Concentration of Corporate Cronies Increases on Christie DEP Management Team

Retirements of Career Professionals Highlight the Lack of Qualifications on Bob Martin’s Team

Chamber of Commerce Lawyer, CEO, & Lobbyist Promoted to Deputy Commissioner

It’s old news that current DEP Commissioner Bob Martin is totally unqualified for the job by education, training, and professional experience.

Martin is a retired corporate consultant with academic credentials in economics and business and no environmental experience.

Martin’s corporate background is what drove his ideological animus to government regulation and shaped his “DEP transformation” and “customer service” DEP cultural initiatives.

Under Martin’s orders, every DEP staffer was required to attend “customer service” training, with no doubt that the “customer” Martin had in mind was the regulated business community, not the citizen or public interest.

Martin’s corporate training and values fit perfectly in the Christie Cabinet, where ideology and political loyalty trump qualifications and competence.

What is not so well known is that Martin installed equally unqualified corporate hacks on his management team.

Thus far, he has relied on a handful of DEP career professionals to basically keep the DEP ship afloat.

But that’s all old (if largely unreported) news. Let’s get to the recent news.

The retirement on two longtime career DEP professionals from Martin’s management team now highlights the serious weaknesses at DEP – both in terms of impacts on Martin’s management team and throughout the Department, as an aging DEP loses irreplaceable institutional memory and professional competence.

Former Deputy Commissioner Irene Kropp, who retired recently, was Martin’s right hand woman. Kropp came to DEP around the time I did (mid 1980’s) so I assume that she has 30 years serving in various DEP positions: from water resources, to financial management, to site remediation.

Curiously, I don’t recall seeing her retirement announcement.

Kropp was a controversial figure at DEP and was resented by many staffers.

She developed the first DEP data management system, known as “NJEMS”. It cost a lot and didn’t work so well. During the Lisa Jackson/Corzine Administration, Kropp played a key tole in privatizing DEP’s toxic site cleanup program. During Bob Martin/Christie Administration, she was promoted to Deputy Commissioner  and ran herd on DEP staff, threatening anyone who questioned or resisted the Martin “transformation” and rollback agenda with the “burning platform”.

Some say Kropp was driven out of the DEP by the Christie Governor’s Office after she recently backed a DEP staffer who questioned suspicious AshBritt debris management payments. Others suggest as she retired to avoid a serious ethics charge, alleging favoritism on behalf of her fiancee and husband, who owns and operates a landfill (see:

• Roxbury landfill owner calls for conflict of interest against DEP …
• New Jersey official accused of favoring landfill operated by husband … 
• Dump owner hits back at state: cites problems with ‘The Fenimore … 
• Roxbury landfill owner: ‘It depends on who you talk to at the DEP …

Regardless, Kropp has been replaced by a Martin appointed corporate hack, Michele Siekerka. Siekerka also is a controversial figure.

Siekerka’s qualifications for Deputy Commissioner in the Christie/Martin regime seem to be her lack of training or experience in environmental management and her Chairmanship of the Roma Bank Board and former job with the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce.

The retirement of 25 year professional David Sweeney, Assistant Commissioner for Site Remediation has created another void on the Martin management team and is another example of a huge loss of a generation of environmental professionals at DEP.

Of course, DEP Commissioner Martin makes no mention of any of these serious institutional capacity issues, because part of his job is to dismantle and disable DEP.

According to a recent email from Martin:

From: DEP Commissioner
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 2:24 PM
To: DEP Commissioner
Subject: Senior Staff Announcements

I am pleased to announce two critical senior staff moves to support our efforts to continue to fulfill our mission of protecting New Jersey’s environment and natural resources while we continue to recover and rebuild from Superstorm Sandy.

I am naming Assistant Commissioner of Water Resources Management Michele Siekerka as Acting Deputy Commissioner, effective immediately.

Director of Land Use Regulation Mark Pedersen is the new Acting Assistant Commissioner for Site Remediation, also effective immediately.

I want to congratulate Assistant Commissioner Dave Sweeney on his retirement and thank him for 25 years of dedicated service to the DEP. Dave’s experience, expertise and sense of humor will be missed.

I have great confidence in the leadership of Michele and Mark. Thank you for supporting them in their new roles, and thank you for your continued efforts and service to the people of New Jersey.

Bob Martin

In future, I will be developing a “retired DEP” organizing effort – whether a formal arm of NJ PEER or in some other organizational capacity.

There is enormous untapped knowledge and experience in retired DEP staff and managers that could be put to work in the public interest.

We start that project, auspiciously, on Labor Day weekend.

(current and/ore retired DEP employees interested in working on this should contact me at bill_wolfe (at) comcast (dot) net – but not from a DEP computer!!)