2006 New York Code - General Powers Of The Authority.

 
    § 1204. General powers of the authority. 1. To sue and be sued.
    2. To have a seal and alter the same at pleasure.
    3.  To  acquire,  hold,  use  and  dispose  of  equipment, devices and
  appurtenances, and other property for its corporate purposes.
    3-a. To acquire by purchase or condemnation pursuant to the provisions
  of the condemnation law real property or  rights  or  easements  therein
  necessary or convenient for the corporate purposes of the authority, and
  to use the same so long as its corporate existence shall continue.
    3-b. To apply for and receive and accept grants of property, money and
  services  and  other  assistance  offered or made available to it by any
  person, government or agency whatever, which it may use to meet  capital
  or  operating  expenses  and  for  any other use within the scope of its
  powers, and to negotiate for the same upon such terms and conditions  as
  the authority may determine to be necessary, convenient or desirable.
    4.  To  make  rules  and regulations for its organization and internal
  management.
    5. To appoint officers, assign powers and  duties  to  them,  and  fix
  their compensation.
    5-a.  To make, amend and repeal rules governing the conduct and safety
  of the public as it may deem necessary, convenient or desirable for  the
  use  and  operation  of  the  transit facilities under its jurisdiction,
  including  without  limitation  rules  relating  to  the  protection  or
  maintenance  of  such  facilities, the conduct and safety of the public,
  the payment of fares or  other  lawful  charges  for  the  use  of  such
  facilities, the presentation or display of documentation permitting free
  passage,  reduced  fare  passage or full fare passage on such facilities
  and the protection of the revenue of the authority.  Violations of  such
  rules  shall  be  an  offense  punishable  by  a  fine  of not exceeding
  twenty-five dollars or by imprisonment for not longer than ten days,  or
  both, or may be punishable by the imposition by the transit adjudication
  bureau  established  pursuant to the provisions of this title of a civil
  penalty in an amount for  each  violation  not  to  exceed  one  hundred
  dollars (exclusive of interest or costs assessed thereon), in accordance
  with  a  schedule  of  such  penalties  as  may  from  time  to  time be
  established by rules of the authority. Such schedule  of  penalties  may
  provide  for  the  imposition  of  additional penalties, not to exceed a
  total of fifty dollars  for  each  violation,  upon  the  failure  of  a
  respondent  in  any  proceeding  commenced  with  respect  to  any  such
  violation to make timely response to or appearance in connection with  a
  notice  of  violation  of such rule or to any subsequent notice or order
  issued by the authority in such proceeding. There shall be no penalty or
  increment in fine by virtue of a respondent's  timely  exercise  of  his
  right  to a hearing or appeal. The rules may provide, in addition to any
  other sanctions, for the confiscation of tokens, tickets, cards or other
  fare media that have been forged,  counterfeit,  improperly  altered  or
  transferred, or otherwise used in a manner inconsistent with such rules.
    6.  To  appoint  employees  and  fix their compensation subject to the
  provisions of the civil service law and to  grant,  in  its  discretion,
  cash payments to the surviving spouse or to the legal representatives of
  its   deceased  employees,  equal  to  the  current  monetary  value  of
  accumulated and unused vacation time, if any, and the monetary value  of
  accumulated  and  unused overtime, if any, for overtime which was worked
  and credited subsequent to June fifteenth, nineteen hundred fifty-three,
  computed at the rate of salary in effect at the time  the  overtime  was
  worked,  standing to the credit of its employees as of the time of their
  death  and,  notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  section  one  hundred
  thirty-five  of the civil service law or any other state or local law to
  the contrary, to grant, in its  discretion,  severance  pay  to  surplus
  employees on separation from service.
    7.  To  retain  and  employ  counsel,  auditors, engineers and private
  consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for rendering  professional
  or technical services and advice.
    8.   Pursuant   to   the  provisions  of  this  title,  to  construct,
  reconstruct, improve, maintain and operate any transit facility, whether
  now existing, or constructed, acquired or provided in the future, and to
  fix fares on any such transit facilities.
    9. To construct, reconstruct, improve, maintain and operate buildings,
  structures and facilities as may  be  necessary  or  convenient  and  to
  maintain and operate, directly or enter into contracts or leases for the
  acquisition,  maintenance,  and  operation  of  areas for the parking of
  motor vehicles in the vicinity of its transit  facilities,  and  in  its
  discretion  to  fix  and charge for such parking a combination fee which
  shall include the established rate  of  fare  for  use  of  its  transit
  facilities.
    9-a.  To  post  signs  notifying  the  public  of the maximum fine for
  throwing, dumping, or causing to be thrown, dumped, deposited or  placed
  any  refuse,  trash,  garbage,  rubbish,  litter,  or  any  nauseous  or
  offensive matter on subway tracks  or  the  right-of-way  of  a  subway,
  pursuant  to section fifty-two-e of the railroad law, to the extent that
  funds for such signs are available.
    10. With the consent of the city to use  officers,  employees,  agents
  and  facilities  of  the city paying to the city an agreed proportion or
  amount of the compensation or costs involved.
    11. To make  or  enter  into  contracts,  agreements,  deeds,  leases,
  conveyances  or other instruments necessary or convenient, and to assist
  and cooperate with the metropolitan transportation  authority  to  carry
  out   the   powers  of  the  metropolitan  transportation  authority  in
  furtherance of the purposes and powers of the authority as  provided  in
  this  article, including, without limitation, the transactions described
  in sections twelve hundred sixty-six-c, twelve  hundred  sixty-nine  and
  twelve  hundred  seventy-d of this article. This power shall include the
  power to make contracts with other persons operating transit  facilities
  for  combined  fares  for  the  use  of  such facilities and the transit
  facilities operated by the authority and for the division of such fares,
  and the power to make contracts for the  transportation  of  the  United
  States mail or personal property.
    12.  To  surrender  to  the  city  property  no longer required by the
  authority.
    13. To rent space and grant concessions on or in any transit or  other
  facility  under  its  jurisdiction,  to fix and collect rentals, fees or
  other charges therefor, and to contract for the sale or  disposition  of
  waste, products or by-products incidental to its operations or in excess
  of its requirements.
    13-a.  Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  section  fourteen hundred
  twenty-three of the penal law or the provisions of any general,  special
  or  local  law,  code, ordinance, rule or regulation to the contrary the
  authority may erect signs  or  other  printed,  painted  or  advertising
  matter  on  any  property,  including  elevated  structures,  leased  or
  operated by it or otherwise under its jurisdiction and control  and  may
  rent,  lease or otherwise sell the right to do so to any person, private
  or public.
    14. To make plans, surveys and studies of transit  facilities  in  the
  city and prepare recommendations in regard thereto.
    15.  To  exercise  all  requisite  and  necessary authority to manage,
  control and direct the maintenance and operation of  transit  facilities
  transferred  to  it  for  the  convenience and safety of the public with
  power, in its discretion, to extend, modify,  discontinue,  curtail,  or
  change  routes  or  methods  of transportation where the convenience and
  safety of the public would be served thereby or where existing routes or
  methods are inefficient or uneconomical; provided, however, that (except
  in  cases  of  emergencies)  at  least thirty days prior to any proposed
  modification, discontinuance, curtailment or change of any transit route
  or method of transportation, the authority  shall  give  notice  of  its
  intention to the board of estimate and shall, upon request of such board
  within such period, conduct a public hearing thereon.
    16.  In  its  discretion  to  provide  and  maintain  a transit police
  department and a uniformed transit police  force.  Such  department  and
  force  shall  have  the  power  and it shall be their duty, in and about
  transit facilities, to preserve the public peace, prevent crime,  detect
  and  arrest  offenders, suppress riots, mobs and insurrections, disperse
  unlawful or dangerous assemblages and assemblages  which  obstruct  free
  passage;  protect  the  rights of persons and property; guard the public
  health; regulate,  direct,  control  and  restrict  pedestrian  traffic;
  remove  all  nuisances;  enforce  and  prevent violation of all laws and
  ordinances; and for these purposes  to  arrest  all  persons  guilty  of
  violating  any  law  or  ordinance.  Appointments to such transit police
  force shall be made in accordance  with  applicable  provisions  of  the
  civil  service  law  and only persons who shall be less than twenty-nine
  years of age at the date of the  filing  of  an  application  for  civil
  service  examination, who have never been convicted of a felony, and who
  are citizens of the United States shall be appointed  transit  patrolmen
  on the transit police force. Each member of such force shall be a police
  officer  as  defined  by  paragraph  (e)  of  subdivision thirty-four of
  section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law and  shall  possess  all  the
  powers  of  a  policeman of a city in the execution of criminal process;
  and criminal process issued by any court or magistrate of a city may  be
  directed  to and executed by a member of such force, notwithstanding the
  provisions of any local or special act, ordinance or regulation.
    The authority may appoint a chief and a deputy chief  of  the  transit
  police  department  who,  in  the  discretion  of  the authority, may be
  selected from the ranks of the transit police force, and  assign  powers
  and  duties  to  them and fix their compensation. The chief shall be the
  head of such department. During the absence or disability of the  chief,
  the deputy chief shall possess all the powers and perform all the duties
  of  the  chief.  The  transit  police  force  shall consist of captains,
  lieutenants, sergeants, patrolmen and  policewomen.  The  authority  may
  detail  persons  in  the  rank of captain of the transit police force to
  serve in higher ranks. A captain when so detailed to serve in  a  higher
  rank  may  be  granted an increase in salary above the grade established
  for the rank of captain  in  the  uniformed  force.  The  authority  may
  maintain  a division for detective purposes to be known as the detective
  division and may, from time to time, detail to service in said  division
  as  many  members  of the force as it may deem necessary, and may at any
  time revoke any such detail. Any member of the force while  so  detailed
  may be granted an increase in salary above the grade established for his
  rank  in the uniformed force, but shall retain his rank in the force and
  shall be eligible for promotion the same as if serving in the  uniformed
  force,  and the time during which he serves in such division shall count
  for all purposes as if served in his rank  or  grade  in  the  uniformed
  force.
    16-a.  The  authority  shall  establish  and  publish  or  cause to be
  published schedules for all passenger transportation services under  its
  operation.  Such  schedules  shall  include  the estimated departure and
  arrival time at each terminal point of each route except that, on  lines
  where the headway time during the period between six A.M. and seven P.M.
  is less than ten minutes, such headway time alone may be listed for that
  period.  Such schedules shall also show the elapsed running time between
  the terminal and each station. Schedules shall be made available at each
  facility on the applicable route at which tokens or tickets are sold and
  shall be posted at each appropriate station operated by the authority.
    17. To do all things necessary or convenient to carry out its purposes
  and for the exercise of the powers granted in this title.
    18. A copy of any  report  submitted  by  the  authority  pursuant  to
  sections twenty-eight hundred, twenty-eight hundred one and twenty-eight
  hundred  two of this chapter shall be submitted contemporaneously to the
  mayor.
    19. To invest any funds, accounts or other  monies  not  required  for
  immediate  use  or  disbursement, at the discretion of the authority, in
  any  of  the  investments  in  which  the  metropolitan   transportation
  authority is permitted to invest its monies pursuant to subdivision four
  of section twelve hundred sixty-five of this article.