Asked if he thought commuters should have confidence in the agency, former employee Todd C. Barretta said, 'I would prefer not to ride the system.' | AP Photo Fired NJ Transit executive describes 'toxic' agency rife with patronage, corruption

TRENTON — In bombshell testimony that’s likely to dog the Christie administration in its final months, NJ Transit’s fired chief compliance officer said Friday he was forced out with little explanation after his repeated attempts to raise questions about systemic issues at the troubled agency, which he called a “runaway train.”

The former employee, Todd C. Barretta, told state lawmakers in Trenton the agency “is in great peril and in great need of assistance.” He said NJ Transit, which operates the nation’s third largest commuter railroad, a sprawling bus service and several light-rail lines, had failed to update important policies for more than a decade and kept key positions empty, or inappropriately staffed.


Barretta said he personally witnessed employees being fed the answers to questions during a safety-training test. The Federal Railroad Administration had raised concerns about such tests, he said, because the results appeared to be too good to be true. He likened the situation to every student in a high school class getting a perfect sore.

The agency, he said, has a secretive culture ruled over by patronage hires who use “fearmongering” to advance their agenda.

“Simply, it is a toxic environment that promotes a culture that was not accepting of any corrective course,” Barretta testified during a public hearing at the Statehouse. “Although my tenure was extremely short in terms of time, I witnessed more occurrences of agency-wide mismanagement, fueled by ignorance, arrogance, hypocrisy, incompetence, patronage, cover-up and corruption, than one can reasonable expect to experience throughout his entire career.”

Barretta, appearing before a joint oversight hearing held by the state Assembly and Senate, said agency executives had informed him on numerous occasions they didn’t want a “gotcha guy.”

He said he was told, at times, not to put his analysis in writing and was also asked directly by Executive Director Steven Santoro to tone down his rhetoric. He said Santoro and other executives were unqualified for their jobs.

Asked if he thought commuters should have confidence in the agency, he said, “I would prefer not to ride the system.”

“I wouldn’t put my son on the system,” he said.

Barretta, hired earlier this year for the $175,000-a-year job, was eventually sidelined, at one point told he could have no further contact with rank-and-file employees without approval, he said. He was later demoted before being suspended this summer.

The agency fired him last week, saying he had failed to return a laptop computer. But he gave lawmakers a receipt that proved he had, in fact, returned the laptop.

Throughout the testimony, Santoro remained in the back of the hearing room, leaning against a column with his arms folded.

The executive director, an appointee of Gov. Chris Christie, testified before the committee a short time later. He said Barretta had been initially suspended for “significant misuse of his vehicle.”

“From the context of his testimony, we’re wondering how we’re operating at all with complete dysfunction and the leadership of New Jersey Transit, including myself, not fit or capable of dealing with situations and running the organization," Santoro said. "Mr. Barretta has known me for a few months — how he could make that observation is interesting, certainly interesting.”

Lawmakers questioned the director and other staffers at length, discussing issues of patronage and potential safety concerns, but did not ask Santoro directly about many of the allegations.

Santoro refused to speak to the press after the hearing but replied to shouted questions about whether he had told Barretta that NJ Transit doesn’t want a “gotcha guy” and that he should avoid putting his remarks in writing.

“The answer is no,” Santoro said before leaving the room.

In a statement late Friday, NJ Transit said it had fully cooperated with the Legislature and that "nothing Mr. Barretta told the Committees today adds any meaningful facts" to what the agency had already shared with lawmakers.

"Mr. Barretta’s characterization of NJ Transit is uninformed, grossly and completely inaccurate," the statement said. "He was suspended for brazenly violating NJ Transit's vehicle policy for his personal benefit, which is especially egregious given his position as chief compliance officer at the time the conduct occurred. ... Due to pending litigation, NJ Transit will not discuss the reason for his ultimate termination. However, it unequivocally was not because of anything he said or reported about NJ Transit."

In his testimony, Barretta also raised concern that the railroad may miss a federally-mandated deadline to install positive train control, a technology that can stop trains when engineers fail to do so, and may be fined by the FRA.

The FRA declined to comment, but Santoro acknowledged that work had fallen behind schedule due to issues with the contractor, Parsons Transportation Group. He said the contractor is expected in coming days to provide a new plan to catch up on the work and that he remains hopeful the agency can still meet the December 2018 deadline.

The railroad also said in a statement Friday afternoon that it still has “expectations” it will make the deadline. The statement said NJ Transit is holding Parons “accountable to keep the project on the right track.”

Friday's testimony came as part of a series of hearings that have been held by the Assembly Judiciary Committee and the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee. The hearings initially focused on last year's deadly train crash in Hoboken, but later expanded to include a deeper look at safety issues, financial concerns and political appointments at NJ Transit.

Last month, after saying lawmakers had been "stonewalled" by the agency and the Christie administration, the Judiciary Committee issued a sweeping subpoena seeking documents related to the hiring and promotion of top staff members since January 2010, when Christie took office.

Assemblyman John McKeon, a Democrat and the committee chairman, said he had also been prepared to subpoena Barretta, but the man he agreed to come voluntarily after his firing.

McKeon and Sen. Bob Gordon, the oversight chairman, told reporters they were shocked by the allegations and said it was clear the agency needed a major overhaul.

Gordon said he planned to prepare legislation to put in place statutory reforms at the agency, likening the changes to those implemented at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.

“Long-time employees of New Jersey Transit … have been seeking us out and saying, ‘you know, I’ve wanted to talk to somebody about what’s been going on in this agency,'” Gordon said. “People who have decades of experience and have corroborated much of what we’ve heard today.”

Particularly troublesome to the lawmakers were the issues of patronage hiring, which they have been looking at closely since last year. NJ Transit has been unable to provide resumes for numerous top staffers and officials could not explain why it had been unable to locate any such records.

Barretta described a culture in which numerous employees with ties to the Christie administration wielded excess power there, comments that echoed some of the revelations the came in the wake of the Bridgegate scandal.

“There’s definitely a club of individuals there,” Barretta said. “That particular group of individuals — that club — what they share in common is that each and every one of them has their own unique tie to the current administration. They use that influence to terrorize every other employee.”

Santoro was peppered with questions about such claims and had little to say. At one point, he was asked directly, “Does New Jersey Transit make patronage hires?”

“I don’t how to answer that,” Santoro said before letting out an uncomfortable laugh.

“It’s a yes or no,” replied the lawmaker, Democratic Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker.

Santoro didn’t respond.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include additional testimony of Barretta and Santoro as well as a statement from NJ Transit.