FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 23, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 37
letters & comments
NOT SHOCKED BY LIRR
OVERTIME WOES
LIRR employee overtime and pension
abuse has been going on for years.
It has been repeatedly documented by
internal MTA, Offi ce of MTA Inspector
General, State Comptroller, Citizens
Budget Commission, Empire Center for
Public Policy audits and reports, along
with numerous newspaper stories.
Governor Andrew Cuomo and his
appointed MTA Chairman Patrick
Foye and MTA Finance Committee
Chairperson Larry Schwartz recent
outrages on this issue remind me of
Captain Renault from “Casablanca,”
who said, “I’m shocked — shocked
— to find that gambling is going on,”
while at the same time collecting his
winnings.
Union leadership has out-negotiated
management at contract renewal time
for decades. It is evident that MTA &
LIRR do not have an up-to-date payroll
system which would flag such abuses.
Supervisors who routinely sign off on
overtime work hour abuses by employees
need to be held accountable.
At the upcoming contract negotiations,
will the MTA insist that future
union contracts include more flexible
work assignments and reduce salary
increases? What about contracting out
more work to the private sector or hiring
part time employees? Will they ask
employees to increase their contributions
toward medical coverage (LIRR
non-union workers only have to contribute
2 percent) for medical insurance
and retirement pensions?
Why have Governor Cuomo,
Comptroller DiNapoli, state Senate
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart
Cousins, state Assembly Speaker Carl
Heastie and most of their colleagues
not signed on and endorsed legislation
submitted by Assemblyman Michael
Fitzpatrick that would prohibit overtime
payments from being factored
into a retiree’s pension calculations?
You could also use the federal
employee civil service model. Federal
employee civil service retirement pension
calculations are based upon the
average past three years’ salary prior to
retirement. It doesn’t include overtime.
Without these changes, it will continue
to be the status quo.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
YES, YOU CAN INDICT
THE PRESIDENT
Th e concept that “a sitting president
cannot be indicted” is a “policy” in the
Department of Justice that has been in
eff ect since the 1970s. It is not a rule in the
U.S. Constitution, nor is it a Congressional
or statutory edict.
If this issue were ever adjudicated in the
federal court system, the “no indictment”
side would certainly lose. Th e courts
allowed President Clinton to be sued civilly
by Paula Jones back in 1994, and the
suit took many months of his time.
Robert Vogel, Bayside
TOTALLY AGAINST
BIKE LANES
I am an environmentalist, I do my best
to recycle and limit my water use. All this
talk about creating bicycle lanes here in
the city is just not feasible.
We are a crowded city and comparing
us to other countries that have bicycle
lanes is ridiculous. All the renderings
are showing people riding bicycles with
no cars around.
I drive where there are bicycle lanes and
where you can rent bicycles, and I hardly
see anyone riding or renting a bicycle; just
bicycles taking up parking spaces.
For all the elected offi cials that are proponents
for bicycle lanes, let’s see pictures
of them riding when it is raining or the
streets are full of snow.
Maria, last name withheld, Queens
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Th e views expressed in all letters and
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SWIMMING DUCKS IN BOWNE PARK // PHOTO SUBMITTED BY LISA KEST-FEIN
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