Faced with a political scandal that began in his own administration, Governor Christie is publicly lashing out against a familiar target: New Jersey’s public employees and their unions.
The governor is attacking their benefits and claiming he can’t afford to pay more for cancer research and other priorities because he has to cover the escalating costs of their pensions and health insurance. He also blamed the pension system in a response to New Jersey’s recent credit rating downgrade. For Christie, a return to attacking public employee unions comes out of the playbook he used when first elected and as he gained a national reputation while being touted as a presidential contender.
The unions now are fighting back themselves, using Christie’s apparent weakness after the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal to win back ground they lost during his first term.
Labor advocates and union workers on Tuesday disrupted a state Ethics Commission hearing, saying it’s unfair that one of their own members faced ethics charges on a minor issue while David Samson, a key Christie ally who resigned from his Port Authority post amid the bridge scandal, remains unpunished for alleged conflicts of interest involving his law firm and votes he cast on major projects while chairman of that bi-state agency.
Their protests follow recent union demonstrations at Christie’s town-hall-style events, typically carefully choreographed sessions that were interrupted with boisterous questions about the bridge lane closures and other controversies as Christie sought to put the scandal behind him.
And public worker unions also scored a victory earlier this month when Democratic leaders in the Assembly bucked the Republican governor on a key property tax measure.
The workers and their advocates carried out their latest protest Tuesday — arguing that a 5-year-old ethics inquiry into Dudley Burdge should be dismissed. Burdge, a Communications Workers of America employee, was accused of calling a contractor and identifying himself as a member of the state Health Benefits Commission. Burdge, while a member of the commission, was not authorized to call the contractor on behalf of the commission. The Attorney General’s Office reviewed the complaint and said Burdge’s actions were a conflict of interest and that he should be fined.
The Ethics Commission, the panel charged with enforcing New Jersey’s ethics laws, agreed Tuesday with an administrative law judge who had recommended the allegations against Burdge be dismissed.
Information sought
But before that decision was announced, a protest was held outside the commission’s building in Trenton. Many wore red shirts ornamented with buttons of Burdge’s face and lettering that read, “Ethics violations? I just made a phone call.”
The protesters also attended the meeting and, during some heated moments, demanded more information about the status of their complaint against Samson.
Samson is a lawyer and former state attorney general who led Christie’s 2009 transition team.
Christie appointed him to head the Port Authority in 2010. But new questions have been raised about Samson in the wake of the September bridge lane closures, including votes he cast at the Port Authority that may have benefited clients of the law firm he heads, West Orange-based Wolff & Samson.
The Record reported earlier this year that Samson voted in favor of a $256 million renovation of the Harrison PATH station three months after a builder represented by his law firm proposed converting a nearby warehouse into hundreds of luxury apartments. Public records also indicate Samson’s firm has picked up more government contracts and lobbying work since Christie took office.
Contrast drawn
During the commission’s meeting, the protest leaders drew a contrast between Samson’s actions and what they saw as a minor allegation against Burdge. Commission Chairman Andrew Berns made a statement responding to allegations that the panel had ignored complaints.
“The suggestion that we present trivial matters in lieu of more significant matters is again, untrue,” Berns said. The board faithfully pursued all complaints, which took time and were confidential at the beginning of the investigatory process, he said. Any contrary claim, he said, is untrue.
His announcement was met with skepticism.
“Excuse me, are you going to take public comment? You spent 15-20 minutes lecturing people,” Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director of the CWA, said to Berns.
Analilia Mejia, director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, the organization behind the town hall protests and Tuesday’s demonstration, said after the meeting that the bridge lane closures are “the concrete example of what we suspected.”
“That this culture of cronyism, this culture of bullying, what we believe is a culture of corruption, has been utilized against New Jerseyans,” she said.
“That this culture of cronyism, this culture of bullying, what we believe is a culture of corruption, has been utilized against New Jerseyans,” she said.
A spokesman for Christie referred questions about Tuesday’s protest to the ethics panel. A spokeswoman for Samson declined to comment.
The protest came the morning after Christie was pressed about proposed budget cuts to cancer research and aid for community college students during his monthly radio show and responded by pointing the finger at public employees. He said they will consume much of the $1 billion spending increase built into the $34.4 billion budget he’s proposed for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.
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