioration of the system.

He also rejected the claims that the removal of Station Agents put the
public at risk.

'Subway Crime at All-Time Low'

"I think the NYPD, which are involved in the security system, do an
absolutely terrific job. Crime is at an all-time low level in the
subway," Mr. Walder told reporters before the hearing.
Transit advocates have pointed out that cameras in the system have
already been proven to be faulty, and Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
President Patrick J. Lynch said previously that unless the Transit
Bureau of the Police Department was increased, system safety would
suffer without the Station Agents.

Mr. Walder has also brushed aside proposed compromises to enhance subway
safety while cutting costs. such as replacing MTA clerks with contracted
security guards. While a private force would require some spending,
advocates argue, it would be cheaper than having Station Agents on MTA
staff because the agency wouldn't be responsible for burdensome pension,
health-care and Workers' Compensation liabilities.

"There's no thought of going to a privatized force to do that," Mr.
Walder said.

Mr. Walder has also come under fire for hiring Diana Jones Ritter, the
former Commissioner of the state's Office of Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities, to act as the MTA's cost-cutting czar.
Critics charge that her old agency was riddled with fiscal
inefficiencies, and that it was disingenuous for the MTA to lay off
front-line workers in the name of cost-control while it hired high-level
managers like Ms. Ritter, whose salary is more than $200,000.

'She'll Save More Than $10M'

"That position will be in charge of saving over $10 million for the
company," Mr. Walder said. "I think the fact she's been running a huge,
sprawling bureaucracy, she's had a track record of success in doing it,
is something that attracted [us to] this position. She's a solid,
qualified public servant."

In addition to using the stimulus money, transit groups are pushing
Congress to pass a mass-transit funding bill that would allocate $350
million for tri-state systems. Transportation Alternatives and the
Straphangers Campaign have also vowed to rally against state lawmakers
who are up for re-election this year whom the groups believe have
impeded efforts in Albany to create new revenue streams for the agency.