Dellaverson MTA's Chief Fiscal Officer;

Negotiator Steps Up
Dellaverson MTA's Chief Fiscal Officer


Gary J. Dellaverson, the top labor negotiator for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority since 1990, has been named Chief Financial Officer for the agency.

GARY DELLAVERSON: Leaving Toussaint behind. According to an MTA spokesman, Mr. Dellaverson will no longer be involved with labor negotiations with Transport Workers' Union Local 100 or any of the other unions the agency deals with.

The MTA plans an extensive search to find "the right person for the job," the official said.

Tough Times Ahead

In a memo announcing the change, MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander said the agency was facing enormous fiscal challenges. It's projecting an $800 million deficit next year.

Mr. Sander said Mr. Dellaverson accepted the CFO position to help the agency better confront the future.

"Gary will focus his attention on our efforts to leverage efficiencies through internal consolidation and corporate restructuring while also assuming responsibility for our treasury, financing and budgets, and financial management functions," Mr. Sander wrote.

He added that Mr. Dellaverson's "extensive" experience at the MTA would help the agency find fruitful areas for savings.

Worthy Foe for Toussaint

Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who had a tense relationship with the low-key but flinty Mr. Dellaverson, through a spokesman declined to comment. Mr. Toussaint has faced Mr. Dellaverson across the bargaining table while negotiating both of the contracts he's obtained for Local 100 members since being elected in 2000. The most recent pact was finally settled in arbitration after a bitter and protracted dispute erupted between the labor leader and MTA management leading up to the December 2005 strike and continuing the membership's initial rejection of the contract terms.

'Time for New Direction'

Mr. Sander said that while Mr. Dellaverson's departure from the Office of Labor Relations might cause some temporary disruption, "I think this will be an excellent opportunity for establishing a new direction in our employee relations function consistent with my vision of a new partnership with labor."

Before coming to the MTA, Mr. Dellaverson dealt with another militant union with a taste for street protests as Deputy Fire Commissioner for Administration at a time when the Koch administration infuriated the Uniformed Firefighters' Association by closing a Brooklyn firehouse and giving the Police Department the primary role in most emergency response situations. Prior to that, he was a ranking official in the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations.