FORT LEE — New Jersey lawmakers want the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to explain why it abruptly closed two of three local access lanes onto the George Washington Bridge last month, clogging the already congested streets of Fort Lee for several days.
Following the Port Authority’s failure to elaborate on a terse statement issued last month that the week-long closure starting Sept. 9 involved a study of “traffic safety patterns” some suspect the closures and ensuing traffic jams were retribution against Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor for failing to endorse Gov. Chris Christie for re-election. Agency spokespeople ignored repeated requests for comment yesterday.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a longtime critic of the Port Authority who chairs the Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee, said he will convene a hearing next month to probe the lane closures and financial issues surrounding a record toll hike the Port Authority imposed at the George Washington and other bi-state bridges and tunnels in 2011.
“I think the old adage that, ‘If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck,’ applies here,” Wisniewski said of the lane closures, viewing them as yet another example of an agency that is “out of control” and in need of oversight and transparency. “The reason why I think that there’s an inference that needs to be addressed is that the Port Authority executive director, usually a man of the most mild demeanor, was angered by the exercise of power by people allegedly under his control.”
Wisniewski was referring to a report in the Wall Street Journal today that quoted from emails it said were sent by Executive Director Patrick Foye to the bridge’s manager and his boss, and copied to Christie’s two top appointees at the agency. In his email, according to the report, Foye condemns the closures as “abusive,” a threat to public safety, and possibly illegal, after they were done without the involvement of the Port Authority police or its engineering department.
Foye, who was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York following the toll hike, did not mention politics or any other motivation for the closures. But the Journal report quoted him in the email as pledging to investigate “how PA process was wrongfully subverted and the public interest damaged to say nothing of the credibility of this agency.”
Christie shares control of the Port Authority with Cuomo, and the New Jersey governor has been praised and in some cases endorsed by Garden State mayors in areas where the Port Authority has a presence. For example, Harrison’s Democratic mayor, Raymond McDonough, endorsed Christie in January, after the agency committed spending $250 million on a new PATH station to anchor that town’s ongoing redevelopment.
A spokesman for the governor’s office, Colin Reed, declined to comment. Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie's gubernatorial campaign, did not respond to phone and email inquiries.
The State Democratic Committee released a statement demanding that the Port Authority release results of any traffic study conducted during the closures.
“If there is even a hint of truth to these accusations then the people of Bergen County and, specifically, Fort Lee deserve answers and someone will need to explain how motorists' time and safety could be subject to political retribution in this manner,” the statement read.
Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich’s office said he had no comment.
Wisniewski was asked to probe the closures by a Bergen County Democrat, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-37th District), whose constituents include many George Washington Bridge commuters. Huttle said the notion that some agency officials would close the entrance ramps to punish a political foe was hard to believe.
Huttle was among Democratic lawmakers who introduced unsuccessful bills intended to enhance transparency and oversight at the agency in the wake of the toll hike, which a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last month said was rushed through with little public notice or input, thanks in part to a lack of oversight.
Another Bergen Democrat, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37th District), wrote to Port Authority Commissioner Patrick Schuber, a former Republican Bergen County executive appointed to the agency by Christie, asking for answers to the closure mystery. She said he vowed to find out what happened. Schuber did not repsond to a request for comment.
Weinberg also said she found it difficult to believe that the Port Authority would snarl traffic and endanger people for political reasons.
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