The former boss of incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng defended his file on extra time at Long Island Rail Road, stating that this spending, which had been “out of control” there for many years, went down every year Eng was in cost.
Patrick Foye, president after which CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 2017 to August 2021, stated getting a deal with on extreme extra time wasn’t straightforward, however Eng made it a precedence, even maintaining numbers down within the midst of main capital tasks on the Long Island Rail Road.
Eng, who begins his new place on the MBTA on Monday, selected to not fill non-essential vacant positions, tightened administration procedures, and directed the LIRR’s then-chief working officer to concentrate on the problem, following years of rampant extra time abuse and pension fraud there, Foye stated.
“Overtime was excessive and out of control,” Foye informed the Herald. “It was a significant matter for the Long Island Rail Road and the other MTA agencies, and I think Phil, the proof is in the pudding I guess, as they say. He got the number down every year. And he focused on it and he got the results.”
Foye’s remarks got here after criticism from watchdog Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, who informed the Herald this week that LIRR’s failure to get a deal with on its payroll spending in previous years ought to have served as a “warning sign” for Gov. Maura Healey when selecting Eng, its former president, as the following MBTA normal supervisor.
“I think what’s interesting is that Gov. Maura Healey picked someone that comes from a railroad system that clearly has incredible problems with costs and efficiency, to the point that it is the poster child of an agency that’s doing it wrong,” Craney stated, including that the general public can anticipate extra of the identical inefficiencies when Eng takes the helm in Boston.
Soaring payroll prices are additionally a significant downside on the MBTA, the place it’s not unusual for workers to make considerably extra in extra time than their base salaries, based on knowledge from the state comptroller’s workplace.
However, Foye stated the long-standing issues which have plagued LIRR, together with the large incapacity fraud first highlighted there by the New York Times in 2008, preceded Eng’s tenure, which lasted from 2018 till his retirement in March 2022.
“Employees and disability doctors pled guilty or went to trial and there hasn’t been, as I understand it, a repeat of that wrongdoing,” Foye stated.
He pointed to year-over-year reductions in extra time spending at LIRR throughout Eng’s tenure, stating that the enhancements exceeded what was seen at different MTA businesses. In 2021, for instance, extra time was down $14 million at LIRR, however elevated by $47 million at New York City Transit.
Overtime prices dipped from $219 million in 2018 to $174 million at LIRR in 2021, based on an MTA annual extra time report from April 2022.
Despite the dip, the best OT earner at MTA in 2021 was an LIRR worker, a machinist federal inspector who took in $224,526 price of extra time, far outpacing his base wage of $75,752, based on payroll knowledge on public transparency website Empire Center.
When Eng begins his new place on Monday, he’ll be tasked with turning round a transit company confronted with plenty of important challenges. Prolonged security issues prompted a uncommon federal investigation final 12 months and, extra lately, led to a 25 mph velocity restriction all through all the MBTA subway system in March.
Foye stated he’s not intimately conversant in the challenges going through the MBTA, however given the issues Eng confronted at LIRR when he took over as president — equivalent to “unacceptable” on-time efficiency and excessive extra time — he expects he’ll be as much as the duty of addressing related issues in Boston.
“I’ve worked with him in various capacities for years, and he’s a really good problem solver,” Foye stated. “He will motivate his folks. He leads by example and he’s just a very, very talented manager and leader. The proof of that is the results he got at Long Island Rail Road under challenging circumstances.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”