Christie installed at least 50 political appointees at PA, more than any previous governor
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/cuomo-port-authority-problem-article-1.1578516#ixzz2qNG8pGje
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The uproar over what happened at the George Washington Bridge last September has exposed a deeper sickness at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The rival groups treat the PAs $7 billion yearly budget and $25 billion capital plan not as a shared responsibility, but as spoils to be won or lost.
The same goes for top leadership posts mostly on the Jersey side. In 2012, the Bergen Record found that Christie had installed at least 50 political appointees at the authority, more than any previous governor.
At the time, his hand-picked deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, defended the hires as people who share Gov. Christies view that this agency needs reform.
A very different and ugly picture emerged from last weeks email dumps: Baroni and his fellow Christie cronies were not only treating the Port Authority as a political plaything, but joking about the misery they were inflicting on thousands of innocent commuters.
Tellingly, the New Jersey crew was able to bully lower-ranking employees into organizing a bogus traffic study and throwing the nations busiest bridge into chaos for four days while going behind the back of Cuomos executive director, Pat Foye.