Corbett stepping down as DRPA chairman

Gov. Corbett will resign as chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, he said Wednesday.

David F. Simon, a DRPA board member who is executive vice president and chief legal officer for Jefferson Health System, will be nominated next month to replace Corbett as chairman.

And Andrew J. Reilly, a lawyer who is chairman of the Republican Committee of Delaware County, will take the Corbett's seat on the board.

Corbett, following the lead of his predecessor, Gov. Ed Rendell, appointed himself to the board and was elected chairman in March 2011.

The DRPA operates four toll bridges between Philadelphia and South Jersey, as well as the PATCO commuter rail line.

"When I joined the Board of Commissioners last year, I said I would remain only as long as it took to return the authority to its core mission: Providing safe, reliable, customer-friendly transportation to the people of southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey," Corbett said in a statement Wednesday. "I believe the board is reliably committed to that mission, and the time has come for me to leave it in the board's care."

Simon, 59, of Gwynedd Valley, chaired Corbett's transition teams for the departments of insurance and public welfare. He served in the administration of Gov. Tom Ridge as chief counsel for the Department of Insurance.

Simon said that as DRPA chairman he plans to "continue to focus our mission on transportation. We will continue to strengthen management controls and pursue management efficiencies. Most importantly, we will add value on our customers' terms, not our own."

Reilly, 49, of Middletown Township, is a former chairman of the Delaware County Council.

He is a partner in the law firm of Swartz Campbell in Media, specializing in municipal liability, personal injury, and real estate and commercial litigation. His clients include the Delaware County Redevelopment Authority, the Delaware County Economic Development Oversight Board, the Brandywine Conference and Visitors' Bureau, I.B.E.W. Local 654 and the Township of Aston, Pa.