You Just Can’t Make This Shit Up!

Five former governors were chauffeured 153 times, traveling 11,700 miles — all at taxpayer expense – according to data detailing 30 months worth of trips.

“If I did it on my own I’d have to drive, I’d have to find a parking space, get through the crowd,” said 84-year-old Brendan T. Byrne, a Democrat last in power 26 years ago.

The service came under scrutiny last year, following Governor Corzine’s near-fatal crash in a car driven by a state trooper assigned to the Executive Protection Unit. A review panel said discontinuing the free rides — unless there was a specific security issue — would free up the troopers’ schedules, ultimately increasing safety for the governor, his drivers and other motorists.

Byrne used the service the most: He was assigned details 95 times, traveling roughly 7,000 miles. The trips — often with his wife, Ruthie, a top Democratic fundraiser — always involved official business, he said.

“As former governors we’re called on a lot of times to do things,” he said. “There are places I couldn’t go if I couldn’t get the State Police to take me.”

State police drivers on July 10, for instance, drove the Byrnes to and from Princeton to attend the Governor’s Tennis Tournament, an annual fund-raiser he founded. A state police spokesman declined to discuss the workings of the Executive Protection Unit, but did acknowledge that former governors still are allowed to use the service.

State officials, after requests from The Record, released only partial data from January 2005 to July 2007. That was a period cited by the Attorney General’s State Police Executive Protection Unit Review Panel, which reviewed protection operations after Governor Corzine’s near-fatal motorcade crash last year.

The Record is engaged in an Open Public Records Act lawsuit for details on trips involving the former governors and other people, including the identities of all riders and their specific destinations.

The limited records, which did not include any details of the cost of the service, show:

ä Byrne used the service three times for overnights to Atlantic City, a 190-mile round trip from his home in Short Hills. One time a car brought him to Springfield and back, a distance of eight miles. Twelve trips were to Trenton and back. The records also show routine visits to New York City, Princeton, Newark and New Brunswick; and trips to the Shore towns Rumson, Spring Lake and Bay Head.

ä James J. Florio, a Democrat who left office 14 years ago, used the service 25 times, traveling 2,420 miles. Twice he traveled to Atlantic City from Metuchen, then made the return trip a day or two later. He routinely visited Trenton, Princeton and Camden County, his onetime power base.

ä Donald T. DiFrancesco, a Republican who served in 2001 and 2002 — completing the term left vacant when Gov. Christine Todd Whitman joined the Bush administration — used the service 24 times, traveling 1,733 miles. Most of his trips originated in Scotch Plains, where he lives, or Warren, where he has a law practice. Nine times he went to New York City and twice to Philadelphia. Twice he was driven to Newark, then picked up there a few days later.

ä James E. McGreevey, a Democrat who resigned in disgrace in August 2004, took six trips, traveling 347 miles. With the exception of one ride to Atlantic City, the visits were round-trip between Rahway and New York City, all from Jan. 19, 2005, to March 20, 2005.

ä Thomas H. Kean, a Republican who left office 18 years ago, used the service twice, traveling 62 miles. In 2005 he traveled to New Brunswick and in 2006 he went to Princeton, each time from Bedminster, where he has a home.

Florio, DiFrancesco, McGreevey and Kean did not return phone calls for comment.

The State Police Executive Protection Unit guards the governor, attorney general and out-of-state political leaders and dignitaries. Byrne said that during the Kean administration, its staff and cars were offered to former governors.

The unit has more than 30 members, all trained in techniques used by the Secret Service, with further courses taught by the FBI and other law enforcement.

In April 2007, State Trooper Robert Rasinski was at the wheel when Governor Corzine’s SUV crashed, nearly killing him. Four months later, an eight-member review panel — appointed by the attorney general to examine how the service operates — questioned why anyone but top-ranking state officials get Executive Protection Unit assignments.

At a hearing, co-chairman John Degnan asked State Police Col. Rick Fuentes whether the details were necessary.
“Do you think there’s a need to review those situations to determine that we’re using … an appropriate criteria in providing the service to all these dignitaries, or do you think in some cases it’s more of an escort service than it is a protection service?” Degnan asked.

Fuentes responded: “I would certainly … be interested in the recommendations of this panel in that regard and certainly be guided by the work of this panel.”

In its report, the review panel said it had “real concern” because the unit “has provided more than 300 additional protective details … to individuals not regularly afforded [unit] protection.”

The practice amounted to “an additional duty every two to three days and constitutes a demand upon personnel and resources that impact the [unit’s] general mission.”

The panel’s 18 recommendations included giving details to ex-governors and dignitaries only after a “threat-based analysis.”

“EPU resources should not be utilized for personnel other than the governor and the attorney general unless a specific threat warrants such protection,” the panel wrote.

Capt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the state police, said the nature of the Executive Protection Unit’s work barred him from disclosing all but the barest information about its operations.

In the year since the panel’s report was released, Della Fave said the unit followed at least one recommendation: to increase the staff from 29 members. He acknowledged that ex-governors continue to call for rides, but would not say whether the unit now applies the “threat-based” criteria suggested by the panel.

Last year, Whitman was co-chairwoman of the eight-member State Police Executive Protection Unit Review Panel.

“She has used it two or three times since leaving office, when she did official things that she was asked to do as a former governor,” said Heather Grizzle, a spokesman for Whitman. “She always felt that the key words in EPU were ‘protection.’ She said, ‘I’m a private citizen now. I don’t need protection. I can drive myself.’”

In an interview, Byrne said he called for rides only when a trip was related to his onetime official duties.

“I use it when I’m invited as a former governor,” he said. “That’s the test: If you are not a former governor, would you have been asked to take this trip?”

The records show that Byrne was driven to Princeton on Jan. 17, 2006, the day of Corzine’s inaugural ball. Two months later he got a lift to Trenton for Corzine’s budget address. Two trips to Atlantic City coincided with the annual League of Municipalities convention, although he wasn’t certain whether he was in town for those events.

“He’s 84,” Ruthie Byrne said. “Driving is not always a great idea for him, particularly at night. He’s in demand. He’s probably the most active governor in the state.”

The Byrnes said they do have their own cars, but they will continue to use a trooper-driven vehicle when appropriate.

“Lately we’ve gotten some strange calls at home,” the former governor said. “There are still people who are mad at me.”

One point of debate, he said, is the state income tax he instituted in 1976.