Asides

In the aftermath of the December snow storm that left the New York City subways paralyzed, Transit has shaken up its subway management structure, the Daily News reported yesterday. The line managers will have even less say over day-to-day deployment as Transit attempts to centralize its command structure. “We were seeing some breakdown in coordination and the pinnacle of that inefficiency was the December snowstorm,” Tom Prendergast, Transit president, said.

According to Pete Donohue, the reorganization, to be announced today, will complete a year-long effort to eliminate the line manager program. “Supporters of the Line General Managers Program said privately they were being scapegoated for blizzard response problems when top brass failed to sound the highest-level alert in time,” he wrote.

Rider advocates said they were sad to see the line manager program go. In a way, it helped give a face to the massive MTA bureaucracy. Instead, adding a layer of management to a management-heavy organization never seemed to attain that potential. “I am sorry to see them go,” Gene Russianoff said. “I thought there was lots of potential for competition among the subway lines, and it was great having a name, face and contact info of a human being in charge of a line.”

Ilya Klyauzov, 57 and the first MTA worker to face criminal charges in the ongoing signalgate investigation, has pled not guilty to charges of tampering with public records and official misconduct. MTA investigators found photocopied signal bar codes in Klyauzov’s locker following a raid on an MTA workroom earlier this year, but the signal inspector claims he is being scapegoated. “We’re going to beat them; don’t worry,” he said to reporters this morning.

Kylauzov is the first of what should be many to face prosecution for this ongoing scandal. According to Transit investigators (and per The Daily News), he “falsely claimed in an NYC Transit division logbook that, on two different dates in December and January, the maintenance team he supervised completed inspections of 15 pieces of equipment along the No. 7 subway line…On another date, he is suspected of falsely reporting work on 20 subway relays.”

While Kylauzov’s lawyer denied the charges, District Attorney Cy Vance vowed to prosecute to the fullest extent allowed by law. “The defendant falsified the MTA’s records in an attempt to save himself from necessary work,” Vance said in a statement. “Crimes like these can lead to delays in service, or far worse. My Office will continue to work closely with the MTA Inspector General in order to ensure the safety of New York City commuters, whom we believe deserve much better.” If convicted, Kylauvoz could face up to seven years in prison.

Over the past few months, I’ve been following the tale of Michael Dion somewhat closely. In mid-December, Dion fell off the IRT platform at Union Square and found himself pinned between the gap-fillers and a 4 train for 30 minutes before rescue workers could free him. In January, he vowed to sue the MTA for $15 million. At the time, I noted how his sobriety would become a major issue in the case, and indeed it has.

As both The Post and Daily News note today, the initial police report and subsequent MTA assessment allege that Dion was visibly intoxicated. “Witnesses reported seeing him staggering about the platform while holding a can of Budweiser,” the report says. It also notes that the train operator “observed a Budweiser can beside Mr. Dion, and in his opinion, Mr. Dion appeared to be inebriated.”

Dion’s lawyer, of course, denies this charge and questioned again why the gap fillers have remained as unsafe as they were when first built over 100 years ago. The beer can, the lawyer claims, was placed near Dion by another passenger. “He was not slugging beer on the platform,” Jay Dankner, the lawyer, said. “He refutes anybody saying he was carrying an open can of beer in a bag or not on the platform.” Clearly, Dion’s sobriety or lack thereof will be a major issue of fact for the jury if and when this case reaches trial. A lot of money in damages could hinge on it.