Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Friday announced the resignation of the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, David Samson.
Christie, in his first news conference in nearly three months, said he had discussed the matter with Samson and they agreed that new leadership was an essential part of overhauling the multibillion-dollar agency, which is at the center of a scandal involving the closing of several traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September.
The authority, which operates the bridge and other vital transportation hubs in the region, is overseen jointly by Christie, a Republican, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of NewYork, a Democrat. It has an annual budget of $8.2 billion, and there are plans to spend a further $27.6 billion in capital improvements over the next decade, larger than many state budgets.
Christie made the announcement a day after a law firm hired by his administration released an internal report that stated that the governor was not involved in the decision to close the traffic lanes, which led to four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, N.J.
The report placed blame squarely on Bridget Anne Kelly, then one of his top aides, and on David Wildstein, a longtime political operative and the second-ranking New Jersey official at the Port Authority. The governor fired Kelly, and Wildstein resigned.
The report said it couldn’t decipher the motivation behind the lane closings, and in his news conference, Christie said he did not know either.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever know what the motive is,” he said. “It mystifies me on every level why this was done.”
Samson, a prominent lawyer and close Christie ally, along with Kelly and other key figures, declined to be interviewed by the lawyers who were commissioned by the governor. The report has been criticized by Democrats as not being thorough and designed solely to exonerate Christie.
Christie said Samson had raised the subject of retiring well before the scandal began, and there was nothing to indicate that he had done anything wrong.
“I think that his role was not central in any of these things, nor has it ever beenalleged that his role was central,” Christie said, adding, “He is 74 years old and he is tired.”
Samson, who was appointed by Christie to the authority’s board in 2011, issued a statement shortly after the governor’s announcement.
“Over the past months, I have shared with the governor my desire to conclude my service to the PANYNJ,” Samson said in the statement. “The timing is now right, and I am confident that the governor will put new leadership in place to address the many challenges ahead.”
Samson was criticized after emails were made public showing that he had derided his New York counterpart at the authority, who ordered the lanes reopened.
In the emails, Samson seemed more concernedabout his belief that the official was leaking information than about the effect on commuters.
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey issued a subpoena this month to the Port Authority seeking records related to Samson’s potential conflicts of interest. They focused on his votes to award bridge contracts to two large construction companies that have been represented by his law firm, Wolff & Samson, according to people who have seen the subpoena.
The report called for some changes within the structure of the administration, including the creation of an ombudsman and the appointment of an ethics officer, which Christie endorsed Friday.
The scandal has cast a harsh light directly on thePort Authority, and Christie said at the news conference that he was “intrigued by the idea of dismantling the Port Authority,” though it was unclear what form that dismantling would take.
A disintegration of the agency, which was established in 1921, would represent a seminal change for the region and could be immensely complicated.
Despite many calls for significant changes at the agency, transportation experts have in the past advised against disassembling it entirely. Christie added that he had been thinking about the option only for “the last 24 hours.” Information for this article was contributed by Matt Flegenheimer, David S. Joachim, William K. Rashbaum and Kate Zernike of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/29/2014