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Tag: john wisniewski
Republicans Say Port Authority Changes Are Needed

Republicans Say Port Authority Changes Are Needed

By Michael Linhorst, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

TRENTON, N.J. — After months of investigation, it’s time to force changes at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Republicans on the panel looking into the authority’s George Washington Bridge lane closures said on Thursday.

They unveiled a series of proposals, among them requiring authorities to post detailed information about their finances and activities online and creating a new crime, “using one’s official position to hurt commuters for unofficial purposes,” which would be punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a fine of as much as $10,000.

Some of those reforms have appeared in failed legislation in the past, and lawmakers wasted no time in using the new proposals to criticize their opponents’ past lack of enthusiasm for making changes at the authority.

Democrats said Republicans were trying “to change the subject” and “climb on the bandwagon of reform.”

“Now that somebody’s been caught abusing power, they’re running to embrace reform, when before they were anything but champions of reforms,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) a co-chairman of the joint committee investigating the lane closures.

The panel has issued dozens of subpoenas to investigate the September lane closures of the George Washington Bridge, which caused widespread traffic jams in Fort Lee after the borough’s Democratic mayor declined to endorse Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign. Documents that became public last month show Bridget Anne Kelly, a Christie deputy chief of staff, told a Port Authority official to close the lanes, apparently for political retribution.

There are no signs the investigation is slowing. Lawyers for Kelly and former Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien will appear in court on March 11 to argue why they should not have to comply with the committee’s subpoena, the state judiciary announced on Thursday.

The two claim their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination allowed them to refuse to produce documents. The investigatory committee disagrees and is taking them to court.

Port Authority reforms have been on legislative agendas many times. About a dozen bills aimed at increasing transparency or altering the power of the authority were introduced in the Legislature’s previous two-year session, which ended last month. Only one made it to Christie’s desk. The Port Authority “Transparency and Accountability Act” would have required the authority’s board of commissioners to implement new financial controls, among a variety of other mandates. The governor vetoed it in 2012, arguing that it should have covered more agencies than just the Port Authority.

Republicans voted unanimously for the measure but did not support an override effort.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) said the fate of that bill showed Republicans’ true interest in reform. “The place, perhaps, to start speaking out was when the governor vetoed the Port Authority bill,” said Weinberg, who is co-chairwoman of the legislative panel.

Republicans’ new proposals would impose standardized financial disclosures for top officials; establish independent monitors with subpoena powers; insulate top leaders from politics by giving them terms longer than the governors’ terms; and strengthen whistle-blower laws.

Those reforms would apply to all bi-state authorities and most would also apply to agencies based solely in New Jersey.

“The Port Authority is an out-of-control behemoth that has operated in a murky netherworld for far too long,” said Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth.

Photo: Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr

Ex-Christie Aide Redacted Senator’s Name From Text Message

Ex-Christie Aide Redacted Senator’s Name From Text Message

By Melissa Hayes and Michael Phillis, The Record (Hackensack, NJ)

TRENTON, N.J. — A former top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey redacted the name of a Republican state senator when he submitted hundreds of pages of communication to a legislative committee charged with probing the lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge.

David Wildstein, who resigned from his position as director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority, blacked out a text message mentioning state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, R-Cedar Grove.

The text, from Wildstein to Bill Baroni, the Port Authority’s former deputy executive director who was also appointed by Christie, was sent at 11:59 a.m. on Nov. 25. It reads, “O’Toole statement ready.” The Record obtained documents Wednesday that included the text messages without redaction. The timing of the message is key because it came just after Baroni spoke with the Assembly Transportation Committee about the lane closures.

O’Toole is one of four Republicans on a 12-member New Jersey Select Committee on Investigation that was formed in January to look into the lane closures. The panel’s Democratic leaders, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assemblyman John Wisniewski, have said O’Toole might be called to answer questions about what he knew. Republicans on the committee stood by O’Toole, saying there is no evidence he did anything wrong.

O’Toole has not responded to requests for comment. Wildstein’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

“Kevin is very bright and is very attentive to the necessity of being aboveboard, so I’m certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, a member of the committee. “If he feels he can be an objective participant in this, I have no reason to believe otherwise.”

O’Toole’s name also came up in another document handed over by Wildstein, an email, but was not redacted in that instance.

The redaction of the text message, however, is raising additional questions, Wisniewski said, adding that he hoped O’Toole would clarify their content for the committee.

“We hope that he would provide the committee with any information,” Wisniewski said, adding that he was prepared to work with O’Toole. “Nobody was making an issue of his position on the committee. There are a series of questions that people have raised.”

The text was sent moments after Baroni told the Assembly Transportation Committee that the lane closures that tied up traffic for more than four days were part of a traffic study to determine whether Fort Lee needed three dedicated toll plaza lanes to access the bridge. Baroni had reached out to Wildstein seeking feedback about his testimony from officials in Trenton.

O’Toole released a statement to the media hours later attacking the Democrats who led the November meeting and echoing points Baroni made in his testimony.

“Why was a sweetheart deal done that gave Fort Lee three lanes and a dedicated exit,” O’Toole asked in his statement. “Who thought this was fair? If we are going to be honest with the citizens of New Jersey then let’s be honest, this certainly isn’t it.”

Weinberg said the committee could call O’Toole to answer questions about what he knew about Baroni’s testimony, which used the purported traffic study to explain the lane closures that were carried out by Wildstein and ordered by a former deputy chief of staff to Christie apparently as political retribution against the Fort Lee mayor for failing to endorse the governor’s re-election bid last year.

O’Toole also submitted an opinion piece to The Record, which was published the next day and again attacked Democrats and questioned the need for dedicated Fort Lee lanes.

“The chairman of that committee and his fellow Democrats conducted this hearing to repeatedly hammer one of Christie’s appointments to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in an attempt to score political points against the governor,” O’Toole wrote. “They ignored facts and refused to ask why the majority of New Jersey commuters must suffer.”

The documents Wildstein provided in response to a legislative subpoena were made public by the committee investigating the lane closures last month. Wildstein included his text messages with Baroni on Nov. 25. One line is blacked out.

Baroni did not turn over text messages in response to the initial legislative subpoena.

But he has provided additional documents as part of a new subpoena, including the text messages he exchanged with Wildstein the day he appeared before the Assembly panel.

In Baroni’s document, it is clear that the line redacted in Wildstein’s submission is the reference to O’Toole.

Wildstein’s documents include another reference to O’Toole. In an email to Michael Drewniak, Christie’s press secretary, on Dec. 5 Wildstein writes, “Thanks again for all your sound advice last night, I always appreciate your friendship. Spoke with O’Toole this morning and he will talk with you later.”

Wildstein announced his resignation the next day. Drewniak did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson