NYC Transit supervisor who used fake placards suspended, demoted

A New York City Transit supervisor who displayed fake placards he made on his home computer in order to park his personal cars while at work was suspended without pay and demoted back to track worker, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's inspector general’s office.

He’ll be permanently barred from promotion, the office wrote in a news release Thursday.

Following an anonymous tip to the authorities, the supervisor — who, as a transit employee, gets free subway and bus transportation — was caught parking with the permits at least three times, the release said, including at least once in a "no standing" zone and illegally.

"This Superintendent’s use of a fake parking placard demonstrated a lack of honesty and integrity that does not befit someone in a supervisory role," the inspector general, Daniel Cort, said in the news release.

The agency does not issue such parking permits to its employees, according to the release.

The superintendent was identified via an open-records request to the MTA as Leon Bipat. Messages left at phone numbers listed for Bipat were not returned.

Public sector workers, including MTA employees, regularly park illegally and are sometimes are not punished, towed or ticketed, Newsday has reported.

A report in 2024 by the city's Department of Investigation found that the NYPD routinely ignores parking permit abuse.

Labor unions distribute parking placards that carry no force of law and grant no special parking privileges, but police officers and NYPD traffic agents sometimes decline to issue summonses as required, the report found. Drivers also display union-themed calendars, fluorescent vests and even toys to secure free parking privileges that aren’t available to the public, according to photos and video posted to the @placardabuse X account.

The case of the supervisor originated from a tip, the release said.

"He first claimed that he found the placard template document among ‘papers laying around’ in an office building where he did some cleaning work as part of his paid side business, for which he did not receive outside work permission from the MTA," the release said.

He later told the inspector general’s office "that he found the template when a bag ripped open while taking out the trash and that paper happened to fall out."

He made the placards on his home computer years before the investigation, according to the inspector general's office.

He parked near the MTA's headquarters in lower Manhattan and near job sites, the investigation found.

The supervisor, hired in 2007 as a track worker, was later promoted to supervisor and then superintendent, where he was tasked with doing safety audits and drafting inspection reports tracking compliance, the inspector general's report says.

Asked whether the case had been referred for criminal prosecution, Eric Lenkowitz, a spokesman for the inspector general, did not directly say yes or no, but said that the office routinely has discussions with prosecutors but, "Not all cases with the appearance of criminality are appropriate for prosecution."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.