New Jersey Port Authority Board Member Anthony Sartor Steps Down
Another New Jersey board member on the Port Authority has resigned.
A Port Authority spokesman has confirmed that Anthony Sartor submitted his resignation Monday. That comes less than three weeks after the resignation of board Chairman David Samson, and it leaves New Jersey with four board members at the bistate agency. Both men were appointed by New Jersey governors to the bistate agency, which splits its board and executive positions between the two states.
In his letter to the Port Authority, Sartor said he was retiring after 15 years. He has been under fire for numerous apparent connections between his engineering firm and Port Authority contractors. Sartor is CEO of Paulus, Sokolowski & Sartor, an engineering and environmental consulting firm.
The Asbury Park Press, which first reported on Sartor’s resignation, found that the board member recused himself skipped 36 out of 85 motions in the past year because of potential conflicts of interest, the most of any commissioner. His resignation letter doesn’t mention any of the recent controversies.
4:37 PM PT: Hat tip to Zeta Retuculi for sending links to
Port Authority Commissioner Anthony Sartor Resigns
Anthony Sartor submitted his resignation just days after a new investigation into activity at the Port Authority by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, including the agency’s work rebuilding the World Trade Center, came to light.
Mr. Sartor is a New Jersey appointee who has long chaired the agency’s subcommittee on World Trade Center redevelopment.
His attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Sartor’s resignation had been expected by people familiar with Mr. Vance’s probe, which sought a broad swath of records about the authority’s major projects in New York and New Jersey.
Mr. Vance’s investigation comes as the Port Authority already faces an investigation by federal prosecutors in New Jersey.
Also, This might be the inaugural post of the Christie Watch group just set up by a2nite. If not it is one of the first and I would be a poor editor and poster if I did not encourage all of you who are interested in getting the fastest possible updates on breaking news about anything related to the Governor Christie related investigations which I believe a2nite means to include all the NY and Manhattan's Attorney's investigations including those of former Governor Mario Cuomo.
Please join us and help bring any of these "alleged perpetrators" to justice, if in fact they should be found guilty after a fair trail.
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4:39 PM PT: Chris Mathews is announcing this same story that the New York office also investigating Chris Christie's office.
4:55 PM PT: Interviews show Christie's staff 'working frantically' to throw reporters off scent - NPR's Solomon
6:00 PM PT: Salvador Rizzo, of the Star-Ledger, reveals Bridge scandal: NJ taxpayers to pay legal bills for at least 5 officials, at a rate of $340/hour, according to the state Attorney General's Office.
Iacullo Martino of Nutley. Anthony Iacullo is the attorney for Gov. Chris Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, who went recently before a federal grand jury in Newark as a witness for a criminal investigation being run by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman's office.
Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Peretti of Morristown. According to documents released by Christie's attorneys, the Riker Danzing lawyer billing the state, Zahid Quraishi, is representing Christie aide Evan Ridley, who has been subpoenaed for records by the state Legislature. A spokeswoman for the law firm declined to comment today.
Krovatin Klingeman of Newark. Attorney Henry Klingeman is representing former Christie aide Christina Genovese Renna, who recently resigned. Genovese Renna has also been subpoenaed by the Legislature for records. (The other law partner in that firm, Gerald Krovatin, is billing the city of Hoboken to represent Democratic Mayor Dawn Zimmer as Fishman investigates separate questions about how the Christie administration handed out Hurricane Sandy relief funds.)
Attorney Kevin Marino is representing Bill Stepien, however N.J. taxpayers will only pay for the cost of responding to the subpoena from the Legislature for documents beginning in Septeber of 2012 until September 2013 when he left to run Christie's re-election campaign.
A spokesperson for the N.J. State Attorney General also said that:
"New Jersey state law and judicial precedent afford state employees a presumption in favor of state-funded representation when civil matters relate to actions taken within the scope of their employment, and allow the attorney general broad discretion to provide representation in non-civil matters if doing so is in the best interests of the state," said Lee Moore, a spokesman for acting Attorney General John Hoffman.
6:45 PM PT: Steve Kornacki is reporting the summary of the interview about Kim Gaurdagno saying her driver says that he could see Kim and Mayor Dawn Zimmer talking intensely in the parking lot of the Shop Rite but could not hear what they said, but when Im Gaurdagno got into the car she said something like "If Mayor Zimmer didn't play ball there's not much we can do." Which that section of the report is "consistent with Mayor Dawn Zimmer's version of events.
6:47 PM PT: Kornacki is saying the an interview summary says Kims' assistant Luciano Damagio says that he could see Kim Guadagno and Mayor Dawn Zimmer talking intensely in the parking lot of the Shop Rite but could not hear what they said, but when Im Guadagno got into the car she said something like "If Mayor Zimmer didn't play ball there's not much we can do." Which that section of the report is "consistent with Mayor Dawn Zimmer's version of events.