DRPA needs more engineers, other improvements, audit says

The Delaware River Port Authority needs more and better engineers, especially with its plans for extensive bridge repairs over the next five years, management consultants told DRPA officials Wednesday.

And the agency needs an array of other improvements, including a "culture change," said the consultants, who were paid $500,000 to examine the DRPA's inner workings in 2008 and 2009.

The consultants were called before a new DRPA audit committee Wednesday to describe the findings of the long-overdue management audit that was released in August, just as DRPA came under extensive criticism for patronage, no-bid contracts, closed meetings, and excessive pay and perks for managers.

Two executives from TransTech Management Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., defended the wide-ranging conclusions of their audit, even as some board members questioned the consultants' independence from DRPA top management.

The DRPA is required by its charter to have an independent management audit every five years. This one was four years late; the last one was in 2001, and its recommendations were not followed.

TransTech was not hired until 2008, but the firm's managing partner, John Cameron, acknowledged the study should have been completed more quickly.

"I'm embarrassed that it took this long. It should not have taken this long," Cameron said.

The DRPA board has since voted to conduct management audits every two years. Cameron said, "If I were sitting in your shoes, I would try to do it for less money . . . and I would try to ensure that the consultants understand deadlines are critical."

The audit's 214 pages included 107 recommendations, from reorganizing maintenance activities to overhauling pay and performance-review systems.

Among the most pressing needs, Cameron said Wednesday, was improving the agency's engineering department, especially as DRPA plans to spend about $200 million a year for the next half-decade on construction projects.

Cameron cited work habits, quality of staff, and commitment as deficiencies in the engineering department and recommended hiring at least four more engineers. The consultants' report recommended a comprehensive makeover of the department to upgrade it from a "D" unit to one that would qualify for at least a "B" grade.

DRPA executives disputed the grade given to the department but agreed to hire four engineers over the next two years, bringing the total to 18, and to examine pay grades and ranges.

Consultant Henry Canipe, senior manager for TransTech, said DRPA needed better strategic planning and operations plans. And individual employees needed to have performance reviews that linked their work with the agency's overall goals, he said.

The management audit noted the political influence that is rife at DRPA.

"There are widespread anecdotes of favoritism in the hiring of new employees, workers who do not 'pull their share' of the work load, were not able to be sufficiently managed or disciplined because of their alleged external relationship(s) with a key politician, inequities in pay levels for functions assigned or activities accomplished, promotions made without sufficient merit, etc.," the report said.

"Improving the culture in some areas thus is one of the challenges continuously facing the current administration," the audit said.

The DRPA board followed one of the report's recommendations in August, voting to get rid of the politically connected assistants to board chairman John Estey and vice chairman Jeff Nash.

Cameron rejected the accusation of board member John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty that the recommendation originated with top DRPA managers, including chief executive John Matheussen. The assistant to Estey, Mary-Rita D'Alessandro, was a friend of Dougherty's.

"That issue has been in our minds since the beginning," said Cameron, who said it was a bad business practice to have assistants not answerable to the chief executive. "The recommendation came entirely from the TransTech side and not from the DRPA side."