Among those terminated today was Garfield councilman Joseph P. Delaney, who allegedly used a PVSC warehouse to store his boat
Commissioner William F. Flynn, left, and Wayne Forrest, the executive director for PVSC listen to Anthony J. Luna, the chairman of PVSC with Carl Czaplicki Jr., the vice chairman of PVS and commissioners CFrank Calandriello and Kenneth Lucianin, right, during a public meeting. The continuing fallout over the abuses at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners led to the dismissals of another six employees today — one of them a Garfield councilman with a six-figure salary who allegedly used a PVSC warehouse to store his boat.
At the same time, the executive director of the authority said he has brought in Thomas Flanagan, a top fraud investigator for the state Attorney General’s Office, to become the acting administrative and ethics officer.
The moves marked yet another page in the ongoing scandal at the once little-known authority that seems to have no end.
In the past week, six of the commission’s seven board members have been forced by Gov. Chris Christie to quit. Three high-level managers — including the former ethics officer — have been arrested on charges of official misconduct in connection with allegations they used PVSC employees to perform repairs and improvements on their homes while they were supposed to be at work. The chief financial officer abruptly resigned and five others — one the wife of a commissioner — were fired on Wednesday.
In addition, the State Police was asked to immediately take over security at the agency after a hole was secretly drilled into the office of its executive director, allowing anyone to eavesdrop from a storeroom below.
"We are continuing our thorough review of all departments, their functions and staffing," said Wayne Forrest, the former Somerset County Prosecutor who was named executive director in July at the behest of the governor.
Among those terminated today was Joseph P. Delaney, who made $103,690 as a river restoration specialist. Delaney was hired in 1999 as a plant operator at a salary of $28,618, according to payroll records. His salary rapidly escalated after he became a Garfield councilman in 2002.
The mayor of Garfield, Frank Calandriello, was a PVSC commissioner until he was forced to quit last week.
According to reports filed with the governor’s office, Delaney had parked his boat in a PVSC warehouse for six to nine months in 2009 and was never disciplined for it. The report did not identify Delaney by name, but two sources familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because it is under investigation said the incident referred to Delaney. He could not be reached today for comment.
Also terminated by Forrest today was Kenneth Hrasdzira, who made $119,224 as supervisor of records/documents; Carmelo Scangarello, a former West Milford councilman and Republican leader who serves as chairman of the township’s municipal utilities authority, who was on the payroll as a $86,141-a-year archives coordinator; Charles Alaimo, a $89,728 liquid waste acceptance specialist; Thomas Irvolino Jr., who made $48,558 as a terminal operator; and Jeffrey C. Zafonte, who also made $48,558 as a liquid waste acceptance operator.
Forrest said all were "at will" employees.
"There has been a state of emergency declared as it pertains to this agency and I’ve been given the authority to take this kind of action," he said of the terminations. "This is as a result of the review we’ve been doing."
Since stories about the facility first came to light last month, more than 10 others have also retired or quit the agency.
Passaic Valley, which operates the largest wastewater treatment plant in New Jersey, handles the sewage of more than 1.3 million people in Essex, Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties. Now the focus of an ongoing criminal probe by the Attorney General’s Office, the public authority has been under mounting pressure following a series of stories in The Star-Ledger documented widespread abuse.
Forrest issued his fourth executive directive today, further tightening the PVSC’s ethics rules by adopting the state’s zero tolerance policy for the acceptance of gifts.