So Sarah Feinberg, the new interim president of NYC Transit, is learning all sorts of things.
First, how is the organization structured? No one knows! Though they all know a guy.
Some managers maintain a chart of their own employees, but there is no unified document for the whole agency, Feinberg said.
That chart would serve as a sort of Rosetta Stone for the massive bureaucracy, and she said it’s necessary in order to find ways to save money.
Still, some MTA sources said an org chart might further complicate the agency because so much of its work runs on personal relationships.
She has thoughts on this!
There are people who do not work here who we are paying,” said Feinberg. “It’s crazy ... I absolutely believe there are a lot of people wandering around and no one knows who they report to.
She is also a woman of my own organizational heart.
Feinberg expressed a distaste for many MTA consultants — and said she does not need them in order to find ways to cut costs or build out her master org chart.
And this dysfunction is literally killing people.
The lack of organization at the MTA has also hampered transit officials’ efforts to do in-house contact tracing among employees who may have been exposed to COVID-19. The disease has killed at least 131 agency employees.
The agency has no phone number or email address on file for thousands of its workers, Feinberg said. Officials have mulled giving every single worker an MTA email account, but found that it would cost $3 million annually.
It really is just a matter of time until everyone on a subway train dies in a crash.