Cuomo, Who Says He Doesn't Control The MTA, Just Got State Law Changed To Put His Budget Director, Who Thinks Cuomo Should Have More Control Over The MTA, On The MTA Board

Robert Mujica, Governor Cuomo's budget director, and also his new appointee on the MTA Board

At the end of the legislative session, New York State legislators and Governor Andrew Cuomo craft a “Frankenbill” or “Big Ugly”, crammed with miscellaneous tweaks and spending measures. This year’s productive session meant it was smaller than year’s past—more of a “Slim Ugly”—but Governor Cuomo was able slip in language that would, by default (“Ex officio”), make the state’s budget director an MTA board member.

What this means is Robert Mujica, a governor appointee, who doesn’t live in the MTA’s service area (which under normal circumstances would make him ineligible for the position), and with barely a public hearing (there was a confirmation hearing Wednesday, although it wasn't to discuss a change in the law), will have a seat on the board of the state transit agency the governor said he wanted to blow up.

That puts him in the unusual position of both voting on MTA contracts as well as ensuring at the state level that the MTA gets the money its leaders ask for.

“We believe it is inherently impossible for the state’s budget director, who must sign-off on numerous MTA contract and aid agreements, to fulfill his fiduciary duty as an MTA board member,” Rachael Fauss, with the watchdog group Reinvent Albany, wrote in a statement.

While Cuomo has done his darndest over the years to gaslight the public into believing that he’s not in charge of what happens at the highest levels at the MTA, he’s also been signaling that now he’s ready to be in charge and in fact willing to remove any decision-making powers from the board.

And after arguing that the MTA structure was so convoluted no one could possibly be held to account for anything, he now has a current member of his office sitting on the board, making it increasingly difficult to keep blaming the board for the MTA’s shortcomings.

“As budget director, it's totally correct that he should be on the MTA board because it's a state-subsidized authority,” Cuomo said on WAMC Thursday. “I would put his experience with the MTA against anyone's on a personal or—and on a professional level, no one can compare to what he knows about the MTA.”

In a Senate confirmation hearing, which is where typical nominations are discussed and voted, Mujica proved his loyalty. “The board runs the MTA,” he said. “The governor doesn't run the MTA.”

As for the conflict of interest, Mujica pointed to other appointees who “sailed” through the confirmation process, including two first deputy mayors, a New York City budget director, and current Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. None of these people were responsible for overseeing the implementation of the state budget; they all also lived in the area served by the transit system.

“We’ve confirmed them without any questions,” Mujica argued. “Those instances are very similar to this nomination that is here today,” he said, referring to himself.

Reinvent Albany pointed to several potential conflicts of interest in having a state budget director on the board:

1. He will decide whether to continue withholding the $7.3 billion dollars in state capital pledged in the 2016 budget to the 2015-2019 capital plan (Mujica said Wednesday the MTA was too slow to spend this money).
2. He is in a position to approve waivers from the MTA if it chooses to not use a design-build contract for projects that cost more than $25 billion dollars.
3. He can determine the MTA’s debt issuance charges or can issue a waiver.
4. He can approve legislative earmarks for the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital funds.

Other potential conflicts of interest could arise from the numerous other boards that Mujica sits on as an ex-officio member. In fact, he told senators he’s on so many boards he can’t remember the exact number, although he usually sends a designee to meetings in his stead.

He said that won’t be the case for the MTA and that he will attend meetings in person and be very “hands on.”

“The law has required MTA Board members to be from the MTA service region for a good reason: they should rely on the system they oversee,” Nick Sifuentes, executive director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign, wrote in a statement. “There are plenty of qualified, diverse candidates in the MTA region who are actual transit users. They should be considered, too.”

Before the final vote on Mujica, State Senator Liz Krueger, who voted “aye” without recommendation for Mujica (essentially approving him), recalled this statement he made in January, which called for giving the governor more power over the MTA.

“I think at least we should recognize that if we move Mr. Mujica forward, that’s exactly what we will be doing and just admit that that’s what we’re doing,” she said.

The only one of 23 senators to vote no in the Transportation Committee was Gustavo Rivera.

Several current MTA board members were contacted for comment, but declined.

The governor’s office did not answer questions about why they’re inserting the change of law into a spending bill at the end of the legislative session, why the issue of changing the law didn’t come up for a public hearing, or how Mujica will avoid conflicts of interest as both a budget director and MTA board member.

The office also didn’t answer how Mujica, who lives in Columbia County, just south of Albany, will get to the MTA board meetings, which is either a three-hour drive or a nearly three-hour Amtrak ride away.

Stephen Nessen is the transportation reporter for WNYC. You can follow him on Twitter @s_nessen.

We the Commuters is a weekly newsletter about transportation from WNYC and Gothamist. Sign up below for essential commuting coverage delivered to your inbox every Thursday.