NYMTC's month-to-month business is usually conducted by a staff committee. On Thursday, the full Council meeting saw attendance of Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef, Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney, NYC Planning Commissioner Joe Rose, NY State DOT Commissioner Joseph Boardman and MTA Executive Director Marc Shaw. However, the only action item on the Council's agenda was to approve the minutes -- to scattered, sarcastic applause -- of its Sept., 1994 meeting. Many of the Council's principals had departed before the public was permitted to speak.

The lack of actual Council meetings and the paucity of elected officials' participation in its proceedings were both cited -- among many other problems -- in highly critical federal reviews of NYMTC during 1996. ISTEA requires that Metropolitan Planning Organizations have their planning procedures certified by US DOT every three years.

Reportedly, the recommendation from FHWA and FTA staff reviewing the case was that NYMTC's certification be revoked. But appointed US DOT and possibly White House officials felt the political consequences of such a move -- which could have technically jeopardized New York's federal highway funding and could have embarrassed New Yorkers in Congress seeking reauthorization of ISTEA and funding for big-ticket infrastructure projects -- were not worth the trouble. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign wrote to federal officials in March, strongly urging that federal certification be revoked until NYMTC was reorganized with more elected official representation on the voting Council. At Thursday's meeting, federal officials said publicly that this opinion had been given strong consideration, but that in the last analysis, NYMTC was complying with the letter of the law. Formal federal certification was issued last month.

New NYMTC director James Harris and new NY State DOT Commissioner Joseph Boardman said NYMTC was conducting an internal look at itself, including whether NY State DOT should continue to be the "host" agency to NYMTC.

A Tri-State Campaign representative noted that despite the federal stamp of approval, it was business as usual among NYMTC member agencies. For instance, the NY State DOT Staten Island Expressway "Major Investment Study" is omitting from analysis transit and rail freight projects and road pricing measures that could reduce traffic growth in the corridor, in direct violation of the spirit of ISTEA and the purpose of its major investment study provision.

Transportation Alternatives director John Kaehny focused on the lack of substantive action items on the agenda and strongly criticized NYMTC's collective irrelevance to the major transportation decisions being made in the region. He said the federal government had made the wrong decision in permitting NYMTC to carry on without major reorganization.