N.Y. Public Authorities Law § 1204: 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, including,

the power to dispose of personal property with a value of five hundred

thousand dollars or less by public auction in accordance with guidelines

adopted by the metropolitan transportation authority pursuant to section

twelve hundred sixty-five of this article and title five-A of article

nine of this chapter.

* NB Effective until June 30, 2028

* 3. To acquire, hold, use and dispose of equipment, devices and

appurtenances, and other property for its corporate purposes.

* NB Effective June 30, 2028

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 or, in the case of certain repeat violations relating to the

payment of fares in accordance with subdivision eleven of section twelve

hundred nine-a of this title, not to exceed one hundred fifty dollars

(in each case exclusive of supplemental penalties, 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 supplemental

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 their 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. The authority

shall not use, or arrange for the use, of biometric identifying

technology, including but not limited to facial recognition technology,

to enforce rules relating to the payment of fares.

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 police officer 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 and police officers. 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 or her

rank in the uniformed force, but shall retain his or her 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 or she serves in such

division shall count for all purposes as if served in his or her 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.