Funds flowing through Newark Watershed power escalating battle over city's most precious asset

In 2008, the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development
Corp. paid the father of one of its board members $15,000 to
visit facilities, read reports and promote a municipal
utilities authority, according to agency documents.

In 2009, the agency paid an interior decorator $9,120 to design
an office that would never be used.

The same year, the documents also show, Mayor Cory Booker’s
former law partners charged the city $22 to read an e-mail,
$67.50 to read a Star-Ledger article and $267 for a
dinner for three in a bill that totaled $219,000 to serve as
the watershed’s general counsel.

Now, spending at the taxpayer-funded Newark Watershed
Conservation and Development Corp., or NWCDC, is at the heart
of an escalating battle over the future of the city's most
precious asset — 35,000 pristine acres of land and reservoirs
in Sussex, Passaic and Morris counties that supply water to
cities and towns throughout northern New Jersey.

Newark bought the property in the late 19th century and held
onto it even as residents and businesses fled the city. Newark
also held onto the brick sewers and aqueducts, built at the
same time, that now form a creaky infrastructure most agree
needs millions of dollars in repairs.

Critics say the NWCDC is a rogue agency that has seized power
over the water supply and has far overstepped its mandate. They
claim agency expenses are wasteful payouts to the politically
connected.

NWCDC officials say their detractors are unaware of what it
takes to purify and deliver more than 80 million gallons of
water a day. They say their costs are a fraction of what is
needed to prevent a catastrophic failure in a water system that
serves more than 500,000 residents, as well as wholesale
customers like Budweiser and UMDNJ.

The fight peaked recently when the Newark City Council,
responding to complaints by a group of local activists, formed
a committee to investigate NWCDC spending.

In response, watershed lawyer and longtime Booker insider
Elnardo Webster II incurred what critics said is perhaps the
most galling expense of all: billing hundreds of dollars to
file an injunction in court to stop the council committee’s
inquiry.

"The citizens are paying for the NWCDC to sue the council to
prevent this investigation," said Columbia economist Dan
O’Flaherty, the author of a scathing report on watershed
expenses titled "Hog Wild."

O’Flaherty and a coalition of residents called the Newark Water
Group, along with several council members, are fighting for the
watershed to be returned to direct city control.

"Some major concerns have been expressed," said committee
chairman Augusto Amador. "I would like to see more control
exercised by the council in order to avoid the type of behavior
that we’ve seen lately."

Watershed officials said the city council is on a political
witch hunt and accuse members of hypocrisy. If council members
were paying closer attention, Webster said, they would have
been aware of the expenses they now decry.

"It is impossible for me to believe that the council did not
know what’s going on," Webster said. "They vote on these
contracts year in and year out."

The NWCDC was formed in 1973 by former Mayor Kenneth Gibson to
manage the city’s land and reservoirs. Today, the agency runs
the entire water operation, from the hills of the Pequannock to
the drains of the Ironbound.

The NWCDC’s $10.7 million budget is funded through tax dollars.
The $105 million water and sewer utility that it manages is
funded through customers in Newark, as well as East Orange,
Elizabeth, Belleville, Bloomfield, Pequannock and parts of
Nutley.

According to a Star-Ledger review of agency documents,
the NWCDC has dramatically increased spending in recent years.

Its budget was $10 million in 2010, up from $6.7 million in
2005.

Roughly a third of the $3.8 million spent on consultants and
lawyers between 2008 and 2010 went to planning Booker’s failed
municipal utilities authority — the quasi-independent agency
that would have run the city’s waterworks.

Of the 36 contracts awarded, 16 of the vendors donated to
Empower Newark, a political action committee with close ties to
the mayor.

"Many of the contractors are Newark-based businesses, and no
quid pro quo has ever been required," said Webster.

One of the biggest contracts went to Webster and his West
Orange-based firm, Trenk DiPasquale, which billed the NWCDC
$812,000 between 2008 and 2010.

Webster said his firm has widespread experience in utility law,
with the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority, the city of
Trenton, PSE&G and T-Mobile among their client list.

NWCDC Executive Director Linda Watkins-Brashear was a campaign
volunteer for Booker and former Councilman Oscar James and has
donated $5,225 to Booker-backed candidates since 2007. She is
paid at least $215,000 annually, according to recent agency tax
returns. Andrew Pappachen and Joseph Beckmeyer, the two men who
together run the water and sewer operation, answer to her.

James — whose father received a $15,000 contract — still serves
on the board as a council representative, despite losing his
council seat in 2010. Critics say not only is the operation
inefficient, but no one answers to City Hall.

"They should reduce overhead costs and set up a transparent
organization. Who the water and sewer director works for and
what their conditions of employment are shouldn’t be a
mystery," said O’Flaherty.

Watkins-Brashear, a 30-year veteran of the watershed, said she
is being attacked for her political support of Booker.

"This started out to be a public policy debate," she said.
"Somehow it’s descended into a lot of innuendo and personal
attacks."

Watkins-Brashear and Beckmeyer said it is impossible to find
licensed, full-time engineers to work at rates the city can
afford, hence the need for project-specific consultants.

"We’re holding it together with bubble gum and paper clips,"
Beckmeyer said on a recent tour of the watershed.

The water and sewer system relies on pipes, many of which are
more than 100 years old.

The NWCDC’s treatment plant in West Milford is one of only a
few in the country still using chlorine, making for a dangerous
scenario if it should ever be damaged.

"You’d have a cloud of chlorine coming down the valley,"
Beckmeyer said.

Technicians monitor quality using outdated equipment. Engineers
sit amid diagrams and wooden drafting tables, fashioning a
computer model that can track the complex system of aqueducts,
reservoirs, dams and pipelines.

The system loses 26 percent of its water a year to leakage and
theft.

Beckmeyer said the infrastructure needs $547 million in
improvements over the next 10 years, requiring a rate hike.

Booker’s office said, barring an independent authority, the
current system is the best way to manage water.

"The administration’s goal is to see that the watershed is run
efficiently while providing residents the same level of
high-quality service they expect," said Booker spokeswoman Anne
Torres, adding the watershed holds the same mission.

Critics agree on the need for improvements but insist that the
council could do better.

"These are important things that should be debated," O’Flaherty
said. "There is money that needs to be spent, and there are
things you need to worry about."

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Funds flowing through Newark Watershed power escalating battle over city's most precious asset