DRPA board gathers to address agency's problems

FROM HIGH up in the Delaware River Port Authority's Camden headquarters, commissioners on the bistate agency tried yesterday to fix their broken foundation during an epic meeting.

Over the course of five hours, DRPA board members debated their overall mission and managed to pass some resolutions aimed at reforming longtime practices that have come under fire.

"The meeting wasn't long enough," said Pennsylvania board member John Dougherty. "There's more to be done."

The 16-member board passed resolutions to eliminate E-ZPass and PATCO perks and car allowances for top managers, nepotism in the hiring process, and no-bid contracts. The board also passed resolutions ensuring more open and publicly accessible meetings, the disclosure of political donations by vendors and open doors for state audits.

"We're going to find new ways to do business and find ways to make it work," chairman John Estey said after some board members questioned a resolution eliminating caucus meetings prior to public meetings.

Estey will only be looking for those new changes until January. He announced after yesterday's meeting that he will resign his post when a new Pennsylvania governor takes office. The DRPA chairman is appointed by Pennsylvania's governor.

Yesterday's changes were prompted after weeks of scrutiny from reporters, governors in both states, and even from within, over alleged perks and political patronage that have run rampant there. Last month, DRPA public-safety director Mike Joyce resigned over inappropriate use of an E-ZPass transponder and chief executive John Matheussen was criticized for his handling of the incident.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery, and New Jersey Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco, R-Gloucester, held a news conference outside the DRPA building before the meeting, calling for Matheussen's resignation and blasting the sudden reform after decades of the agency's spending taxpayer money.

In the DRPA building above, a man looked down with binoculars.

DiCicco and Vereb offered up their own reforms in the form of measures proposed in both state legislatures that would change the agency's federal charter, and called for the creation of a commuter council.

"You don't need any more evidence that there's a crisis," Vereb said. "Just look at the binoculars; we probably paid for them."

The DRPA, which is responsible for maintaining and collecting fees and tolls for four Delaware River bridges and the PATCO Hi-Speedline, also passed a resolution to limit its controversial funding with taxpayer money of development projects across the region not directly related to transportation.

The agency has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to economic projects in the last decade ranging from sports stadiums in both states, the Army-Navy game, the Barnes Foundation move and the Adventure Aquarium.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner, a board member, said the DRPA should simply focus on helping commuters travel over the Delaware River safely.

"I just don't think this board should be the economic-development agency for South Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania," he said.

Philadelphia City Councilman Frank DiCicco said some economic-development projects contributed to the economy and created jobs. Wagner noted that PATCO trains are the oldest in operation in the country, though, and that redecking the Walt Whitman Bridge would cost about $140 million in borrowed money.

"If we didn't spend that money on economic development, we'd have that money sitting in the bank," Wagner said.

The board members will wait until next week to decide whether to continue E-ZPass discounts for senior citizens and motorists who drive low-emission vehicles, as well as commuter credits for those who cross the bridges 18 times a month. Those discounts were set to end Sept. 1.

The board also tabled resolutions to eliminate certain top positions and change the way charitable donations were made, as well as resolutions prohibiting undue influence and the performance of political activities by commissioners, officers and employees.