Jeff Nash
Use of E-ZPass transponders at the Delaware River Port Authority is being probed by New Jersey, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. That doesn't surprise me since public outcry forced Chief Public Safety Officer Michael Joyce out after it was disclosed he furnished a transponder to his daughter who was not entitled to one. But what the story said later did surprise me. The DRPA sent letters to Joyce and corporate secretary John Lawless asking for the return of cell phones, laptops and other DRPA-owned equipment. Lawless was removed from the building by DRPA guards in April for undisclosed reasons. Why would Joyce or Lawless still have DRPA equipment?
It's another example of what a poorly run outfit, patronage pit actually, the DRPA is. CEO John Matheussen was put in the job to get him out of the N.J. Senate so the Boss George Norcross machine could control the Senate seat.
Gov. Christie told Chairman John Estey (He is a former chief of staff to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.) and Vice Chairman Jeff Nash, a long time tool of the Boss Norcross machine, to eliminate the Lawless position, in addition to a $140,000 job held by Mary Rita D'Alessandro as an aide to Estey. He also demanded elimination of the $180,081 position of public safety director and aide to Nash, held by Michael Joyce until he resigned last month.
The DRPA board tabled the Lawless item.
But it heard Christie loud and clear on other things. The 16-member board also voted to stop spending tolls from motorists on economic development projects that are unrelated to the authority's core mission of transportation.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner introduced the resolution. He said, "Now is the time for us to be fiscally accountable. Once and for all, funding for economic development projects -- no matter how worthy -- has to end. PATCO continues to run on the oldest cars in the country. Where are our priorities?"
Raising tolls, apparently. Next summer they want to make them $5 a car to cross one of their four bridges across the Delaware.