Politically connected firms reap big DRPA contracts

Politically connected law firms, banks, and consultants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have profited handsomely from legal and bond work for the Delaware River Port Authority, DRPA records show.

Contracts for the work often go to firms that make substantial political contributions and are seen as part of a pervasive pay-to-play culture at the DRPA.

Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert McCord, a member of the board of the bistate agency, has called for an immediate suspension of all legal and other contracts until the agency can craft conflict-of-interest guidelines.

"Essential to restoring public confidence in the spending decisions of the authority is the elimination of any perceived or actual self-dealing," McCord wrote in a letter Friday to DRPA board chairman John Estey.

McCord will offer a number of proposed changes at a DRPA board meeting on Wednesday. Estey will urge passage of 16 changes in the DRPA bylaws sought by Gov. Christie and Gov. Rendell.

The Wednesday meeting will be the first since a storm of criticism broke last month, triggered by revelations of misuse of a free E-ZPass transponder by the agency's chief of public safety and complaints by Philadelphia labor leader John "Doc" Dougherty, a DRPA board member, about hiring practices and secrecy.

The biggest beneficiary of legal work from the DRPA over the past decade is Rendell's former law firm, Ballard Spahr, which has collected more than $3 million since 2002, when Rendell was elected governor. Rendell served as DRPA chairman from 2003 until last year.

Estey, Rendell's former chief of staff, is a partner at Ballard Spahr, and the Philadelphia firm is the Pennsylvania counsel for the bistate agency's board.

Archer & Greiner, a Haddonfield firm that is home to major Democratic contributors, is the New Jersey counsel for the DRPA and has received $2.5 million since 2000.

Brown & Connery, the Westmont firm that represents South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, has collected more than $820,000.

Altogether, area law firms have been paid about $16.7 million for DRPA legal work since 2000. The DRPA also maintains its own staff of lawyers at an annual cost of about $1 million.

In addition, law firms, banks, and other firms have collected about $7.8 million in fees for work on DRPA bond issues since 2000.

More big paydays are in the offing for well-connected firms, because the DRPA plans to borrow about $1 billion over five years to pay for bridge work and improvements to PATCO rail cars.

Firms hired to handle those bond sales will be paid a percentage of the amount of the bonds.

So far this year, the DRPA has paid about $2 million in fees related to bond sales.

The DRPA reported the payments to McCord, who has asked for an array of information about the agency's spending and hiring practices.

The biggest recipients of bond work from the DRPA since 2000 have been Philadelphia law firm Blank Rome ( $1.66 million), Public Financial Management, of Philadelphia ($1.35 million), and South Jersey law firm Parker McCay, which employs Norcross' brother, Philip ($660,500).

This year, the biggest recipients of bond work have been Wilbur Smith Associates, of New Haven, Conn. ($430,000), Moody's Investors Service, of New York City ($226,800), Parker McCay ($225,000), and Blank Rome ($222,500).

The DRPA has been under growing criticism in recent weeks for conflicts of interest, excessive management salaries, perks and car allowances for top managers, political favoritism, and, as McCord wrote to Estey, "a general sense that the Authority is a political patronage operation unconcerned with the rising toll charged levied on the public to pay for all this political largesse."

State legislators from Pennsylvania and New Jersey said that on Wednesday they will unveil proposed legislation to change the DRPA's federal compact.

Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Vereb (R., Montgomery) and New Jersey Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco (R., Gloucester) said they want to repeal the DRPA's ability to spend money on "economic development" in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Similar legislation will be introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate by State Sen. John Rafferty, who will hold hearings next month on the DRPA's problems.

A change in the agency's governing compact would require approval by both states' legislatures and governors, as well as Congress and the president.

The DRPA has spent nearly $400 million in the last decade on such projects as Lincoln Financial Field, the Kimmel Center, the National Constitution Center, the Camden Riversharks' baseball stadium, a soccer stadium complex on the Chester waterfront, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the President's House memorial near Independence Hall, and moving the Barnes Foundation collection from Lower Merion to Philadelphia.

Last month, the DRPA's chief of public safety, Michael Joyce, resigned from his $180,081-a-year job after it was learned he had borrowed a free E-ZPass transponder from another DRPA official for Joyce's daughter to use on daily trips to her private high school in Lower Merion.

The owner of the E-ZPass, DRPA corporate secretary John Lawless, was dismissed from his post in April and escorted from DRPA headquarters in Camden, but he has continued to collect his $123,806-a-year salary.

DRPA officials have declined to say why Lawless was removed.

Lawless has filed two complaints against the DRPA with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming discriminatory treatment based on an unspecified disability.

The DRPA board will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at One Port Center, next to the Adventure Aquarium, in Camden.

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