DRPA to study its salary structure

Beginning a process that could change salaries for Delaware River Port Authority employees, a DRPA committee Tuesday asked for a study of current pay levels.

The newly formed compensation committee, made up of four board members, asked DRPA staff to seek proposals for a study to compare current salaries and benefits at the agency with similar bodies in the region.

Such a study probably would take 10 to 12 weeks and cost about $125,000, said chief administrative officer Toni Brown.

Salaries for top DRPA officials have come under fire from some DRPA board members and state legislators. Last month, a proposal to reduce the salaries of chief executive officer John Matheussen and other top managers was sent to the new committee.

That proposal, by board member and Philadelphia labor leader John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, would reduce Matheussen's annual salary from the current $219,474 to $175,000, the same as Gov. Christie's, and reduce department heads' salaries to $125,000 from the current $180,000.

Brown said that the last full analysis of DRPA salaries and benefits had been done in the mid-1990s and that a new analysis was "long overdue."

The DRPA and its subsidiary, the PATCO commuter rail line, employ about 950 workers, primarily to operate four toll bridges over the Delaware River and run the railroad. Salaries range from $23,781 for entry-level workers to Matheussen's $219,474.

"For all we know, our employees may be underpaid," said committee member Albert F. Frattali, an officer in the Ironworkers union. "To do anything with their salaries now wouldn't be fair."

Committee chairman John Lisko, sitting in for his boss, board member and Pennsylvania state treasurer Robert McCord, said the DRPA wouldn't seek changes in salaries of union-represented workers until current labor contracts expire.

About 55 percent of the agency's workers are represented by labor unions.

DRPA chief attorney Richard Brown told the committee that heavier workloads for some staff could necessitate hiring new employees or moving existing workers into new positions.

Brown said more frequent and longer board meetings, requests for public information, and the addition of the corporate secretary's duties to his own were overwhelming existing employees.

Matheussen said reassigning existing staff would be at least part of the solution: "We're not looking to add more people as the only way to accomplish this."

Committee member Robert W. Bogle, publisher of the Philadelphia Tribune, said, "The last thing we want to do is go out and hire a bunch of people."