An assistant general superintendent at an MTA bus depot in East New York put together a nifty scheme to avoid paying tolls on bridge and tunnel crossings, according to the Office of the MTA’s Inspector General: Driving with no front license plate on his gray Nissan Sentra, he used three different E-Z Pass accounts and changed his rear license plate multiple times, as well as covered it with a “cloudy semi-clear plastic,” in an effort to avoid paying mounting tolls and late fees going back to 2011.
He even allegedly bragged about it to co-workers.
He might’ve gotten away with it too, if not for an anonymous complaint sent to the MTA Inspector General’s office. On Monday, the OIG’s office released the findings of a months-long investigation into the superintendent’s schemings.
Over a seven-month period, the OIG noted that MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels were unable to record his vehicle 11 times, due to the covered license plate. This is the same agency that will be running the congestion pricing program to charge drivers in Manhattan below 60th Street, raising questions about how it will enforce scofflaws that may try to evade tolls, when even employees at its own agency are already doing it.
The investigations found the owner of the car, who went unnamed in the report owed $8,470 to the three regional tolling agencies, the MTA, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York State Thruway Authority, dating from 2011 until March 2021. He also owed $95,800 in penalty fees.
The OIG report alleges under questioning by her office, the superintendent lied about his actions.
No license plate on the front of the car
“This reprehensible conduct is an alleged violation of public trust that has no place at the MTA,” MTA spokesperson Michael Cortez wrote in a statement. “Our Bridge and Tunnel officers regularly stop vehicles with fake and obscured license plates, regardless of who is perpetrating the theft of public funds.”
Cars in New York are required to have front and rear license plates. The worker told the OIG that he covered his rear plates to protect them from peeling in bad weather.
While typically a vehicle that owes more than $200 in unpaid tolls could have their registration suspended, this driver changed the vehicle’s plates four times since 2017 alone. When the OIG asked the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels department why it did not pursue the driver and seek to suspend the registration, the agency answered that the charges were on the old plates, not the current ones.
Additionally, the MTA could have hired a collection agency to retrieve the money it was owed. As of March 2021, the superintendent still owed the MTA and Thruway $59,000. But the agency told the MTA that wasn’t enough to seek outside help. The OIG’s report noted the MTA said that “civil actions are taken on only limited number of accounts due to time and resource considerations.”
In May this year, when the MTA learned about the OIG’s findings, it suspended the Assistant General Superintendent for 12 weeks.
During arbitration this August, it found he was “culpable for serious misconduct” and was demoted to Superintendent, and the 12-week suspension was determined to be without pay, which is estimated as a loss of $35,592 to the worker.
As for the money owed to the MTA in unpaid tolls and fees, he agreed to pay just $10,373.
The New York State Thruway said it couldn’t comment because the report doesn’t name the driver and that it would be a violation of privacy to comment anyway. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are also seeking to collect, but haven't provided an update.
