Outgoing lawmakers’ bill to change NJ Transit’s reform law gains support - nj.com

A bill that would change NJ Transit’s reform law by making a customer advocate more independent and giving riders more transparency was approved by the State Senate Thursday afternoon.

The Senate voted 25-to-4 to approve the bill, which now must wait for the Assembly version of the same bill to go through the transportation committee and be sent to the full Assembly for a vote before it can go to Gov. Phil Murphy.

But time is growing short.

The Assembly bill has a Jan. 10 deadline when the last legislative voting session of this term is held. If the clock runs out, the identical bills have to start the process over again without two of their main sponsors in the Senate, Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, and Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, who will both be leaving the legislature at the end of the term.

The bill had been referred to as “NJ Transit Reform 2.0″ by Weinberg, who with Kean proposed it to close loopholes and deficiencies in the original NJ Transit reform law that was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in Dec. 2018.

“While these reforms are not all I would have wished for, they provide for more accountability and transparency, give more power to the governing board, and represent a solid starting block from which to build a stronger NJ Transit in the months and years to come,” Weinberg said in a statement.

For commuters, one of the bill’s more significant aspects revises the Customer Advocates job description to create a position that is more independent from NJ Transit. The bill also requires more access for the public, and would require NJ Transit’s board to hold half of its 10 annual meetings in the evening so commuters can attend, as well as requiring the board to offer web steaming of meetings.

Board agendas would have to be provided to the public five calendar days before a meeting to allow riders to have information to make informed comments.

“NJ Transit has an extensive record of inefficiency and incompetency, ranging from the inability to run the buses and trains on time, to questionable hiring and management practices, staffing and scheduling problems, and lengthy delays implementing mandated safety control systems on trains,” Kean said in a statement. “This measure will help get things back on the right track.”

A customer advocate was part of the original NJ Transit reform act in 2018. When the position was filled, commuters complained that the advocate functioned more as a public relations person for NJ Transit than as a rider representative.

Under the new bill, the customer advocate would be required to meet with passengers on at least a monthly basis. The Customer Advocate office would be moved to the Department of Transportation, but it would be independent of control by the DOT.

Instead, the advocate would be appointed, supervised and report to NJ Transit’s Board of Directors and not to executive administration, under the new legislation.

The advocate would have the power to conduct investigations, do studies, research, issue reports and to present comments and testimony to the board, legislative committees, and other government bodies.

An NJ Advance Media report revealed that the original job description for the position was ladened with PR responsibilities, even though NJ Transit has a communications department. NJ Transit said the job description had been later modified. Weinberg and Kean drafted the amended reform law in 2020.

The advocate’s position has been vacant for more than a year. Commuters have pressed NJ Transit for a date that a new job description would be acted on and hiring date for a replacement. Having the position filled also is crucial to filling and activating a riders advisory council, similar to what the PATH system has, advocates have said.

“Let us remember that this is just a start. A good start, but only a start nonetheless,” Weinberg said. “We all have a lot of work to do if we want to ensure that NJ Transit is capable of delivering the reliable, on-time service its riders have a right to expect.”

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source: https://www.nj.com/news/2021/12/outgoing-lawmakers-bill-to-change-nj-transits-reform-law-gains-support.html

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