Cuomo close to naming new MTA head

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday he is "days" away from naming a new head for the MTA, and sources close to the situation said a former New York City deputy mayor is a front-runner.

At a news conference, Cuomo said he would "have an announcement shortly." Sources said the governor will announce his pick early next week. The State Senate would then have to confirm Cuomo's choice, probably in January.

Joseph Lhota, 57, the former deputy mayor for operations under Rudy Giuliani, is one of the top candidates to become the next chairman and chief executive, sources said.

Also in the running is Tom Prendergast, 58, who heads the city's bus and subway system.

The current MTA chairman and chief executive, Jay Walder, is set to leave the MTA a week from Thursday to head Hong Kong's transit system, MTR Corp.

Lhota, a Republican, is currently the executive vice president of administration for The Madison Square Garden Company, a former subsidiary of Cablevision, the company that owns Newsday. In addition to serving Giuliani as a deputy mayor, he was also a budget director.

Prendergast took over as chief of New York City Transit in 2009 after a stint as chief executive of TransLink in Vancouver. He also served as president of the Long Island Rail Road from 1994 to 2000.

A state official Thursday confirmed that Lhota and Prendergast were on a list of six names under consideration, but denied there was a front-runner.

Other candidates, the official said, are Karen Rae, deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration; Daniel Grabauskas, former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; Nuria Fernandez, a former deputy administrator with the Federal Transit Administration; and Neil Peterson, who has run several West Coast transit systems.

"You look for a combination of two things: someone who knows transit, but also can deal with the unions and deal in a highly political environment," the state official said.

Gene Russianoff, staff attorney and spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, and Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, both sat on the search committee to find a successor to Walder. Neither would disclose their picks, but Russianoff confirmed they interviewed 11 candidates and narrowed them down to six.