SAMSON + BARONI + WILDSTEIN = RAN A RENEGADE PORT AUTHORITY EMPIRE!

CHRISTIE + SAMSON + WILDSTEIN AT 9ll ANIVERSERY IN 2013 ON 3rd DAY OF GW BRIDGE CLOSURE!

CHRISTIE FACT:  Photo of Christie with David Wildstein, Samson, and Baroni (handpicked advisers and long time friends) at ground zero on the anniversary of 9ll on the third day of the GWB closure reported in Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.

BARONI WAS THERE ALSO ON THIRD DAY OF BRIDGE CLOSURE:

CHRISTIE: “And I knew nothing about this (GWB CLOSURE). And until it started to be reported in the papers about the closure, but even then I was told this was a traffic study.So what I can tell you is if people find that hard to believe, I don’t know what else to say except to tell them that I had no knowledge of this — of the planning, the execution or anything about it — and that I first found out about it after it was over. And even then, what I was told was that it was a traffic study.”

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$65 BILLION in Hurricane MIDDLE CLASS Sandy LOOT – PART FOR A SLUSH FUNDS FOR CHRISTIE TO HOLD HOSTAGE = TYPICAL GOP!

CHRISTIE = SLUSH FUNDS AND PRESSURED LEVERAGING FROM DAY 1 WITH ARC CANCELLATION!

This FAR MORE THAT BRIDGE-GATE!

This is SLUSH FUNDS-GATE!

1. CANCEL ARC PROJECT = MORE SLUSH TO HOLD HOSTAGE!
2. 50% JUMP IN BRIDGE TOLLS = MORE SLUSH TO HOLD HOSTAGE!
3. $BILLIONS in US MIDDLE CLASS SANDY FUNDS = MORE SLUSH TO HOLD HOSTAGE!

THINGS CHRISTIE DID NOT KNOW WHEN HE HIRED DAVID WILDSTEIN AT $150,000/YEAR FOR PORT AUTHORITY JOB THAT RAISED BRIDGE FEES BY 50% AND WAS HIRED TO BE CHRISTIE’S EYES AND EARS IN THE PORT AUTHORITY!

CHRISTIE:  I didn’t REALLY know DAVID WILDSTEIN in High school – I WAS PRESIDENT AND STAR OF THE TEAM – I knew nothing about David.

I never knew David Wildstein’s was “tumultuous” and “not productive.”

I never knew David at 16 sued over a local school board.

I never our high school social studies teacher accused David of deceptive behavior.

I never knew David was Mayor of Livingston and had conflicts

I wrote to him several times when he was an anonymous blogger Wally Edge 

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$65 BILLION in Hurricane Sandy SLUSH FUNDS – Much for CHRISTIE to hold HOSTAGE = TYPICAL GOP!

“Superstorm Sandy” = Deadliest (268+) and second-costliest hurricane in US history.  

“Superstorm Sandy” = Category 2 storm at its peak intensity when it made US landfall 

“Superstorm Sandy” = Largest Atlantic hurricane on record by diameter, with winds spanning 1,100 miles impacted 24 States = particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York.  Damage in the US amounted to $65 Billion. 

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HISTORY OF PORT AUTHORITY SLUSH  FUND EMPIRE

APRIL 18, 2012  SUBCOMMITTEE ON SURFACE TRANSPORTATION AND MERCHANT MARINE INFRASTRUCTURE, SAFETY, AND SECURITY of the COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION,  UNITED STATES SENATE – SENATOR LAUTENBERG PRESIDING

 

http://newyork.construction.com/news/newswatch/archive/2009/0514.asp

Tolling authorities in Maine, Florida, and Pennsylvania involved in various scandals and cases of corruption, and in my home state, in our home state of New Jersey, we have reached crisis levels.

Toll to cross our bridges and tunnels was $2 or $5 in todays dollar

2012 cost $12 to cross between New Jersey and New York = Port Authority took the toll from $8 to $12 = $80 a month increase in costs

PORT AUTHORITY = Allegations of patronage and dysfunction with these toll hikes behind closed doors.  Six-figure salaries, were given to former political bloggers, local mayors, and others with questionable credentials. 

PORT AUTHORITY = Independent auditor called “a challenged and dysfunctional organization.” 

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-112shrg80594/html/CHRG-112shrg80594.htm

NJ comptroller investigation = Abuses at the Delaware River Port Authority = wasted millions of toll revenues by allowing the Authority to be used like a personal ATM for those with connections to the commissioners. 

Delaware River Port Authority = $1,500,000 of toll money to 2 insurance brokerage firms that did no work for the Authority. 

GAO study to examine the practices of intrastate tolling authorities and introduced the Commuter Protection Act to restore Federal oversight of tolling practices.

1. Bill Baroni = Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 
2. Chris Plaushin, Vice President of Public Affairs for AAA
3. Steve Grabell, Chief Financial Officer, National Freight for the trucking industry’s 
4. Mr. Conti, Eugene Conti, is North Carolina’s Secretary of Transportation

PORT AUTHORITY = 2011 revenues were down $2.6 billion = crossings were down. 

BARONI = Christie operating expenses year to year is down $33 million. 

BARONI = Christie and Sampson got rid of 243 people at the Port Authority + Cut $10 million 

BARONI = REASONS FOR TOLL INCREASE

BARONI = New Goethals Bridge 

BARONI = Raise Bayonne Bridge $1 billion.

BARONI = Lincoln Tunnel Helix rehabbed

BARONI = GWB  suspender ropes $1.8 billion of capital spending.

BARONI = New GWB Bus Station in upper Manhattan

BARONI = Harrison PATH station 

BARONI = Christopher Street PATH Station needed a new substation. 

BARONI = we didn’t have the money to do for hiring 16,000 people

BARONI =  A progressive tolling structure that valued E-ZPass driving

BARONI = 16-acre World Trade Center needed $Billions

BARONI =  September 2011 both governors + Port Authority’s Board historic changes in compensation and benefits 

GRABELL = CFO ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATIONS (ATA)

GRABELL =  My company paid $14 million in tolls last year = forced to reroute our trucks to less efficient secondary roads, which raises our costs and increases congestion and safety concerns. 

GRABELL =  Trucking industry recognizes shortage of resources for highway maintenance and improvement and we are willing to contribute more, 

GRABELL = We are especially concerned when tolling authorities that disregard customers and use of toll revenue for projects and programs that contribute little or no value to the motorists who are paying the fees. 

GRABELL = We believe that Federal oversight and possible intervention in determining toll rates is necessary and appropriate.

GRABELL = By 2015 Port Authority cash truck toll rate will increase by 163% to $105 = 3 X greater than the country’s next highest bridge toll rate.

GRABELL = Delaware River Port Authority may be even more dysfunctional = $440 million in economic development funds at the expense of critical bridge maintenance and improvement projects = Direct violation of the Authority’s compact.

GRABELL = we greatly appreciate your introduction of the Commuter Protection Act = significant step towards ensuring better oversight of interstate tolling authorities 

GRABELL = ATA Opposes Tolls on Existing Lanes = Traditional user fees, such as fuel taxes and registration fees, meet the tests, and ATA has been a vocal proponent for an 

increase in the Federal fuel tax. Tolls, on the other hand, fall well short of meeting these criteria, and therefore ATA is strongly opposed to tolls on existing Interstate highways. 

CHRIS PLAUSHIN, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL RELATIONS, AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (AAA)

PLAUSHIN = AAA opposes tolling the existing interstate, but we also recognize that tolling to provide new capacity is among the future solutions that will help us increase capacity and manage congestion.

PLAUSHIN = Various AAA clubs have heard from their members with complaints about unfair and unequal treatment for those with E-ZPass transponders, and it appears that E-ZPass holders are being charged different amounts, based on which authority issued their transponder, or which state they were issued at.

PLAUSHIN = AAA Public Polling Data = we found that 41% favor building new toll roads and 67% support maintaining existing toll rates and planned toll rate increases + The public has clear expectations that the tolls they pay will be utilized for the purpose of upkeep and proper maintenance for the facility on which they were collected.  

Lautenberg = $12 in cash and nearly $10 with E-ZPass to cross the Port Authority bridges and tunnels. Trucks have to pay as much as $65 to cross. The question is: Is a 50% increase fair?

BARONI =  81% of the people who will go through the tolls at the Port Authority crossings will use an E-ZPass that they pay for.

BARONI =  Not enough people are using E-ZPass. Is it fair for someone who doesn’t have an E-ZPass? E-ZPass get discounts. Someone who doesn’t get an E-ZPass and is backing our traffic up.

Lautenberg =  E-ZPass gives you a $9.50 ride, right?

BARONI = Is it fair to the person who doesn’t have an E-ZPass to pay 12 bucks? YES         

Lautenberg = An external audit released after the toll hike went into effect called the Authority a dysfunctional organization. Tolls are scheduled to rise even higher in the coming years, reaching $15 a car to enter Manhattan in 2015. 

BARONI =   At our last board meeting, Chairman Sampson and Vice Chairman Rechler led the board in getting rid of all of those compensation and benefit–all of them, and over the next 18 months saving $41 million for the agency.

Lautenberg = There’s a lot of money that the Port Authority was originally going to put into the tunnel, which was pulled back. $3 billion was the offer that was made to match the Federal contribution to the rail tunnel. Nothing happened.

BARONI =  The Port Authority did. We put it out as a public notice in full page ads in the newspaper.  Then people came and had public hearings about it, that you talked about. And the dysfunction that we are cleaning up, that we are passionate about cleaning up, that we’re making people pay for their healthcare, that we are getting rid of all these benefits.

Grabell = The challenge today is the escalating costs of tolls. And, obviously, if money is being used for inappropriate purposes, it gives us great concern, because this cost escalation dramatically impacts both us and our shipping customers, and ultimately, the consumers. 

Lautenberg. The Delaware River Port Authority borrowed money and delayed needed infrastructure repairs to fund non-transportation economic development projects. Do you think that that is appropriate to use those toll revenues for non-transportation projects?

Grabell = We find that to be very inappropriate. For people that are paying those tolls, to then have money used for purposes that have nothing to do with helping to make their highways, bridges, tunnels, and other facilities both safer and more efficient really is, you know, essentially burdening them with expenses that probably should be borne by a different universe of people.

Lautenberg = Mr. Baroni, the Port Authority cited declining revenues as one of the major reasons for the drastic toll hike.

Baroni = Yes, sir.

Lautenberg = Shortly before the toll hike, the Port Authority redirected $1.8 billion that was slated for the ARC Tunnel, as you know, to fund the non-Port Authority road projects. How much revenue will be generated by these road projects. 

Baroni LIES = Essentially the same amount that ARC would have generated for the Port Authority. 

Baroni = We call it the Lincoln Tunnel Access project = four Projects = Pulaski Skyway is a smoother trip to Lincoln and Holland. 

Lautenberg = I detect we’ve just heard about non-Port Authority road projects, how will they generate the revenue that you said would be the same as that

Baroni. Well, the ARC was a $3 billion contribution from the Port Authority to the project. Pulaski will be a marginal improvement there. 

Baroni. It’s four projects in the same–they’re all linked. It’s Whit Penn. It’s Pulaski. It’s 1/9. And I’ll get the fourth one. I think it’s 139. They’re all connected to the Lincoln Tunnel. They’re all linked to the Lincoln Tunnel.

Lautenberg = Well, if the Port Authority was prepared to give $3 billion to the ARC Tunnel, and the state committed to do the program. And then suddenly, the climate changed, and he killed the tunnel project. Some of that …given to the transportation trust fund. 

Baroni = The four projects that the Port Authority is participating in are designated for specific projects. $1.8 billion.

Lautenberg. So, how did the four projects get designated?

Lautenberg = The ARC Tunnel would have taken an estimated 22,000 cars off the road, double the number of households in New Jersey that are within 50 minutes of Manhattan. Will the $1.8 billion that was redirected from the ARC Tunnel to fund the road projects provide the same levels of benefits for commuters?

Baroni = When it comes to ARC and Gateway, the Port Authority has been one of the projects I spend a lot of time pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and that’s a new train station in Harrison.

Lautenberg. Yes. The terminal at Harrison was important. 

Baroni = The 10-car platforms, because we talk about increasing capacity across the 

Hudson. One of the challenges at Harrison is not just the station, but the platforms themselves can only today accommodate eight cars. 

Lautenberg = A 50% increase at one moment was an outrage, and we’re going to continue to talk to and with the Port Authority 

Baroni Written = Summer of 2011 Port Authority was faced with the difficult decision to raise tolls and fares. The decision was made as a result of numerous factors, which included the effects of the 2008 economic crisis, which dramatically affected Port Authority revenue; the resulting effect of that crisis on our ability to access capital markets and the need to keep our aging facilities–many built in the 1920s–in a state of good repair through major capital projects. In addition, the Port Authority’s mission of transportation and economic growth required the investment of billions in new and rebuilt infrastructure.

Baroni Written = Please find attached the resumes of employees hired by the 

Port Authority since January 2010 whose salaries are $90,000 or greater.   The following employees were directly hired without resumes: Patrick J. Foye, Executive Director; 

1. William Baroni, Deputy Executive Director; William DeGraaff, Program 
2. Manager, Regional Airport Programs, Aviation; Paula Dow, First Deputy 
3. General Counsel, Law; Anthony Greco, Senior Writer/Editor, Media 
4. Relations; Erik Horvat, Assistant Director, Development, World Trade 
5. Center Redevelopment; Diana Lopez, Senior Advisor, Port Commerce; John 
6. Ma, Chief of Staff; David Wildstein, Director, Interstate Capital 
7. Projects; Eddie Malave, Senior Safety Engineer, Operations Services; 
8. Mark Pucci, General Manager, Retail, World Trade Center Redevelopment.

Baroni Written = Damon DiMarco was hired in the office of Public and Government Affairs in June of 2010. The book project was undertaken in 2008.  

Baroni Written = David Wildstein’s specific job duties –  Mr. Wildstein played a lead role in coordinating and setting the rates of the proposed toll increases. David Wildstein is the Director of Interstate Capital Projects and joined the Port Authority in May 2010. 

David Wildstein professional background.

1. Served as Vice President and Shareholder of 
2. Apache Mills, Inc., a family-owned textile manufacturing company, from 1988 to 2007. 
3. From 2007 to 2010, he was the Executive Director of the Observer Media Group.
4. He served on the Livingston Township Council from 1985 to 1989 
5. Mayor of Livingston from 1987 to 1988. 
6. Chairman of the Livingston Redevelopment Authority
7. Chairman of the Essex County Conference of Mayors’ Solid Waste Subcommittee.
8. Chairman of the Personnel and Labor Relations Committee and as Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee. 
9. He was the Deputy Clerk of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1987 to 1990. He served as Chief of Staff to Assembly Minority Leader Chuck Hardwick
10. Legislative aide to State Senator Louis Bassano, and as a staff assistant to Congressman Christopher Smith.
11. He served on the Board of Directors of the Livingston Community Hospital, the Essex County Association for Retarded Citizens