NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE: GROSS BEAHVIORS ALLEGED

SHENANIGANS

Or gross behaviors at the NJ pike

Ed Gross exec director of the New Jersey turnpike stands accused by three of his senior female staff of a variety of latterday atrocities. The pun is irresistible. Gross behaviors, they say he committed. And the 3 fems are each separately suing the boss while, and this is surely a first, they all retain their senior salaried positions with the authority. What a happy crew!

I really tried, a little, to treat this as a straight report, but it just can’t be done. One of Gross’ accusers and a litigant against the CEO is the chief spokesman for the turnpike, Lynn Fleeger. So how do I get official comment on the extraordinary situation at the pike? I got told to speak to Fleeger’s attorney! The official spokesman is not spoking, I guess is the word. The official spoker only spokes through an attorney, who industry chatter has it, is on a goodly retainer from Lockheed, the loser in recent contract battles —pure slanderous speculation that, no doubt, but then another citizen litigant against the NJ pike blurted out to a reporter not long ago that the Lockheed legal aid fund was his benefactor, so who am I to completely rule it out.

Poor old Gross, I only got through to his answering machine, and left a message I wanted to talk about his agency’s troubles with the US EPA over wetlands (I did, really) but then I made the mistake I guess of mumbling something about also wanting to talk about “the litigation” at the authority. He didn’t call back. Your reporter stymied again. Just have to read the darned suits.

Another Gross detractor and litigant is the turnpike’s financial comptroller, Catherine Schladebeck whose suit accuses Gross and the dep exec director Diane Scacceti of retaliating against her for her questioning of the Turnpike’s selection of MFS for the big ($500m) electronic toll contract (still not consummated!) over Lockheed. Schladebeck says the estimate of $159m revenue over 8 years used offically by the Authority in its justification of the MFS selection is “at least $40m” too high, and that one set of internal projections suggests that instead of making money the scheme will lose it. Gross and Scacceti in a statement to the local paper say the charge is “absolutely baseless” and represents a misunderstanding by Schladebeck about what is included in the contract. The $40m difference comes from moving the cost of maintaining the fiber network from an outside vendor to MFS as part of their contribution to the project.

HOT parking lot: Gross and his deputy say in the statement that Schladebeck’s persistence in making the $40m charge “demonstrates, regrettably, that she doesn't have comprehension of this process and these projections.” (If the woman is so dumb why does he pay her to be his comptroller? was a question I wanted to ask someone. ) In her suit Fleeger says she was denied pay raises and promotion, and she also cites two instances when Gross supposedly made “inappropriate comments,” suggesting once that they go off together to Hawaii, and another time that they meet after work in the parking lot. (Another question I was going to ask was: Is the turnpike’s parking lot a popular NJ trysting place?)

Lynn Fleeger and Ann Monica the assistant director for law there allege in their suits that Gross operates a “hostile work environment” where less qualified men were promoted and paid more money. Fleeger says in her suit that Gross “sought a sexual relationship” with her and then demoted her, replacing her with a man who earned more money. (Is the boss bisexual? was another question I had.) Monica does not claim to have been propositioned by Gross (Is that discrimination? was further question I had) but that she was bypassed for promotion, and that men got higher pay (Heck I know a few men who get higher pay than me. Can I get in on this by crossdressing, do you think? was another question I had jotted down.)

The Turnpike’s chief lawyer John Sheridan calls it all a “bunch of nonsense” which sounds like party-pooper stuff to me. Both he and Gross claim that the accusations were timed to influence the state elections which occurred at around the same time this stuff surfaced. State elections? I think this is a bigger deal and that, far from warring, these guys are having us all on. Obviously they thought Gross was planning to run for the White House and that this steamy stuff would help him attain the reputation needed for that high office. It worked for Bill C!

There must be some hard news out of New Brunswick amidst all this fluff. I think the clue is in the until now secret trip to Hawaii by these top NJ-pikers. Maybe there’s a 14-laner pike being planned for Waikiki! A gross pike indeed, but a business lead that you guys should be checking out, especially at this time of such dismal weather in the NE US. HNTB, Baker, URS, Wilbur Smith, Keewit etc: Send top scouts off to Honolulu immediately to smoke it out. Do it now! Parsons Brinck’s Larry Yermack is probably en route already. (Contact Virginia at Frederick Travel Agency 301 696 0303)