DRPA paychecks totaled over $50 million in 2007
The Delaware River Port Authority, deeply in debt and preparing to raise bridge tolls and commuter rail fares, paid its employees $50.7 million last year, and about $3.3 million more in overtime.
The Delaware River Port Authority, deeply in debt and preparing to raise bridge tolls and commuter rail fares, paid its employees $50.7 million last year, and about $3.3 million more in overtime.
That works out to average annual pay of about $61,000 for each of the agency's 887 employees.
The DRPA board next month is expected to approve a $1 increase in bridge tolls for cars and a 10 percent fare increase on PATCO trains, effective Sept. 14. The agency says the increase, and a similar increase planned for 2010, is necessary to pay for $1 billion in bridge improvements and upgrades to PATCO railcars.
Salaries last year ranged from $213,082 for chief executive officer John Matheussen to $43,513 for toll collectors to $28,379 for mailroom clerks.
The 47 PATCO train operators were paid $48,568 each.
The 84 regular police officers' base salaries ranged from $40,643 to $56,700. The 48 corporals, sergeants and lieutenants earned more; their salaries ranged from $61,800 to $85,931. Chief public safety officer Vincent J. Borelli, who left last month after an internal investigation, was paid $174,836.
Thirty employees, including Matheussen and Borelli, made more than $100,000 in 2007, the agency's compensation reports showed. Other top-paid employees included deputy chief executive Robert Gross ($188,310), general counsel Richard Brown ($174,836), and PATCO general manager Robert Box ($174,836).
Cheryl Spicer, assistant PATCO general manager and the wife of former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, collected $158,157. John A. Lawless, the former Pennsylvania legislator who is DRPA corporate secretary, was paid $120,200.
Chief financial officer John T. Hanson was paid $174,836, and deputy general counsel Michael E. Joyce, who is taking Borelli's place, collected $136,591.
Matheussen, in announcing the proposed toll increases last week, said the DRPA was spending the public's money "effectively and appropriately." He said the agency had cut staffing by 124 positions over the past five years, a 12 percent reduction in force.
DRPA spokesman Ed Kasuba said yesterday, "We feel we've managed our finances prudently." Salaries are "appropriate," he said, in light "of the fact that we've cut back over the years."
The DRPA is $1.2 billion in debt, partly as a result of $375 million spent in the past decade on economic development projects. Since 1999, it has helped finance the Kvaerner (now Aker) Philadelphia Shipyard, Lincoln Financial Field, the Kimmel Center, the National Constitution Center, the Camden aquarium, and the Riversharks' stadium, a soccer-stadium complex on the Chester waterfront, and the National Museum of American Jewish History near Independence Hall.
Matheussen said the DRPA will no longer spend on economic development projects, but use tolls only for the bridges and PATCO.
Two public hearings are scheduled next week on the proposed toll and fare increases:
July 22 - Main lounge of the Campus Center at Rutgers University-Camden, 326 Penn St., 6-8 p.m.
July 23 - Philadelphia Cruise Terminal, Building No. 3, Navy Yard, 5100 S. Broad St., 6-8 p.m.
