So long, secret salaries.
The Port Authority, known for its largess and keeping its business from public view, yesterday went live with a new Web site listing the full salaries — including overtime and extras — for every one of its 6,777 employees.
And what a list it is. The database, available at http://www.panynj.gov/payroll, tells a story of an agency that, while crying poverty, is paying some of its workers more in overtime than the $48,743 brought in each year by the average New York City family.
So far in 2011, one maintenance supervisor has pulled down $152,902 — nearly double his annual salary of $84,916 — thanks to more than $7,000 in OT, another $54,000 for cashing in unused vacation and personal days, and other payments.
The PA allows its workers to cash in all their unused vacations and other unused personal days in the same year — a practice that is rare in the private sector and even among other government agencies.
The working stiff lives large at the PA.
One airport operations staffer has raked in $75,910 in OT on top of $71,422 in annual salary.
And a detective sergeant with the PA police has exceeded $205,000 after racking up more than $48,300 in OT and additional one-time payouts totaling more than $21,000.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” said Michael Drewniak, spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who runs the PA along with Gov. Cuomo.
Cuomo’s office had no comment.
The Port Authority is a massive bistate agency that operates the World Trade Center, the region’s airports, the PATH system and the bridges and tunnels that cross the Hudson.
For years, the PA has released salary and OT information in response to requests from reporters and government watchdogs.
But it turned out that was only part of the picture.
Earlier this year, a New Jersey newspaper found the agency was making additional one-time payments to employees that were intentionally omitted from public reports.
In response, the new leaders of the PA — installed by Cuomo and Christie — announced they would be more forthcoming with agency financial information.
“The board determined the public was entitled to know how the people at the Port Authority were being compensated,” said former Cuomo aide Pat Foye, now the PA’s chief executive. “We can do better from an openness and transparency point of view.”
Foye stressed that the new agency administration is also going to contain the overtime costs by requiring quarterly reports from department heads explaining how much they’re spending and why.
The PA has been under fire since the summer, when officials pushed through a controversial plan to raise tolls on the Hudson River crossings. The toll hike caused a public uproar and led AAA of New York and North Jersey to sue the agency.
The agency also has come under fire for massive cost overruns related to reconstruction of the World Trade site.
AAA spokesman Robert Sinclair yesterday said the salary lists reinforce the agency’s reputation as the “pork authority.” And, though the Web site is a good first step, he said the PA has “a lot more to change before we can think they’re doing things the right way.”
The salaries at the Port Authority, headed by Patrick Foye, were posted on a Web site yesterday revealing paychecks padded with enormous overtime and unused vacation payments. Some examples among the agency’s 6,777 employees are:
Steven Basic
Maintenance supervisor
Base (to date): $78,384
Overtime: $7,471
Unused time payout: $54,614
Total: $152,902
Reginald Bates
Police sergeant
Base (to date): $99,610
Overtime: $69,586
Unused time payout: $8,793
Total: $208,795
Anthony Giardullo
Police officer
Base (to date): $83,077
Overtime: $66,846
Payouts for unused time and work under unusual conditions: $11,691
Total: $169,108
Charles Giglia
Detective
Base (to date): $97,535
Overtime: $74,689
Payouts for unused time and work under unusual conditions: $9,160
Total: $193,637
James Gravina
Chief maintenance supervisor
Base (to date): $93,168
Overtime: $33,391
Payouts for unused time and work under unusual conditions: $53,658
Total: $184,875
William Gutch
Police lieutenant
Base (to date): $114,552
Overtime: $59,410
Payouts for unused time and work under unsusal conditions: $21,242
Total: $214,320
John Mathieson
Detective sergeant
Base (to date): $114,552
Overtime: $37,301
Payouts for unused time and work under unusual conditions: $34,446
Total: $205,558
Joseph McKeever
Dectective sergeant
Base (to date): $114,552
Overtime: $48,326
Payouts for unused time and work under unusual conditions: $21,806
Total: $205,590