The $900-an-hour arbitrator who awarded fat, hotly contested raises to rank-and-file transit workers this year wants to donate his entire fee to a union-controlled fund — a move that has called his partiality into question, The Post has learned.
Former Deputy Mayor John Zuccotti claims to have worked out the controversial arrangement both with outgoing Transport Workers Union boss Roger Toussaint and former MTA chief Eliot Lee Sander.
“My understanding with Sander and Toussaint is that the parties would make a contribution to the TWU Widows & Orphans Fund in lieu of my payment,” Zuccotti wrote in a July 9 letter to the MTA that accompanied his invoice.
An MTA board member said, “There’s certainly the appearance of collusion between [Zuccotti], the union and the leadership of the MTA at the time.”
Sander did not immediately comment.
Zuccotti’s personal fee — 129 hours at a rate of $900 per — came out to $116,100. The last arbitrator, George Nicolau, billed a total of $32,000.
