MTA supervisor, subordinate disciplined for abandoning posts, sometimes during romantic meetings

An MTA maintenance supervisor and his track worker subordinate have been sanctioned after an investigation uncovered an inappropriate romantic relationship in which the two abandoned their posts while on duty at a subway maintenance facility in Brooklyn, officials said Monday.

The MTA Office of the Inspector General did not name either of the employees involved, identifying them only by their job descriptions.

As a result of the investigation, which began in March 2023, the supervisor was demoted from the position of maintenance supervisor II to maintenance supervisor I, while the track worker was docked pay during a 2024 suspension that ran from June 27 to Dec. 16.

In a statement issued with the report, MTA Inspector General Daniel G. Cort said: "MTA supervisors are expected to lead by example, not teach their subordinates to violate the rules and go off site together while on the clock. This case should send a clear message that my office will relentlessly pursue unethical conduct and blatant mismanagement day and night."

Officials said the supervisor was hired by NYC Transit as a track worker in June 2006 and received a promotion to a Level I supervisor in 2011 and to a Level II supervisor in November 2014.

He has been stationed at the DeKalb Avenue Station Headquarters since April 2021, where officials said his job duties included conducting track inspections, performing maintenance, clearing complaints and a variety of other supervisory duties related to assignments, monitoring and paperwork.

The track worker, meanwhile, was hired by NYC Transit in 2011 and has been at DeKalb for about two years, officials said. Her duties include flagging to warn workers of approaching trains while conducting maintenance duties.

Following an anonymous allegation received by the Office of the MTA Inspector General, investigators "observed" the two employees" sitting in one of their personal vehicles or running personal errands" during five of six overnight shifts. These instances included the two "either parked on a secluded street" or running errands that included "doing laundry," the report said.

"On one occasion, investigators observed the MSII and the Trackworker drive away together from DeKalb Station in a car registered to the Trackworker, park outside of a laundromat located outside of their work zone and enter the laundromat.

  "In total, they remained at the location of the laundromat for approximately an hour and 20 minutes," the report said. "On two other occasions, the MSII and the Trackworker were observed together in a parked car registered to the Trackworker, on a quiet and secluded street, with a sunshade up in the front windshield (despite it being nighttime), for approximately three hours on one occasion and approximately one hour on the other."

A review of payroll records and assignment sheets showed the two were signed in and paid for being on-duty despite the fact they were not at their assigned jobs.

The investigation also found the supervisor assigned the trackworker's shifts, arranging them so the pair could work shifts together.

In its investigation summary, the supervisor said he and the track worker sometimes "sat in the vehicle and talked," but said he didn't know the conduct was inappropriate.

He said the track worker was "one of [his] best friends" and admitted that at one point they had been involved in a romantic relationship. Though both the supervisor and the subordinate said they'd never considered themselves to be a couple, the investigation said that when asked if the two had been intimate while together in their parked cars, the track worker told investigators "they were physically close and touched."

Both employees acknowledged their "improper" behavior and expressed "remorse," the report said.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”