American Dream

August 27, 2005
Transit Leader to Pay Fine in Ethics Case
By SEWELL CHAN

Quotes:

The president of New York City Transit, Lawrence G. Reuter, has admitted that he accepted $633 in improper gifts, including golf outings and circus tickets, from companies that do business with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the State Ethics Commission announced yesterday.

Mr. Reuter has agreed to pay a $1,200 fine to settle ethics charges filed by the commission.

While the value of the gifts was small, the charges are an embarrassment for Mr. Reuter, who has supervised the city's subways and buses since 1996. He is the highest-ranking official to be implicated in a recent series of investigations that have highlighted close relationships between the authority and its contractors.

Mr. Reuter, 54, is one of the most visible officials at the authority as the leader of its largest subsidiary.

His tenure as president - the longest of any since New York City Transit was created in 1953 - has been generally considered a
success. Subway service is far more reliable than a decade ago, scores of stations have been rehabilitated, and ridership is at its highest in decades.

But Mr. Reuter has been seen as less effective in communicating with the public. His efforts to remove conductors from trains and to reassign token-booth clerks to walk around and assist riders have met with resistance. After a fire in January crippled two subway lines for nearly two weeks, Mr. Reuter publicly apologized for having overestimated how long it would take to
restore service.

From October 2000 to September 2002, according to the commission, Mr. Reuter accepted a total of five gifts from Atlantic
Detroit Diesel-Allison of Lodi, N.J., which sells and repairs engines and transmissions, and from Motor Coach Industries, a manufacturer of coach buses, based in Schaumburg, Ill. The office of the authority's inspector general, Matthew D. Sansverie, uncovered the gifts through an investigation.

The gifts were a golf outing and lunch at the Roxiticus Golf Club in Mendham, N.J., worth $110; a dinner at a Morton's steakhouse in Washington, worth $112; a golf outing at the Wilds Golf Club in Prior Lake, Minn., worth $77; and food from Lawry's The Prime
Rib, a restaurant in Las Vegas, worth $154. Mr. Reuter also accepted tickets worth $180 for himself, his wife and his son to a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. (A sixth gift - another outing at the Roxiticus Golf Club - was worth only $50, less
than the $75 threshold for action by the State Ethics Commission.)

Mr. Reuter received the gifts either on his own time or when he was on official business, said Tom Kelly, an authority spokesman.
He was in Las Ve gas in September 2002 for a meeting of the American Public Transportation Association.

Mr. Reuter signed a settlement with the commission on Aug. 11. He gave complete cooperation and "settled the matter in order to put it to rest and to move on," according to a statement by his private lawyer, Steven M. Polan.

"These activities did not affect in any way, shape or form the business of New York City Transit, but could nevertheless be construed as violations," said Mr. Polan, who was the authority's general counsel from 1984 to 1990. "These incidents all occurred three or more years ago and do not reflect Mr. Reuter's current practice, nor are they consistent with current agency policy."

* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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Comments:
There is a question that I'd love to ask Mr. Reuter or his attorney, Mr. Polan.

Did Mr. Reuter ride a NJ Transit bus or train to get to the golf outing and lunch at the Roxiticus Golf Club?