CNN's Steve Kastenbaum reports, Embattled Christie Port Authority appointee abruptly leaves public meeting, some later call for his resignation. Chairmen David Samson recused himself from a public meeting of the Port Authority Wednesday night, just before several lawmakers and members of the general public called on him to resign.
The New York Times, the Star-Ledger in New Jersey and two other newspapers have called for Samson, a former state attorney general and a powerful private lawyer, to step down because they say clients of his firm have benefited from business with the Port Authority.
Newark resident Cassandra Dock was prepared to tell Samson to step down. She instead addressed the remaining members of the board after he left the meeting.
“How do you sit there and allow Mr. Samson, his law firm, to be a part of a lot of things that have gone on over here, contracts, how? How do you do it,” as she pounded the podium.
Executive Pat Foye cryptically refused to make any comments "about any pending investigations," reminding me of a Mad Magazine parody many decades ago, of how politicians torpedo each other while appear to be denying they are saying anything.
Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye recently told the New York Daily News that Samson “lacked the moral authority” to lead the board.
But Foye was circumspect after Wednesday’s meeting when asked by reporters about Samson and whether he should resign. ... “I’m not going to speak about any pending investigation, and that’s a personal question best left to the chairman,” he said.
"This is behavior that's not acceptable," James Tedesco, a lawmaker from Bergen County, where the lane closures originated, told the Port Authority board. "It is unconscionable for you to sit idly by and to not address what took place."
There seems to be a surge in spontaneous citizen protesters turning out at Town Halls and public meetings expressing increased levels of outrage that New Jersey political leaders are not taking more aggressive actions to get to he bottom of these scandals and resolve them.