Last week, the NY Daily News uncovered the latest scandal to hit the ethics-plagued State Senate. According to the News, Senate Secretary Angelo Aponte “tried to broker a meeting between the MTA and HBO about filming a Martin Scorcese pilot near transit property — just weeks after the network’s parent company donated $25,000 to Senate Democratic coffers.”  Pretty minor stuff as far as Albany hijinks go, but MTR couldn’t help but notice a choice irony.

A News reporter learned about the Aponte phone call after reading an online summary of correspondence from the MTA’s new “Office of Legislative and Community Input.” Why did the agency release the report?  The State Senate required the MTA to create the office and release the report in one of the “transparency and accountability” provisions in the transit rescue package passed earlier this year (see Section 18). At the time, legislators congratulated themselves for bringing “much-needed oversight and accountability” to the supposedly opaque MTA. But, as the State Senate is finding out, transparency goes both ways.