The Sunday Star-Ledger first reported financial abuse, favoritism
Commissioner Frank Calandriello, right, talks to fellow commissioner William F. Flynn, left, Wayne Forrest, the executive director for PVSC, Anthony J. Luna, the chairman of PVSC and Carl Czaplicki Jr., the vice chairman of PVSC during a public meeting. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission is an obscure agency whose payroll is swollen with the friends and family of those with political clout, while records show the funneling of thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts to political insiders. PASSAIC COUTY — A bipartisan effort to put the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners under the thumb of the governor gained steam today, with sponsors on both sides of the aisle pushing for an immediate vote on the measure.
The bill would extend veto power over the actions of the PVSC, as well as the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission — both public authorities that operate with little if any state oversight.
Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), the Senate Minority Whip, called on Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney to post the measure for a vote on Tuesday.
"It’s painfully clear that reform is needed and well overdue," he said. "We also need to start moving new commissioners on board. This issue is simply too important to neglect any longer."
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), one of two Democratic co-sponsors, said the bill has languished in the Legislature year after year without action.
"What’s going on at the PVSC is just so excessive," said Weinberg, who has a separate measure that would place the sewerage commission under the control of Department of Community Affairs. "The organization has been used as a patronage pit for politically-connected individuals to inflate their salaries on the taxpayer-dime, and it’s time for the feeding frenzy to come to an end."
A spokesman for Sweeney would not specifically address the proposed bill, but said he was looking into the matter.
"The issues at the PVSC are definitely troubling, and the senate president is prepared to sit with Senator Weinberg and others to discuss these matters and create a plan to restore the authority’s integrity," said Derek Roseman, director of communications for the Senate Majority Office.
A similar bill sits in the Assembly, sponsored by Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Passaic), who said "the political reality is that the present generation of legislators has inherited a small collection of independent authorities that have grown in stature because they have learned to game the system."
Rumana said with friends on both sides of the aisle, the PVSC and other authorities have become insulated from scrutiny.
"The kind of patronage abuses we have read about over the past few days can no longer be tolerated," he said. "The leaders of these authorities have abused their power – and frankly, have failed to recognize that times are changing."
Meanwhile, officials at the PVSC yesterday said they were scrambling to respond to Gov. Chris Christie’s demand that they explain the agency’s hiring abuses. The governor’s actions follow a report in The Sunday Star-Ledger, which documented the hiring of brothers, brothers-in-law, wives, children and cousins by commissioners, who do all the hiring.
They kept track of the jobs handed out on a scorecard known as "commissioners’ rounds," which were numbered like NFL draft round choices, showing one commissioner picked his daughter-in-law. Another hired his wife.
And with 567 employees, Passaic Valley has no formal table of organization spelling out the chain of command or lines of reporting, according to the authority.
Christie yesterday gave the PVSC seven days to explain itself. In letters that went out to each commissioner, the governor said the board "continues to resist the efforts of this administration to undertake reform in accordance with sound ethical and fiscal practices."
He demanded they each identify all individuals they have selected or recommended for hire, including justification for hiring them and their qualifications; a list of all family members or relatives, including the involvement of each commissioner in their hiring; an accounting of all promotions or salary increases for those individuals; and a list of all companies or consultants retained at a commissioner’s direction.
The newspaper also found the agency handed out costly contracts to benefit the communities of individual commissioners; spent lavishly on travel; and awarded lucrative, no-bid consulting contracts.
Since 2002, for example, more than $17.6 million has been spent on legal fees to politically connected law firms. The biggest chunk went to the law firm of Joseph Ferriero, the once-powerful Bergen County Democratic chairman who at one point was billing $100,000 a month in legal fees and also receiving state health benefits and public pension credits as a result of his PVSC service.
The PVSC, which has a $161 million budget, operates the largest wastewater treatment plant in the state, handling the sewage of 48 towns in Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Hudson counties.
Unlike most other public authorities in New Jersey, the PVSC faces no state review of its spending. The governor also cannot veto any of its actions.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Weinberg, O’Toole and 10 others, would require the PVSC and North Jersey District Water Supply Commission to maintain the minutes of any meeting of the commissioners and to submit these minutes to the governor for approval within 15 days, allowing him to veto any action by either authority.
The bill is currently on second reading in the Senate.