Pennsylvania Judicial Center

The Pennsylvania Judicial Center

A senior Commonwealth Court Judge has ruled the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission wrongfully fired a former senior manager who claims he was fired for raising complaints about the wrong contractor.

The former employee, Ralph Bailets, will now be awarded unspecified damages covering lost wages and pension benefits and, possibly, non-economic damages in a follow-up order, Senior Judge Rochelle Friedman said.

"We believe that this case was precisely why the Legislature enacted the Pennsylvania Whistleblower act," said attorney Tom Sprague, who argued Bailets' case last month with attorney Jim West in a rare appellate court trial.

"This has been a long ordeal for Mr. Bailets and we are very happy for him that his position has been vindicated," Sprague said.

Ralph M. Bailets testified Monday in his whistleblower action against his former employer, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Bailets, a 56-year-old Mechanicsburg resident, alleged that he was targeted for termination because of his persistent complaints about computer services contractor Ciber Inc. that - unbeknownst to him - had bought preferred status through bribes and campaign contributions.

Ciber was awarded a large computer networking contract in 2005, and Bailets was placed on a commission team assigned to assist the vendor in implementing new data systems for financial reporting.

In that role, Bailets testified, he became an early and persistent critic of Ciber's work, despite occasional warnings from superiors that "making waves" with Ciber could be bad for one's career.

Bailets complained about what he saw as "make-work assignments" for Ciber employees that he came to view as ways to justify Ciber's $58 million pricetag.

He also voiced concerns about the lack of a plan or progress on the "knowledge transfer" needed so the Turnpike could take its new system and continue to operate it long-term.

Bailets told superiors it looked to him like Ciber was setting the stage for a new contract, to complete the parts of the job left unfinished in the initial deal. In fact, in 2008, the company received a follow-up, $19.3 million contract.

Ciber, we now know, had greased the skids from the top down through executive Dennis Miller's gifts and campaign contributions routed through former Turnpike Commission Chief Operating Officer George Hatalowich and former Turnpike Commission Chairman Mitchell Rubin.

Its contract would eventually become a centerpiece of a grand jury probe of contracting practices at the Turnpike, an investigation that netted felony guilty pleas from Rubin, Hatalowich and former Turnpike CEO Joseph Brimmeier.

Current Turnpike Commission leaders are now suing Ciber, hoping to recoup more than $40 million they now allege Ciber overcharged through mismanagement of the same contract that Bailets was flagging.

But they have consistently rejected Bailets' allegations, arguing that the evidence suggests Bailets was simply the victim of an honest budgeting decision made by a corrupted administration.

Turnpike officials testified that they made efforts to try to create new roles within the agency for Bailets, whose duties, in an ironic twist, were being partially eliminated by the system Ciber was developing.

The problem, they said, is that their efforts were overwhelmed by the 2007-08 recession.

That downturn caused declining traffic and toll revenues that forced Brimmeier's administration into job cuts - but only after a variety of non-personnel spending cuts and a voluntary buyout program failed to generate enough savings.

For Bailets, Friedman's verdict is welcome news in an odyssey that started with his November 2008 dismissal, a side trip to the state Supreme Court after an initial dismissal of his case, and, finally, the civil trial in Commonwealth Court.

"I saw the phone light up with 'Tom Sprague' (his attorney), and my heart was just pounding out of my chest," Bailets said, of the moment he received news of the decision early Thursday.

Bailets, who had also testified in the state's criminal case, acknowledged it was tough fighting what was always a David v. Goliath battle, and there were times when he wondered if the process would work.

That said, he said he hopes other state employees who see practices at work that make them feel uncomfortable, or that simply seem a waste of taxpayer dollars, will take encouragement to speak up from Friedman's verdict.

"I'd like to think that this kind of an outcome would be viewed as a positive, to move people in the right direction," said Bailets, who currently works at an area credit union.

The damage award is likely to be significant.

During the week-long trial in May, economic experts presented reports placing Bailets' lost wages and pension benefits at $1,016,000, based on retirement at age 60, and in excess of $1.4 million if he retired at 67.

Turnpike Commission spokesman Carl DeFebo said the agency - which has rights to appeal the verdict - will have no comment until attorneys has a chance to review Friedman's final order.