(TRENTON) – Assembly Transportation Committee Vice-Chair Linda Stender issued the following statement Monday after the committee’s lengthy hearing with officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over the questionable closure of access to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee that snarled traffic for nearly a week in September.
“It’s clear from today’s hearing that the actions of Bill Baroni and David Wildstein were done separate and apart from the rest of the Port Authority. Their actions were highly unorthodox and those who were forced to enact these directives questioned the wisdom of these decisions but refrained from speaking up out of fear for their job security.
“The lack of documentation to support any other answer is confirmation, for me, that the decision to close the GWB access lanes in Fort Lee was done for political purposes to benefit the Christie administration. Long-standing protocol was violated and no evidence of a traffic study has been produced so there’s no reason to believe otherwise.
“For David Wildstein to be allowed to continue on until the end of the year earning $150,000 is absurd and I think the Governor’s silence on this is particularly disturbing considering he has built a career on corruption busting. I could only imagine what he would have to say if this were a teacher in a similar situation,” said Stender (D-Middlesex/Somerset/Union).
