NJ Appoints E-ZPass Manager

The state hired the manager of a bistate agency's E-ZPass system Tuesday to find out what's wrong with the troubled electronic toll collection system in New Jersey.

Transportation Commissioner James Fox also promised he would have a proposal in one month to make the system profitable and glitch-free.

The Turnpike Authority approved Fox's recommendation to hire Walter Kristlibas, who has managed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's E-ZPass system since 1994.

A five-agency regional consortium that manages E-ZPass has previously been overseen by the authority's executive director.

Gov. James E. McGreevey removed former executive director Ed Gross and suspended further construction of E-ZPass in New Jersey until Fox completes a four-month of the review of the system. The state's E-ZPass system is facing a projected $300 million deficit and overrun by complaints that its machines improperly charge motorists.

"The operational problems confronting E-ZPass are massive and the funding shortfalls and effects they will have on the budgets of all the authorities are severe," Fox said. "Quite simply, 120 days is too long to wait to act."

Kristlibas, a 30-year employee of the Port Authority, was responsible for choosing a contractor and designing the electronic toll system at 77 lanes and six toll plazas at crossings connecting New York City and New Jersey. The system has not received as many complaints as in the compatible system in New Jersey, where motorists complain they are charged with bogus violations or for driving in places they never were.

Kristlibas "is one of the few individuals who can say he has overseen a successful E-ZPass deployment," Fox said Tuesday.

As a member of the New Jersey-run E-ZPass consortium, authorities said, Kristlibas also cast a vote in 1996 against awarding the E-ZPass contract to MFS Network Technologies, a company that has been accused of breaking construction datelines and improperly installing the system.

The agencies that make up the consortium include the turnpike authority, New Jersey Highway Authority, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Port Authority.

Kristlibas didn't return telephone calls Tuesday.

He will earn $135,000 in his new job, with a possible $15,000 performance bonus. He will work part-time in New Jersey until the day after Memorial Day.

But during that time, Fox said, Kristlibas and the state will put together a report on who is responsible for the system's failures and a plan to turn the system around. Fox said several companies that made different parts of the system have alternately blamed each other for the failures, while the state's decisions on E-ZPass "have been tortured by committee syndrome."

"There are too many chiefs here. Too many people are involved in the E-ZPass program," Fox said.

The authority also approved a recommendation by Fox to pay Veridian Engineering, a Buffalo, N.Y., firm, $220,000 to conduct tests of E-ZPass to determine what isn't working. Different companies have produced the transponders, or plastic devices that attach to motorists' cars, while others are responsible for the software that connects with the transponder.

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Author: 6 ABC-AP