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: The Thief of Staff is Staff for Mayor Healy makes more than the MMayor... and he's got his relatives on the more patronage payrolls

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: The brother of Commissioner Carl Czaplicki Jr., the chief of staff to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, was hired by the board in 2001. The commissioners then hired Czaplicki's wife, Vanessa, after they were married in 2003. With a salary of $47,664, she is the highest-paid account clerk on the payroll. 

: Czaplicki's brother, who was paid $54,945 two years ago as an administrative clerk, saw his salary jump by nearly $10,000 in the past two years to $64,521. 

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: Patronage still deep at sewage agency 
: Political insiders get no-bid pacts 
: Sunday, May 08, 2005
: BY TED SHERMAN 
: Star-Ledger Staff 
: Public accusations over widespread political patronage set off a sudden examination last week of hiring practices throughout state government. 

: But two years after similar questions were raised about New Jersey's largest sewerage authority, the agency's payroll continues to swell with the friends and family of those with political clout. At the same time, records show the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners still funnel thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts to political insiders. The most recent was a $6,000-a-month consulting contract with a longtime confidant of former Gov. James E. McGreevey. 

: The PVSC -- an independent state authority governed by a nine-member panel nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state senate -- first had its practices challenged two years ago after a series of Star-Ledger reports detailed a pattern of patronage and nepotism. At the time, the McGreevey administration began reviewing monthly agendas before action by the commissioners -- a practice PVSC officials said continues. 

: Despite that burst of attention, a review of recent PVSC payroll and vendor records shows little change in how the commissioners do business. 

: For example: 

: 
: Since 2003, the authority has added nearly 50 jobs to a workforce that now numbers some 690, at a highly automated plant that already had far more people on staff than other sewage treatment facilities of similar size. 

: 
: In March, the commissioners signed a $6,000-a-month contract with Capital City Strategies LLC, a Trenton-based consulting firm incorporated in October by Kevin Hagan, the former chief executive of the Democratic State Committee and McGreevey's former deputy chief of staff. The contract calls for him to do public relations work. 

: 
: At the start of the year, the commission transferred the bulk of its legal work -- worth millions in fees -- to the politically connected law firm of Joseph Ferriero, the Bergen County Democratic chairman. 

: Executive Director Bryan J. Christiansen, an experienced administrator brought on last year in the wake of questions about the agency's operations, would not address past hires, but said he asked the commissioners to institute a hiring freeze and is trying to level off the budget. 

: "I'm just trying to hold the line here and minimize the increases to our member municipalities," he said. 

: Meanwhile, legislators critical of the agency are reluctant to speak publicly because many hires at the PVSC have been made to accommodate other elected officials. 

: 
: MANY CUSTOMERS 

: The PVSC serves 1.5 million people and more than 4,000 businesses in Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Hudson counties. It treats 25 percent of the wastewater in New Jersey at a sprawling plant on Wilson Avenue in Newark, which has received environmental awards in recent years for its operation. 

: With a budget for 2005 that will top $122.8 million, the agency is headed by part-time appointees paid a nominal $10,000 salary. 

: Unlike with most other public authorities in New Jersey, the governor cannot veto a decision or directly challenge an action by the PSVC. Its budget, paid largely through assessments to its member municipalities, does not face state review and it has not had an audited financial statement in two years. 

: Several bills pending before the Legislature would impose stricter control of the commission, but all have languished in committee. 

: One proposal, sponsored by Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex), would put the commissioners under the authority of the Department of Community Affairs. A separate bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) would give the governor more power over the commission. 

: Politics always has been a major player, some of the commission's former attorneys say, noting the position of legal counsel -- as at most state authorities -- typically goes to a firm with connections to the party in power. 

: The PVSC, though, has in past years spread those contracts around, hiring multiple attorneys with Democratic and Republican ties. 

: This year, most of the legal work shifted largely to Ferriero and the PVSC rid itself of several of its other outside counsel. 

: Ferriero was a key McGreevey supporter who was first appointed chief counsel to the sewerage commission shortly after McGreevey's election as governor. 

: An examination of Passaic Valley expenses shows Ferriero and his firm -- Scarinci & Hollenbeck in Lyndhurst -- have been billing more than $100,000 each month in legal fees. From January through March, he has billed the commission $390,326.73. An additional $213,209.31 in legal fees were billed by other outside counsel during that same period. 

: The PVSC last year spent $3 million for legal work. Of that, Ferriero's firm collected more than $1.2 million. Overall, the commission's legal bills have nearly tripled since 2001. 

: Ferriero did not return several calls to his office. 

: PVSC officials said the higher legal bills were a result of several major lawsuits. 

: 
: NO SECRET 

: Patronage jobs are by no means unknown within state authorities and agencies. Acknowledging what was hardly a secret, but seldom spoken aloud, state Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown last Tuesday told an Assembly Budget Committee hearing that he was forced by the governor's office and legislative leaders to keep 14 employees he never would have hired. 

: Several state department heads subsequently acknowledged that politicians frequently recommend candidates for government jobs, but maintained they would not hire anyone not qualified. Acting Gov. Richard Codey has since called for a review of all state employee rosters for those that any department commissioner considers unqualified or incompetent political appointees. 

: At the PVSC, however, the wholesale hiring of relatives and those with ties to elected officials already has led to questions from the very top of the state government. 

: In April of 2003, the McGreevey administration took the highly unusual step of filing a legal request under the Open Public Records Act to compel the commission to provide financial information, including the contract of former executive director Robert Davenport. 

: After the administration began asking about the PVSC's budget, spending and hiring practices, Davenport last year announced he would retire from his $261,767-a-year job. The commission continued paying him a transition salary and accumulated sick days and vacation time until last week, with his retirement taking effect May 1. 

: Yet before Davenport turned over the operations last year, records show some employees received significant pay increases. At the same time, the commission went on a hiring binge, adding nearly 50 jobs. (PVSC commissioners do all the hiring. One member sponsors a candidate who then must be approved by the rest of the board.) 

: Among those hired were the children of Commissioner Kenneth Pengitore, the mayor of Haledon. His son, Scott, went on the payroll as an electrician in July at a starting salary of $45,377. Pengitore sponsored the hiring of his daughter, Ashley, the previous year. She makes $58,482 as a lab technician. 

: The brother of Commissioner Carl Czaplicki Jr., the chief of staff to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, was hired by the board in 2001. The commissioners then hired Czaplicki's wife, Vanessa, after they were married in 2003. With a salary of $47,664, she is the highest-paid account clerk on the payroll. 

: Czaplicki's brother, who was paid $54,945 two years ago as an administrative clerk, saw his salary jump by nearly $10,000 in the past two years to $64,521. 

: Among others who received salary increases were Kevin Keogh, a former West Orange Democratic councilman. He is now running for Essex County freeholder. Keogh, who was making $86,855 two years ago as a training supervisor, now receives $125,743.28 as superintendent of special services. 

: Commission Chairman Donald Tucker's son, Kilburi, has received $13,769.44 in raises over the past two years. He now receives $64,036.44 as a plant operator. Tucker, who is also a Newark city councilman and a state assemblyman, did not return calls seeking comment about his son. 

: James Krone, a Garfield council member, served as a Passaic Valley commissioner for more than 10 years until 2001, when he was appointed by his fellow commissioners to the vacant position of deputy executive director. In the past two years, Krone's salary has increased by $6,332.24. He now makes $192,562.24 annually, according to payroll records. 

: Before he was hired, Krone painted houses for a living. 

: Krone's wife and son are also on the payroll. His wife, Maria, is a software systems administrator. She is paid $76,801.40 a year. 

: Krone's son, Matthew, who was being paid $51,203 as an equipment operator, received both a raise and promotion. He now makes $61,451 as an outreach coordinator. 

: Davenport's son, Brian, got a raise of nearly 20 percent in the past two years. His salary went from $82,909 to $98,828, with no change in job title, as restoration program supervisor working on the commission's well-regarded Passaic River cleanup program. 

: 
: SOARING PAYROLL 

: Since 2002, Passaic Valley's payroll has increased by 34 percent, to more than $46.6 million, which has increased the commission's budget and the fees paid by 48 municipalities served by the wastewater treatment plant. 

: Commission officials say the increases in personnel were sorely needed. 

: "We've expanded services in certain areas, especially trucked-in liquid waste and our industrial pre-treatment program," said Christiansen, who became executive director in March 2004 at a salary of $218,243. 

: With PVSC's budget up nearly 10 percent over last year, Christiansen said, there is now a hiring freeze in place. 

: That did not stop the commissioners from awarding a no-bid contract this past March to Hagan, who is getting paid $6,000 a month as a public affairs consultant. 

: Passaic Valley already pays one of its own former commissioners, attorney Daniel Becht, more than $70,000 a year to represent its interests in Trenton. 

: PVSC also has three other politically connected public affairs firms on a monthly retainer of $6,000 a month or more: Winning Strategies Washington, whose principals include Jim McQueeney, a public relations consultant and a former state director for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.); Public Strategies-Impact, a Trenton-based lobbying firm headed by Harold Hodes, one of Codey's top political advisers; and The Strategy Group, also in Trenton. 

: "We do all their legislative work down here in Trenton," Hodes said. 

: Donna Mullins, who served as chief of staff to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) and heads the Winning Strategies office in Washington, said it works to help PVSC secure federal grants. 

: "We were asked to submit a proposal. We did. And we came on last June," she said, noting the commission received $400,000 in federal aid in the last appropriation bill. 

: Questioned about the multitude of such contracts by a sewage treatment authority, and the new contract with Hagan, Christiansen said the public affairs and public relations work is a necessary tool for Passaic Valley. 

: "Public relations is something we should be proactive about because this agency does a lot of things we don't get credit for," he remarked. "We need to toot our horn. People should know what we're doing." 


: Ted Sherman can be reached at tsherman@starledger.com or (973) 392-4278. 


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