MTA Official Allegedly Got Domestic Partner Job By Cutting Ethics Regulations

The operations chief at Metro-North Railroad is being accused of getting her domestic partner a railroad job in an unethical way, the New York Daily News reported.

According to a report by New York Controller Thomas DiNapoli's office, Sherry Herrington sent an email to the MTA's human resources department and said Stuart Moore had excellent qualifications for an available position. Herrington, however, never revealed that Moore was her domestic partner.

Moore was hired with the On-Board Services Unit that monitors train crews' activities, and received an annual salary of nearly $85,000 even though the starting salary was about $57,000, the report also says. Moore worked with the small group in Herrington's division.

The report also claims there was no significant supervision of the unit and that some employees did not show up for work. DiNapoli's auditors discovered that some workers would spend several hours surfing the Internet for leisure.

"The public got taken for a ride," DiNapoli said in a statement.

Another incident occurred in 2008 after Moore was first hired. Metro-North did an internal investigation on the matter and Herrington was reprimanded.

Moore claims that her partner got in trouble because they are gay.

"The whole thing was a witch hunt," she said.

The article notes that Moore recently resigned after being reassigned. The Daily News also says that neither Herrington nor Moore is identified by name in DiNapoli's report but sources confirmed that they are the subjects of the "Inappropriate Hiring" section.

Although the couple's relationship has since ended, Herrington said that their partnership was common knowledge and that she told her boss that Moore applied for a position.

Herrington, who earns $170,00 a year, is responsible for overseeing the movements of more than 600 Metro-North, Amtrak and freight trains.