Meet Deborah Gramiccioni

Governor Christie: I am sending to the Port Authority somebody who has been one of my most trusted friends and advisors for the last ten years, and my instruction to her is the instruction that I have given to her in every task I’ve asked her to undertake for me, to use her best judgment, to put integrity first, and to make sure that she makes the tough decisions that need to be made in order to make sure that the taxpayers of this state and in the case of the Port Authority, the toll payers of the region are protected and respected. I want to thank Senator Baroni for his four years of service to the people of the state and of the region, and I look forward to changes that will result from Deb’s leadership along with Chairman Samson and the other Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. So I’m going to introduce Deb to make some remarks and then I’ll come back to take your questions. Thanks Deb.

Deborah Gramiccioni: I would just like to thank the Governor for his continued faith in me. It has been an honor to work for the Governor the past ten years, first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, then as director of the Authorities Unit and now as Deputy Chief of Staff. I also want to thank my policy team. I’m going to miss all of you, and I’m ready to get to work.

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Baroni Is Edged Out Of Port Authority

Governor Chris Christie has announced that former State Senator Bill Barnoni has resigned as Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority of NY/NJ.

Deborah Gramiccioni has been tapped to replace Baroni.  Gramiccioni is a long time Christie staffer, going back to his tenure as U.S. Attorney.  She is the wife of Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Christie said he had been planning to the change ” a while back.” He said that Baroni offered his resignation and he accepted given the “distraction” over ‘Bridgegate.”

Christie said that Baroni had acknowledged that ” a mistake was made” regarding the George Washington Bridge closure last September, and that Baroni has taken responsibility for it.

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Governor Christie Press Conference At 11 AM

There will be ‘Bridgegate’ questions

Governor Chris Christie has called a press conference for 11am this morning to announce personnel changes in his administration.

‘Bridgegate’, the controversy over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September, will likely be the hot topic the press corps wants to talk about, unless Christie declares the press conference ‘on topic’ or restricted to questions about his new appointments or nominations.  Christie has done this on occasion and then lambasted reporters who asked off topic questions.  Any reporter who lets him get away with that today, if he tries it, will deserve to be called an idiot.

Democrats are alleging that the lane closures were political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for failing to endorse Christie’s reelection.

At his press conference on December 2 announcing Kevin O’Dowd’s nomination to be State Attorney General, Christie blew off questions about the GWB lane closures by joking that he was incognito, moving the cones to close the lanes.  But his joke did not satisfy Assemblyman John Wisniewski who is acting as if he finally has an issue with which to take down Christie, politically.

Christie’s men at the Port Authority, the bi-state agency that manages the GWB, said the lane closures were part of a traffic study. David Wildstein ordered the closure/study and has resigned.  Bill Baroni gave testimony to Wisniewski’s Assembly Transportation Committee justifying the study.  Wisniewski called Baroni’s testimony “less than truthful.”   New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s guy at the Port Authority, Executive Director Patrick Foye, threw Wildstein and Barnoni under a bus in his testimony before Wisniewski’s committee.  Wisniewski has called for Baroni’s resignation and has subpoenaed emails and memos from Port Authority.

The issue is beginning to get legs in the national political press as a possible threat to Christie’s 2016 presidential prospects.  A pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC is producing ads on the issue.

Tune in at 11 to see if Christie can put this issue behind him before it becomes a distraction to his second term, his chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association and to his 2016 presidential prospects.

UPDATE: BARONI RESIGNED.

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PolitickerNJ: Christie May Appoint A Placeholder To U.S. Senate

David Samson

PolitickerNJ is reporting that “several Republican sources” told them that Governor Chris Christie could appoint former State Attorney General David Samson to New Jersey’s vacant U.S. Senate seat as early as today.

Samson would be a placeholder, meaning that he would not run in the Special Election Christie called for October 16 to retain the seat.

Samson was Attorney General during the first year of the McGreevey administration.  He served in Governor Tom Kean’s administration as General Counsel to the NJ Turnpike Authority and as Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on the Laws Governing the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ).  In the Florio administration, Samson was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Health Care Costs.

Samson was counsel to Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign and Chairman of Christie’s Transition Team. Christie nominated Samson to Chair the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, a position he has held since February of 2011.

Christie was U.S. Attorney while Samson was State Attorney General. Both of their lives were threatened by the Latin Kings street gang.

Samson is a founding member of the Wolf and Samson law firm.  The firm has offices in West Orange, New York and Trenton.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Announce Reopening of World Trade Center and Exchange Place PATH Service on Monday, November 26

Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that weekday PATH service will resume to Lower Manhattan along the World Trade Center line beginning Monday, November 26 at 5 a.m.

The World Trade Center PATH line will run Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., with stops in New Jersey at Newark, Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street and Exchange Place and in New York at the World Trade Center. Disabled access will be available at Newark and World Trade Center.

Floodwater from the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy had inundated the World Trade Center station, covering its track bed with several feet of water. Port Authority PATH crews have worked around the clock to remove millions of gallons of water from the tracks and platforms and also to fix and replace damaged switching and signal systems as quickly as possible. Weekend service will not yet be available to enable crews to continue the remaining necessary repair work.

The restored service to the World Trade Center will be in addition to the PATH service currently running from Newark in New Jersey to 33rd Street in New York. That line is running seven days a week between the hours of 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and includes stops in New Jersey at Newark, Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street and Newport stations and stops in New York at 9th, 14th, 23rd and 33rd Street. Once service resumes at the World Trade Center on Monday, service on the 33rd Street line will resume running between Journal Square and 33rd Street and will make all station stops including Christopher Street in Manhattan.

Weekend service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street line extends to Harrison and Newark in New Jersey. Disabled passengers have access to the platforms at Newark, Journal Square, Newport and 33rd Street.

Service at the Hoboken station, which saw unprecedented and widespread flooding remains suspended due to the fact vital switching equipment was destroyed and cannot be salvaged. Crews are working 24/7 to replace the signal equipment and restore communications in the tunnels, a process that is expected to take several weeks.

To provide additional mass transit options from Hoboken to Manhattan, the Port Authority and New Jersey Transit are operating a ferry service from the Hoboken Ferry Terminal. NJ Transit customers will now be able to take a bus to the Hoboken Ferry Terminal and then transfer to a ferry that will take passengers to Pier 79 at 39th street in Manhattan. The fare is $5 and ferries will run back and forth between Hoboken and Manhattan from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Free shuttle buses will be provided from Pier 79 to midtown Manhattan.

Passengers who normally use the Hoboken station to get to Manhattan can also choose to make the ten minute walk to the Newport station, or take advantage of several other ferry and bus alternatives. Ferry service to Lower Manhattan is available from Liberty State Park and to Midtown Manhattan from Weehawken, New Jersey. In addition, NJ Transit has increased the number of No. 106 buses from Hoboken to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in both directions.

For up-to-date information on PATH service, visit the Port Authority’s website at www.panynj.gov/path/and follow them on Twitter @PATHTweet.

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Starve The Beast: Roll Back The Port Authority Toll Hikes

Given the results of the audit of Port Authority released earlier this week, it is fair to conclude that PA has been overcharging New Jersey commuters and truckers for decades.

Too much money has been the addictive substance that made PA “dysfunctional.” 

Lack of money is what has enabled Governor Christie, and many other governors across the country to implement necessary reforms.  Christie is extraordinarily talented, but would he have been able to get the Democrats to compromise with him if tax revenue was rolling in with abundance?  No way.

Yet, with the September toll hikes, Governors Christie and Cuomo have helped the the dysfunctional, wasteful, corrupt Pork Authority to more of their destructive substance.

New Jersey Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen County) and New York State Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) have called for the latest toll hikes to be rolled back, according to The Star Ledger.

At the very least, tolls should be rolled back to their pre-September levels until the ongoing audit of PA is complete and reforms implemented.  A rollback to the 2001 toll levels should be seriously considered.

Phase two of the toll increases announced last August take effect in 2014.  Christie and Cuomo should immediately revoked that authorization and roll back the current tolls to the September 2011 levels, at the very least.

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Port Authority Retirees Suing For Free Tolls And Damages

Thomas Westfield, a Morris County attorney who began practicing law after retiring from the Port Authority Police Department, has filed a class action suit against the Pork Authority seeking to reinstate free tolls and parking for retirees and $2000 per class member for as long as the benefits have been rescinded. There are at least 400 class members, according to a report at New Jersey Law Journal.

Westfield admits that the loss of benefits cost him no particular hardship, just the annonyance of having to pay tolls when going to an occasional Yankee game.  He also said he doesn’t know how often class members use the Hudson River crossings or park at the agency’s three airports.

Westfield, 65, has retired from the full time practice of law.

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Christie And Cuomo Direct Port Authority To Scale Back Toll Hikes

Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York sent a joint letter to Port Authority Chairman David Samson and Vice Chairman Stanley Grayson today directing that the toll and fare increases the authority proposed two weeks ago be scaled back and that a comprehensive audit of the capital plan and operations take place.

A copy of the governors’ letter can be found here.

Christie and Cuomo said that their commissioners were able to identify $5 billion in savings within the capital plan over the last two weeks. 

Imagine what they could have found if they weren’t in a hurry.

Tolls for cars on the Hudson River crossings will increase by $1.50 in September and then $.75 in December in each year from 2012-2015.  The Port Authority’s proposal would have raised these tolls by $4.00 in September. Overall tolls on cars will increase by $4.50 over the next five years rather than the $6.00 PANYNJ proposed over four years.

Drivers paying cash rather than using EZ Pass will pay a $2.00 penalty.

Tolls on trucks using EZ Pass will increase by $2.00 per axle in September, and then an additional $2.00 per year per axle starting in December, 2012-2015.

Trucks paying cash will pay the same increases, plus $3.00 per axle.

Fares on the PATH trains will increase $.25 per year for the next four years.

The governors said that these increases would stop the fiscal crisis at Port Authority and allow for the completion of the World Trade Center and hundreds of other projects that “will ensure the safety and economic viability of a transportation system that millions of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans rely on.”

This toll deal, since the Port Authority’s initial announcement through today’s joint letter by the governors is just too cute for my liking.

Why institute five years worth of toll increases before the comprehensive audit is completed?  What happens if the audit reveals another $5 billion in savings?  Will tolls be reduced by another $2.50 like the governors were able to reduce the proposed increases with $5 billion in savings discovered in two weeks?  Who will conduct the audit?  Is prevailing wage on the table for reform? Will the audit be made public?  How long will the audit take to complete?

If there is a real fiscal crisis at PANYNJ with a possibility of defaulting on bonds, a more reasonable alternative would have been to grant temporary toll and fare increases, for six months to a year, until the audit could be completed, studied and money saving reforms implemented.

The fact that this fiasco happened during two weeks in August while so many people are vacationing before the back to school rush increases my cynicism and disappointment.  It makes me fear what might be in store for us during the last two weeks of December and during the lame duck session of the legislature.

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Overtime pay “flows like water” at Port Authority

New York State’s top auditor said that overtime pay “flows like water” at the Port Authority of NY/NJ, according to a report this morning in The Record.

Port Authority paid $85.7 million in overtime to 5,360 of its 6,977 employees, with many doubling their base salaries and earning over $200K per year.

“Management has no clear strategy” for meeting its own cust cutting goals, The Record quotes NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli as saying.

At a press conference last week Governor Christie blamed past mismanagement for Port Authority’s fiscal woes. 

Port Authority’s leadership should do Governors Christie and Cuomo, as well as all residents of the region a favor and withdraw their toll and fare increase proposal.  Rather, they should announce that they are embarking on a overhaul of the agency’s operations to eliminate waste and excessive spending before they seek any more money.

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Unions Packing Port Authority Toll Hike Hearings

I suppose it should be no surprise that unions are sending their members to the Port Authority toll hike hearings to make emotional appeals to raise the tolls on non-union commuters.

Nor is it a surprise that the few commuters who can attend the hearings are objecting to having to bear the burden of the cost of infrastructure and cost overruns at the World Trade Center.

InTheLobby reports that fear of a credit downgrade might be what is really behind the push for the toll and fare hikes.

If you’re not attending the online hearing this afternoon between 5 and 6, tune into the LaRossa and Gallagher Radio Show with special guest Bob Ingle, on WIFI 1460 AM or here.

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