The Noneillah Talks Show host Naomi Johnson had the pleasure to interview Todd Barretta NJ Transit Former First Chief of Compliance
Todd Barretta, a former NJ Transit compliance officer testifies at a state legislative and federal whistleblower NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Todd Barretta, who spent five months this year as NJT’s chief compliance officer until he was fired this past Monday. He described a deteriorating relationship with top management and an agency that is totally dysfunctional. “Simply, it is a toxic environment that promotes a culture that is not accepting of any corrected course. Although my tenor was extremely short in terms of time, I witnessed more occurrences of agency-wide management fueled by ignorance, arrogance, hypocrisy, incompetence, patronized, and corruption than one can reasonably expect to experience throughout an entire career,” he said. Todd, continue to say that NJ Transit is not a safe transportation company that he will not put his son on the system.”
Related Article: Ex-NJ Transit official says he was fired for exposing mismanagement
Todd has spoken out against New Jersey's biggest transportation company, poor safety construction in their transportation system, and the increasing preventable deaths caused by NJ Transit's poorly trained bus drivers and train engineers. Governor Murphy never mentions these fatalities and Corbett does not care.
New Jersey former Governor Chris Christie and the dysfunctional agency fired him. Berretta has faced bankruptcy, foreclosure, and extended unemployment. He's burned through all his savings, and he's had to enroll his son in the state's public health insurance program. I am perplexed by Governor Phil Murphy's action to pick up Chris Christie's egregious behavior towards Todd. Chris Christie is nervous to label Todd as being unfaithful to his job. Chris Christie was the most corrupt individual when he held the Governor position. Barretta said in an interview with Noneillah Talk Show host Naomi, "the first week he started his job, on a Thursday the executive received an emergency update about train strike fatality while on the elevator. "He asked if the train engineer killed someone this morning, New Jersey Transit police responded to him with a nonchalant tone of voice tone, saying it happens every once or every week or two, you will get numb to it."
We live in a world now where honesty, morality, social justice, human rights, and compassion for human lives do not mean anything. Based on NJ Transit and their subcontracted bus company Coach USA track record of increasing pedestrian deaths caused by their incompetents' bus drivers and train engineer shows that citizens' safety, passengers, and human lives are not important. What's important to the agency is profit over human safety. New Jersey Senator Gordon and Assemblyman McKeon called the lawsuit against Todd Barretta deeply troubling. End it now!
Related Article: NJ Transit Lawsuit Against Whistleblower Deeply Troubling.
Todd said that the audit showed that the agency had become highly politicized under former Gov. Chris Christie and structured its hiring practices to favor applicants with connections to the governor's office rather than experienced professionals. Such practices had contributed to an exodus of senior supervisors and depressed morale among those who stayed. The audit also showed that the agency had no strategic planning, was deficient in procurement and technology, and needed to improve its customer communication.
Related article: He blew the whistle on NJ Transit. He paid for it with his career.
Related article: Ex-official files federal safety complaint against NJ Transit
According to my research in this matter, I feel that Todd has been and is a victim of political bullying. Is America a country that tries to silence whistleblowers who are trying to make positive changes? And shine the light on a situation that is trying to save pedestrians' lives and implement some type of corrective action. I do not think that NJ Transit or Coach USA transportation are leading goals. I've spoken to an NJ Transit and Coach USA source who tells me that the bus drivers do not have to have any experience or training in operating a big bus. In Conjunction with that, the bus driver does not have to pass their test to operate the bus. The bus companies put these drivers on the road with psychological issues, no interpersonal skills, no anger manager skills, no compassionate or human lives, bad hearing, and lousy vision, which are the vital components a professional driver needs in professional public transportation.
I do not know why NJ Transit wants to put a transportation company like Coach USA to drive some of their routes. Coach USA is a very badly run company now owned by a private equity firm. Governor Murphy is invested in private equity and it definitely looks like deliberate destruction of NJ Transit. We need great leaders of New Jersey to think about all lives matter, not the one fit's their political agenda. The killing epidemic will not stop as long as there's no policy in place to hold the bus driver accountable for their action. Like going to jail, not getting a paycheck, or killing a pedestrian and they are not allowed to collect a pension, We need a policy that has meaningful change with the focus that shows pedestrians being killed by bus drivers and train engineers' lives matter. We need a policy that puts forth pedestrian safety caused by NJ Transit and Coach USA drivers. Like Bob Menendez did or NJ Transit bus drivers against pedestrians or passengers who assaulted them. If he can pass a law to protect the bus driver against citizens, why can he not do the same for pedestrians being killed by the bus drivers? All of these deaths need to be investigated by the federal bureau of investigation or Trenton's heads. It's sad that the most powerful people in Trenton do not want legislative investigations. This state has been the epitome of corruption in politics for almost 5 decades on this earth. They cherry-pick and only make a task force with a narrow scope instead of looking at operations. It's time to stand up to protect these victims because it can be your loved ones next.
In conclusion, nothing is being done about these deaths or poor conditions in properly training the bus drivers and train engineers. It is going to continue to get increasingly worse. You can watch the Noneillah Talk Show with Todd and Naomi covering various topics from NJ Transit corruption, his destroyed career, poor train engineer training, the talk show host's son who was a victim of Coach USA bus driver Wilson Romain killing, the connection with Coach USA and more topics.
Please watch the Noneillah Talk Show New Jersey roads need to be NJ Transit and Coach USA friendly.