Former FBI Agent Now DRPA Watchdog

CAMDEN, N.J. - Two big changes were made on Wednesday at a Delaware River Port Authority meeting, with a retired FBI agent arriving to serve as an agency watchdog.

Thomas Raftery, a Philadelphia native with a long career in the FBI, is joining the DRPA as Inspector General.

In his FBI career, Raftery served in Afghanistan and investigated the Oklahoma City bombing.

And as expected, former political aide Mike Conallen is the new deputy chief executive officer of the DRPA.

the moves were made at Wednesday's meeting of the board, which is charged with maintaining and operating four bridges between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Sources close to Gov. Tom Corbett told FOX 29 News in advance that Conallen, former chief of staff for both Congressmen Mike Fitzpatrick and Curt Weldon, would replace Bob Gross as the second-most-powerful person at the DRPA.

Conallen will be the highest-paid and highest-ranking Pennsylvania appointee in the authority.

The job was created for Gross in 2003. He has earned more than the governors of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and now stands to start collecting a $72,000-a-year pension from PA taxpayers after he leaves on Jan. 27.

Corbett also created the position of inspector general, replacing a director of internal audit position.

A FOX 29 source says the former FBI special agent is getting that job to "clean up the DRPA mess Corbett inherited."

These are Corbett's first two big moves since appointing himself chairman of the board a few months after taking over in the governor's office last year.

Corbett may feel he's making two good moves, but some are already complaining that they continue a lack of transparency and the patronage for which the DRPA has long been criticized.

Gross' position was originally created to handle economic development projects, on which the DRPA wound up spending more than half-a-billion dollars. Critics say they would rather see Gross' role eliminated.