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Joe Lhota resigned as President of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the latest in a series of resignations from the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as he prepares for a third term.
Fernando Ferrer, the current vice president of the MTA, will take the reins of the board of directors of the authority and will lead its meeting on Thursday, announced a state official.
Mr. Lhota, 64, was named president of the authority last year because of growing delays in the New York subway. But he accepted the assignment on a part-time basis, retaining his position as chief of staff at NYU Langone Health and delegating most of the day-to-day activities of authority to President Patrick Foye and Executive Director Véronique Hakim.
In a statement, Mr. Lhota stated that he had taken the position for the sole purpose of stopping the decline of the service and stabilizing the system for my fellow New Yorkers. He touted an emergency repair program of $ 800 million that he had developed the first month as well as a new management team that he put in place.
In September, the total number of train delays fell to the lowest point since February 2016, Lhota said. "There is still a lot of work to do to achieve the performance that New Yorkers demand and deserve," he said.
The state official said the governor's team and the MTA would immediately start looking for a new president. The search comes at a crucial time in the administration of Mr. Cuomo: the commissioners of three state agencies have this week to leave their post and other departures are expected.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Lhota had considered resigning earlier in his term, as journalists and government advocacy groups began to ask questions about potential conflicts over the supervision of the government. Authority by its outside activities. Mr. Lhota denied that.
Mr. Lhota received $ 1.6 million in hospital benefits in 2017 for lobbying duties, and $ 160,000 in Madison Square Garden's proprietary company, located at the top of Penn Station, a plaque. rotating subway and suburban trains.
A spokesman for the MTA said Mr. Lhota had never taken the dollar a year he had been offered for the post of president.
Surveillance groups such as Common Cause New York filed complaints with state ethics agencies, but they resulted in no action against Mr. Lhota. Mr. Lhota stated that his work as a daily employee of the MTA allowed him to occupy external positions.
Paul Berger contributed to this article.
Write to Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
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