N.J. Senate Head Defends DRPA Leader

BROOKLAWN, N.J. - Legislation will soon be introduced in New Jersey to cap salaries and do away with car allowances and some credit card practices at governmental authorities in the Garden State.

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester County) says he'll introduce the bill this week.

The news comes after calls of reform and weeks of scrutiny at the Delaware River Port Authority, where a $180,000-a-year public safety director was caught giving his daughter a co-worker's E-ZPass for personal use.

Other perks and associations have also been called into question. The governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania have called for 19 reforms at the authority.

"Once we introduce this legislation, if you have a contract, yeah, at the end of the contract you're going to get a pay cut," Sweeney said of his forthcoming legislation. "… We're looking to cap everyone's salaries at the governor's salary, $175,000. We want car allowances, expense accounts – all that has to go. What we want is … to have a consistent set of rules for every single authority in the state of New Jersey, whether it's the bay authority, the port authority, the transportation authority – every single authority is going to be governed under the same set of bylaws, the same set of rules."

Sweeney said "people are fed up with, you know, just the way things have been going on for years. And people say you can't do anything about it, but we can."

He added, "We struggle because it's a bi-state authority, and you have to get the buy-ins from the other states, but we're going to put this out there, we're going to adopt it in New Jersey and then challenge our colleagues in Pennsylvania and in New York and Delaware to live by it."

Sweeney has stood by DRPA CEO John Matheussen and Vice Chair Jeff Nash, with whom he is both friends and shares a longtime political history.

Fox 29's Steve Keeley reported that internal e-mails show that Matheussen, on top of his salary and car allowance, would demand a pool car to drive to places like Trenton distance to visit Sweeney.

Asking how Sweeney can support that, the state senate president said, "I honestly think John has cleaned up the port authority since he's been there."

When Keeley again raised the pool car issue, Sweeney said, "I can't defend things like that, and I'm not going to. But what I'm telling you is that when John Matheussen got to that authority, it was in a lot worse shape than it is. We have to work with two states and, you know, we have to ask – you can't do anything on your own, you can't give an edict and say 'This is what you're going to do.' New Jersey had reforms in 2003 that Pennsylvania wouldn't go along with. And, you know, it has to be both sides to do it."

Keeley asked if getting rid of Matheussen wouldn't send a message to the public that they're doing something.

"Why do you insist on keeping him there?" Keeley asked.

"Because I honestly think he's done a good job," Sweeney said. "We can disagree. You can point to … taking a car to Trenton and, you know, I'm not defending that. But I know John Matheussen has done a good job with what he's been able to do. You have to get a buy-in from the commissioners to do anything there, and it's a constant battle between the states. … He's got to play referee the entire time. And John is a former Republican senator who actually served this region very well."

Keeley noted that Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevy appointed Matheussen from his elected office to his quadruple-the-pay job at the DRPA to get him out of the way so the GOP could win an election and take control of the state senate.

"He was absolutely the best guy for the job," Sweeney said.

When Keeley questioned Matheussen's experience, saying he wasn't a bridge engineer, Sweeney said others in similar positions also are not engineers.

"You know, I'm not going to call for John Matheussen to leave. I'm not. You know, we're getting ready to do a light-rail expansion into Gloucester County," Sweeney said. "He's great, and knows what he's doing. We're at a critical juncture, and to change leadership because of the problems that we had with commissioners, more than anything, not wanting to reform – you know, he's done the best job he can with what he has to work with."