Gov. Christie appointed his pal David Samson chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Port remains a dump for partisan hacks, but Samson's law firm, Wolff & Samson has done well since Christie took office. You can read about that in my Sunday column in Gannett newspapers, and their on-line web sites. After the four-day incident known as Bridgegate, the spotlight has been on Samson, who was state attorney general under Gov. Jim McGreevey. The New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a coalition of public worker unions, environmentalists and others, filed an ethics compliant against Samson with the New Jersey Ethics Commission on Monday.
The alliance says Wolff & Samson clients that have benefited from Samson's Port Authority position include NJ Transit, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, PSE&G, BRG Harrison Lofts Urban Renewal LLC and Alfonso Daloisio, a part owner of Railroad Construction Company, the Star-Ledger reported.
It cites a sweetheart $1 lease for NJ Transit, which is a Wolf & Samson law firm client. It also cites the Port's taking over the money-losing Atlantic City Airport from the South Jersey Transportation Authority -- like the Port, a patronage mill but for South Jersey pols -- and also, a Wolff & Samson client. In addition, the Record reported, Samson voted for a $256 million reconstruction of a PATH station in Harrison after a builder represented by his law firm proposed converting a nearby warehouse into apartments. That also is a part of the ethics complaint.
Something else to consider: A former lawyer for Christie was recently installed as executive director of the state's ethics agency. Susana E. Guerrero, who was an in-house lawyer for from 2010 to 2012, will oversee investigations of ethics complaints or potential conflicts of interest concerning her former colleagues and others Christie appointed. Her past job was as a deputy to Christie's Education Commissioner, Chris Cerf, who has resigned. Guerrero, 41, also worked at Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci, the law firm of Bill Palatucci, one of Christie's closest political advisers and longtime friend. Christie recommended Guerrero to the commission which voted for her without considering other candidates.
To top it all off, the State Ethics Commission has been a joke as long as anyone can remember. Unfortunately for the commission and the Christie administration, the national spotlight will now shine on the ethics agency -- and people across the land are not going to like what they see.
Sunday, two papers, The Record and the Star-Ledger, reported Christie's Port Authority appointees, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, proposed a series of inflated toll hikes in 2011 designed to make the governors of both New York and New Jersey look good when they opposed them. Wildstein and Baroni resigned when Bridgegate hit the fan.
The Record quoted a source as saying Christie knew about the plan. But in a news conference it said he acted like it was a surprise:
“I said, ‘You’re kidding me, right?’ and they said ‘no,’ ” Christie told the press of his reaction three days after the proposal was introduced in August 2011. “This is, unfortunately, a testimony to the mismanagement of the Port for years. We shouldn’t have to be in this kind of situation.”
Here is a report on the ethics complaint plans from MSNBC 's Steve Kornacki:
