Twenty-four managers at the Delaware River Port Authority are provided vehicles for their full-time use, agency records show.
Eleven other DRPA executives who received annual car allowances of at least $9,000 had them discontinued last month amid widespread criticism of perquisites for top agency officials.
The 24 permanent vehicle assignments were identified this week in documents sent to Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert McCord, who is investigating DRPA practices.
In addition to the car allowances and assigned vehicles, the DRPA maintains four pool vehicles for employees' business use.
On several occasions, DRPA officials who received annual car allowances used pool vehicles instead of their cars. That usually happened when the number of people making the trip required a larger vehicle, chief executive John Matheussen said Thursday.
"Common sense would dictate that if you have a car allowance, you should not be using a pool car unless there are special circumstances," Matheussen said.
He said he had used pool vehicles twice, when trips required more seats than he had in his Nissan Altima.
On another occasion, the DRPA fleet manager - corporate secretary John Lawless - questioned a request for a pool car in 2008, and government relations director William Shanahan defended the request he had made in an internal e-mail.
"There is no policy that prohibits anyone with a car allowance to use a fleet pool car for company business," wrote Shanahan, who received a car allowance of $9,000.
Shanahan requested the car to attend a meeting in Piscataway, N.J., with Matheussen, deputy chief executive Robert Gross (who also received a $9,000 car allowance), and former chief engineer William Brooks, who received no car allowance. Shanahan reported that his personal vehicle had been unavailable.
Matheussen, whose car allowance was $16,980, said he attended the Piscataway meeting, but went in his own vehicle.
The other eight recipients of the recently suspended $9,000 car allowances were Lawless, who collects a $123,806 salary despite having been removed from his post in April; chief administrative officer Toni Brown (salary, $180,081); assistant to the chairman Mary-Rita D'Alessandro ($140,000); chief financial officer John Hanson ($180,081); former chief public safety officer Michael Joyce ($180,081); government relations manager Mark Lopez ($81,115); chief operating officer Timothy Pulte ($180,081), and labor contract director John Rogale ($117,994).
