The MTA’s most outspoken straphanger advocate and in-house critic will quit its board next month, a decision that transit activists mourned as a “huge loss” for New York.
Veronica Vanterpool — first appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2016 — regularly made headlines as the rare voice of dissent on the agency’s board, which is controlled by appointees and allies of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“She did an outstanding job — very proud of the work she did — and I think she represented this city really, really well,” de Blasio said at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday.
Vanterpool is leaving New York to serve as chief innovation officer for Delaware’s transit agency.
City Hall said Hizzoner will submit new board nominees “for appointment and confirmation in January.”
Good government watchdogs and transit activists mourned her departure.
“She’s been an independent and consistently thoughtful board member,” said Reinvent Albany’s Rachael Fauss said. “The governor’s recent appointees are all very clearly in line with his objectives.”
She called Vanterpool’s resignation a “huge loss.”
During her three years on the board, the longtime transit activist campaigned for greater transparency, additional resources for city subways and buses and for additional accountability from the Cuomo-appointees who run the authority.
Most recently, she was the only board member to oppose the MTA’s November demand that the city pay more for the transit agency’s federally-mandated paratransit program, Access-A-Ride.
She also led the charge against Cuomo’s last-minute decision to cancel the long-planned L train shutdown, institute an indefinite state of emergency at the agency and add 500 cops to its in-house policy force.
“Ultimately did the L train work out well for riders? It seems so, but the question was about process and decision-making,” Vanterpool told The Post.
“If you want information, don’t call a board member. Many times we’re the last to know,” she joked.
“Veronica has been an effective advocate for MTA customers across the agency,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said in a statement. “We wish her well in her new public sector role in Delaware.”
The departure means Hizzoner will be down to just two of his four appointees on the MTA board as the agency begins to spend its $51.5 billion budget for construction and modernization projects.
Cuomo and his allies have repeatedly stalled efforts to increase oversight of the embattled state transit authority, which receives some funding from City Hall.
De Blasio aides recently sent a list of questions about the mega-sized construction project, only to have an MTA’s top spokeswoman — a former Cuomo employee — call the effort a “scam.”
Additionally, Cuomo declined to advance de Blasio’s nomination Dan Zarrilli, a top City Hall adviser, to the MTA board before the 2019 legislative session ended. That left the city’s MTA board slate shorthanded even before Vanterpool’s departure, which was first reported by Politico.
“Politics are going to influence any board. We’re not unique in that sense,” Vanterpool told The Post, while noting that the city-state dynamic has been particularly “unhealthy.”
“At the end of the day, we need the support of the governor and we need the support of the mayor — both of them,” she said.
“It’s incumbent on the mayor and the governor to make sure the positions are filled quickly,” Fauss told The Post.