The former boss of incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng defended his record on overtime at Long Island Rail Road, stating that this spending, which had been “out of control” there for decades, went down each year Eng was in charge.
Patrick Foye, president and then CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 2017 to August 2021, said getting a handle on excessive overtime wasn’t easy, but Eng made it a priority, even keeping numbers down in the midst of major capital projects at the Long Island Rail Road.
Eng, who starts his new position at the MBTA on Monday, chose not to fill non-essential vacant positions, tightened management procedures, and directed the LIRR’s then-chief operating officer to focus on the issue, following years of rampant overtime abuse and pension fraud there, Foye said.
“Overtime was excessive and out of control,” Foye told the Herald. “It was a significant matter for the Long Island Rail Road and the other MTA agencies, and I think Phil, the proof is in the pudding I guess, as they say. He got the number down every year. And he focused on it and he got the results.”
Foye’s remarks came after criticism from watchdog Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, who told the Herald this week that LIRR’s failure to get a handle on its payroll spending in past years should have served as a “warning sign” for Gov. Maura Healey when choosing Eng, its former president, as the next MBTA general manager.
“I think what’s interesting is that Gov. Maura Healey picked someone that comes from a railroad system that clearly has incredible problems with costs and efficiency, to the point that it is the poster child of an agency that’s doing it wrong,” Craney said, adding that the public can expect more of the same inefficiencies when Eng takes the helm in Boston.
Soaring payroll costs are also a major problem at the MBTA, where it’s not uncommon for employees to make significantly more in overtime than their base salaries, according to data from the state comptroller’s office.
However, Foye said the long-standing problems that have plagued LIRR, including the massive disability fraud first highlighted there by the New York Times in 2008, preceded Eng’s tenure, which lasted from 2018 until his retirement in March 2022.
“Employees and disability doctors pled guilty or went to trial and there hasn’t been, as I understand it, a repeat of that wrongdoing,” Foye said.
He pointed to year-over-year reductions in overtime spending at LIRR during Eng’s tenure, stating that the improvements exceeded what was seen at other MTA agencies. In 2021, for example, overtime was down $14 million at LIRR, but increased by $47 million at New York City Transit.
Overtime costs dipped from $219 million in 2018 to $174 million at LIRR in 2021, according to an MTA annual overtime report from April 2022.
Despite the dip, the highest OT earner at MTA in 2021 was an LIRR employee, a machinist federal inspector who took in $224,526 worth of overtime, far outpacing his base salary of $75,752, according to payroll data on public transparency site Empire Center.
When Eng starts his new position on Monday, he’ll be tasked with turning around a transit agency faced with a number of significant challenges. Prolonged safety concerns prompted a rare federal investigation last year and, more recently, led to a 25 mph speed restriction throughout the entire MBTA subway system in March.
Foye said he’s not intimately familiar with the challenges facing the MBTA, but given the problems Eng faced at LIRR when he took over as president — such as “unacceptable” on-time performance and high overtime — he expects he’ll be up to the task of addressing similar concerns in Boston.
“I’ve worked with him in various capacities for years, and he’s a really good problem solver,” Foye said. “He will motivate his folks. He leads by example and he’s just a very, very talented manager and leader. The proof of that is the results he got at Long Island Rail Road under challenging circumstances.”