As much as I believe Jay Walder has done an admirable job in adverse conditions as the head of the MTA, his departure came as a disappointment last week. As I said in my coverage of the resignation, he is leaving midstream, before his job is done and with many obstacles still in the path. Perhaps he couldn’t resist taking a lucrative job in Hong Kong; perhaps he was fed up with dealing with Albany and folks like Lee Zeldin; perhaps he was sick of it all. But the bottom line is that he’s quitting barely a third of the way through his promised tenure.
While Walder deserves some praise for reexamining the way the MTA works, he certainly doesn’t for walking out, and that’s what Nicole Gelinas and Pete Donohue say today. In The Daily News, Donohue seems to be more annoyed that Walder ruined a good story, but the real problem is that he’s departing with labor contracts expiring, a hole in the capital plan and many projects in progress.
Gelinas, meanwhile, lays into Walder: “He didn’t achieve all that much to justify the quick departure. Much of those improvements that we see now, including the countdown clocks and the consolidation of back offices, are the fruit of efforts that started long before his arrival. As for fiscal stability: Sorry, but it would take more time to make sure his cost-cutting sticks.” With December’s snow emergency fresh in everyone’s minds, Walder’s negatives, she says, may balance out the positives, and “isn’t sticking around long enough to get his hands dirty in negotiating a tough labor contract.” Hopefully, the next MTA CEO can tough it out for the full tenure of his deal. A fifth CEO in six years isn’t good for even the best of businesses.
Leave a Reply