Something stinks - Is it poop or the salaries of the PVSC? Records reveal gold mine
Records reveal Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission a gold mine for insiders
Published: Sunday, January 16, 2011, 10:32 AM Updated: Sunday, January 16, 2011, 1:32 PM
By Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
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Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
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 — Most people have never heard of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners, an obscure public agency that serves more than 1.5 million people across four counties of northern New Jersey.
It doesn’t sound all that glamorous, and to enter its gates seems like a dark visit to Hades — one that begins with a row of ancient-looking, slow-turning Archimedes screw pumps working endlessly on a turgid river of waste.
For some though, it is a river of gold.
As government agencies and municipalities tighten their belts, laying off cops, teachers, garbage collectors and firefighters to avoid going broke, Passaic Valley remains an island of job security for the connected, their families and their friends, a new analysis of records and public documents by The Star-Ledger shows.
Its $46.4 million payroll includes spouses and children of commissioners, mayors, friends of mayors, and the brother-in-law of a mayor who is also a commissioner, the documents show. The median salary there has jumped by nearly 30 percent over the past five years.
Questions about how Passaic Valley spends public money are not new. Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen) once famously described the PVSC’s budget as "an awful lot of money to push poopie through a pipe."
An earlier examination of the agency by The Star-Ledger in 2005 found its payroll swollen with the friends and family of those with political clout, while records showed the funneling of thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts to political insiders.
And last year, Gov. Chris Christie put Passaic Valley on his hit list as incoming governor, calling the agency’s hiring practices "completely outrageous."
But new documents released under a series of public records requests paint a picture of an entrenched agency that has changed little, and they explore areas of the operation not previously brought to light.
At least 85 of Passaic Valley’s 567 employees make more than $100,000. Three are paid more than $200,000 — among them, a former aide to an influential Democratic congressman who earns $220,443 and was given the keys to a new Ford Expedition to take home.
The documents show the commissioners routinely hire friends and family and those with ties to elected officials. A record of those hires is kept in what is known as the "commissioners’ rounds" — a document that officials denied existed until it was specifically requested by name. The rounds are numbered, not unlike NFL draft rounds, keeping score over who gets the next hire. One commissioner picked his daughter-in-law when his turn came. Another picked his wife.
Two of the highest-paid employees on the payroll are former Passaic Valley commissioners, responsible for overseeing the agency before they were hired to high-salary jobs by their fellow commissioners.
At the same time, other records detail lucrative, no-bid contracts that directly benefited the hometowns of some commissioners — many of whom are elected or appointed officials in those communities.
For example:
• The commission spent more than $200,000 to buy and operate a new Elgin street sweeper, in what it called a "pilot program" to clean the streets of Lodi — saving borough officials the cost of doing it themselves. They even put out a press release touting that point: "Lodi Residents Get Cleaner Streets Compliments of PVSC," it stated. Among the commissioners voting unanimously in favor of the purchase was the commission chairman, Anthony Luna, who also serves as the municipal manager of Lodi. He declined repeated requests to be interviewed.
• Boswell Engineering was retained under a $470,000 no-bid, no-contract agreement to evaluate municipal sewer systems on behalf of Garfield, Passaic and East Orange. Among those voting in favor was Frank Calandriello, a commissioner who serves as mayor of Garfield — where Boswell is the town’s municipal engineer. Calandriello did not return calls to his office.
At the same time, more than $512,000 in consulting fees were paid out over the past two years to top Trenton lobbying firms State Street Partners LLC and Public Strategies Impact, along with 1868 Public Affairs — a public relations consulting firm headed by former Assemblyman and ex-Essex County Freeholder Leroy Jones Jr.
Critics have questioned why a state authority needs to lobby lawmakers.
Wayne J. Forrest, the former Somerset County prosecutor named PVSC executive director in July at the behest of Christie, said things are now changing.
"I can’t speak for what happened before," Forrest said.
The agency adopted a new budget last week incorporating approximately $3.1 million in cuts, reflecting a combination of spending reductions and retirements that officials say will result in no increases in user charges this year to member communities for the first time in recent memory.
Yet Forrest acknowledged that the commission’s practices of the past were "neither pleasant nor laudatory." And many remain unchanged.
Still, despite its $161 million budget, PVSC is a public agency that draws scant attention. Its money comes from charges assessed to each community, which in turn bill residential, commercial and industrial users. For Newark, that came to $44.3 million last year. In Jersey City, it was $19.5 million. Additional revenues come from treatment of commercial waste. Its rates are lower than similar regional sewage treatment facilities.
And unlike with most other public authorities in New Jersey, its spending does not face state review. The governor cannot veto a decision or directly challenge an action by the PVSC.
Efforts at reform, however, have long been stymied in the Legislature.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) called Passaic Valley a secret government operating well below the radar screen, and wants the agency put under the oversight of the Department of Community Affairs. But that proposal, which she introduces every legislative session, has never moved out of committee.
"People from both parties find their way there, so they have some semblance of bipartisan protection," she suggested.
Last January, the governor harshly criticized the authority for its hiring of "political hacks" at "obscene salaries," noting that its then-executive director, Bryan Christiansen — a former mayor of Edgewater — was getting paid more than $313,000 a year.
The wife and brother of Hudson County Commissioner Carl Czaplicki, who also serves as director of the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce, were both hired after he became a commissioner. He did not return calls to his office.
Vanessa Czaplicki is paid $70,676, the documents show. John Czaplicki makes nearly $90,000.
Others with connections have done even better. Former Passaic County Freeholder and one-time county Republican Chairman Michael Mecca was hired in 2006 as a $71,590-a-year safety inspector. After coming under fire last year over campaign e-mails that political opponents discovered on his PVSC computer, Mecca remained on the payroll. In fact, he got a raise. He is now being paid $104,923 as a liquid waste specialist. Calls to his PVSC office were not returned.
Eight years ago, Anthony Ardis, an aide to Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-8th Dist.), was appointed as a commissioner, while remaining on Pascrell’s staff as district director. In 2005, Ardis’ fellow commissioners named him director of management services and clerk to the board, replete with a $220,443 salary and an SUV, a Ford Expedition. He is the commission’s highest-paid employee.
Ardis, who also serves as the agency’s ethics officer, did not return calls to his office for comment.
Kenneth Pengitore, who was the Republican mayor of Haledon when he was named to the sewerage commission, quickly landed jobs as well for his son, daughter and daughter-in-law. Two years ago, his fellow commissioners then hired him as their chief financial officer at an annual salary of $143,943. Pengitore now earns $163,869 a year. His son remains on the payroll, making $82,554 as a high voltage relay technician, and his daughter earns $94,074 as a scientist.
Pengitore also did not return calls to his office.
Kevin Keogh was a Democratic West Orange councilman when he was hired by Passaic Valley in 1999 as a $48,633-a-year safety inspector. By any measure, he had a meteoric rise there. Now superintendent of special services for the commission, he is being paid $186,201 a year and was given the keys to a Dodge Durango.
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