MTA Continues to Jettison Monthly Public Meetings One Year Into Pandemic

Like so many people and organizations, the MTA has been conducting its monthly board meetings remotely during the pandemic, with just a few senior staff members physically present at MTA Headquarters in Lower Manhattan. And in addition to curtailing subway service, the MTA also jettisoned one of its lengthy, but often revealing, public committee meetings.

Those meetings, in which the heads of the Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, Subways and buses, as well as other groups dedicated to finance and capital programs, offered a brief glimpse into the decision-making process at an agency not known for transparency.

Now a year into the pandemic, and 13 board meetings later, MTA board members and activists say it’s time for the agency to bring those committee meetings back. They say the MTA is missing an opportunity to receive feedback from the public, which could help influence leadership. And the public is missing out on critical information about what is happening at the MTA and the way money is spent.

“Particularly at a time where such crucial decisions are being made about how to spend federal stimulus money and what to prioritize in the capital plan, the MTA should be making strides towards more transparency to build back public trust,” Jaqi Cohen Director, Straphangers Campaign at New York Public Interest Research Group, wrote to Gothamist/WNYC.

It’s not just activists, board members have been asking senior leadership for several months now to bring those meetings back

“Issues can be much more thoroughly discussed at separate committee meetings. The operating agencies have their staff present to answer any and all questions at committee meetings,” board member Andrew Albert wrote to Gothamist/WNYC.

Lisa Daglian, who represents riders on the MTA board as the Executive Director of the

Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA says more meetings would benefit the public and be good for the MTA’s image, at a time when there’s been a lot of news about increased crime in subways, as well as unfounded fears about COVID-19 being spread on mass transit.

“Now is the time the public needs to be assured that transit is safe. The MTA is doing some excellent work introducing technological innovations to respond to the health risks borne by COVID-19 and other airborne diseases, but without Committee meetings and with stunted Board meetings they don't have the ability to tell the full story,” Daglian wrote to Gothamist/ WNYC.

Jason Anthony, a frequent public speaker at MTA board meetings, known to both excoriate and lavish praise on MTA leadership, said he missed that opportunity to speak directly to those in charge. He says the current, one-day condensed committee and board meeting, which can stretch on for over three hours, still isn’t enough time.

“We can't discuss what we could do in a whole day being in committees hearings,” Anthony wrote in an email.

“Shortened condensed meetings might have made sense at the beginning of the pandemic, but it’s time to think about how to return to the past levels of transparency that we had, if not increasing transparency given the enormous challenges the MTA has right now,” Rachael Fauss, with the good government group Reinvent Albany, told Gothamist/WNYC.

Committee meetings were a time when activists, particularly those pushing for increased accessibility, could direct their comments to the agencies at the MTA that were most responsible for doing the work.

"Just the loss of the public speaking period alone means board members don't hear as much from the public, are less informed and more prone to listening only to MTA staff, which is already a problem," Joseph G. Rappaport Executive Director, Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, a frequent commentator at MTA board meetings, wrote in a statement.

The MTA, for its part, said it’s not changing course, this month anyhow.

"The COVID-19 pandemic forced us for safety reasons to hold our monthly board meetings online, which has included 30 minutes of public comment as required by law,” MTA spokesperson Meredith Daniels wrote in a statement. “We will continue to evaluate the situation moving forward, including committee meetings and when to begin in-person meetings again."