The Point: Ins and outs of the MTA board
Kevin Law, the former head of the Long Island Association who has served on the MTA board for three years, has been nominated as the next chairman of Empire State Development. Credit: Hans Pennink
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board already looked a bit different at Wednesday’s monthly meeting — but more changes likely are still to come.
Wednesday marked the first board meeting without Larry Schwartz, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s controversial appointee who resigned last month, and the first board meeting for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s first appointee, Elizabeth Velez, who heads a construction firm.
But Wednesday also signified a "last" — the last board meeting for Suffolk County representative Kevin Law, the former head of the Long Island Association who has served on the MTA board for three years.
Hochul has nominated Law as the next chairman of Empire State Development and his confirmation hearing is expected to take place next week. Law has said for months that once confirmed, he would step down from the MTA.
In a short farewell Wednesday, Law applauded the board, the MTA’s professional staff and the workers on the subways, buses and commuter rails. And he made two specific requests. One, he said, was "parochial" — to get the Long Island Rail Road’s new Yaphank station and the electrification of the Port Jefferson line done. The other, he said, was a "systemwide" concern — the need to continue addressing and investing in accessibility.
And Law didn’t leave without a small joke about how his outgoing and incoming jobs converge.
"And finally, I want to be invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony for the third track and East Side Access later this year," Law said with a smile. "Because remember, at ESD we play a big role at Penn Station and you guys don’t want to have any issues there, right?"
No word yet from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on whom he plans to recommend to replace Law. The county executive usually provides three potential candidates, leaving the governor to choose to nominate one, who then must be confirmed by the State Senate.
And Hochul herself hasn’t yet nominated anyone to fill Schwartz’s seat, either.
But those two spots aren’t the only ones that might sit empty — or be filled by holdovers — in the coming months. MTA board members’ terms now end with the term of the elected official who chose them. That leaves Nassau representative David Mack’s term up, as well — though new Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has said he hopes to keep Mack on the board.
And then there are the four members recommended by the New York City mayor, whose terms expired at the end of 2021. That leaves the future tenure of board members Victor Calise, Lorraine Cortez-Vazquez, David Jones and Robert Linn up in the air.
Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this month that he has "several names" he’s considering, adding that he hopes his picks will be regular subway and bus riders.
But so far, Adams, like Bellone and Blakeman, hasn’t indicated when he might officially make such recommendations.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
