{"id":254951,"date":"2021-05-20T23:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T20:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ex-mta-accessibility-czar-leaked-confidential-info-watchdog\/"},"modified":"2021-05-20T23:58:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T20:58:58","slug":"ex-mta-accessibility-czar-leaked-confidential-info-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ex-mta-accessibility-czar-leaked-confidential-info-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"#Ex-MTA accessibility czar leaked confidential info: watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Ex-MTA accessibility czar leaked confidential info: watchdog<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The former accessibility czar for New York City\u2019s subways and buses quit last year after violating ethics rules by giving an MTA contractor advance notice that its bid was going to be rejected \u2014 while firing off emails to transit officials imploring them to reconsider, the agency\u2019s inspector general<\/a> revealed Thursday.<\/p>\n

Alex Elegudin leaked the impending decision on Curb Mobility\u2019s bid to operate taxis for disabled New Yorkers to a company exec, Jason Gross, in August 2020 \u2014 at the same time the contract selection committee met to make its final call, informing him that Curb\u2019s bid was too expensive, IG Carolyn Pokorny said. <\/p>\n

Gross proceeded to call his designated contact on the committee, claiming he\u2019d accidentally submitted incorrect price figures. <\/p>\n

Elegudin, who was not on the selection committee, emailed \u201cseveral\u201d senior transit officials asking to reopen the request for proposals and allow companies to resubmit their final officers, the IG said \u2014 eventually calling Gross to inform him Curb \u201cwas out.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"People
Alex Elegudin told The Post that he \u201cmade a mistake. I\u2019m sorry about it.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat the hell? Do you not want MTA business anymore?\u201d he reportedly asked Gross.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not Procurement but if you have better prices, you should tell someone,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The committee unanimously agreed to reject Curb\u2019s bid 25 minutes later, the IG said.<\/p>\n

Elegudin \u2014 a recruit of former NYC Transit President Andy Byford after he joined the authority in June 2018 \u2014 later told Pokorny\u2019s investigators he \u201cfelt he had to do what was best for people with disabilities\u201d in attempting to intervene on Curb\u2019s behalf, according to the IG\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

He left the MTA on Nov. 1, before he could receive the official agency sanction \u2014 which the IG\u2019s office recommended be \u201cup to and including termination.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Elegudin had announced he had been hired to work in Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s office. The position was later rescinded, he told The Post.<\/p>\n

\"A
Alex Elegudin said he had \u201cgrave concern\u201d that the companies chosen instead of Curb had never worked with disabled customers.<\/figcaption>
AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The introduction of the Curb\u2019s app<\/a>-based reservation program in 2017 fueled increased interest in the MTA\u2019s Access-A-Ride program, which provides subsidized rides for disabled New Yorkers for the cost of a single subway trip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elegudin told The Post Thursday that he had \u201cgrave concern\u201d that the companies chosen instead of Curb had never worked with disabled customers and did not have enough wheelchair-accessible vehicles to meet demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a mistake. I\u2019m sorry about it. I\u2019ve learned from this. But I was advocating\u00a0for people with disabilities. My job was to be a disability advocate at the MTA. That\u2019s what I was doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately I crossed a line, but it had no impact on that result. They had finished their voting. Nothing changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"People
Alex Elegudin left the MTA on Nov. 1, before he could receive the official agency sanction.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cCurb was the one thing that had brought positive results for both sides,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was the one thing the MTA and disability community agreed on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the investigation, the MTA recommended Curb Mobility be added to the state\u2019s \u201cnon-responsible entities\u201d list, effectively barring it from holding government contracts in New York for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving an unfair advantage to anyone in the public procurement process is wrong, but it is especially egregious for an MTA executive and vendor to do so, in a way that potentially jeopardizes a critical paratransit initiative,\u201d Pokorny said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Elegudin \u201cwas breaking agency and New York State ethics policy by disclosing confidential information and trying to devise a way for a vendor, with whom he\u2019d had a long-term relationship with, to get a second bite at the apple,\u201d Pokorny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Transit\u2019s finding that the vendor was non-responsible, resulting in its exclusion from future MTA projects, sends a strong message to all vendors not to play game<\/a>s with the MTA.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTA officials ultimately reopened the bidding process for the accessible taxi program \u201cfor reasons unrelated to the OIG investigation,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Transit takes very seriously the integrity of the procurement process \u2013 which is why this was\u00a0referred to the Inspector General immedia<\/a>tely upon learning of the matter,\u201d MTA rep Meredith Daniels said in a statement. \u201cMr. Elegudin is no longer with the MTA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curb Mobility and a rep for Cuomo\u2019s office did not return requests for comment.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Ex-MTA accessibility czar leaked confidential info: watchdog” The former accessibility czar for New York City\u2019s subways and buses quit last year after violating ethics rules by giving an MTA contractor advance notice that its bid was going to be rejected \u2014 while firing off emails to transit officials imploring them to reconsider, the agency\u2019s inspector…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/alex-elegudin-001.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[106542,75699,71452,73237],"class_list":["post-254951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-20-21","tag-contracts","tag-mta","tag-nyc-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}