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| FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 file photograph, Hoboken Mayor, Dawn Zimmer speaks to the media as she stands near the Hudson River in Hoboken, N.J. Zimmer, mayor of a New Jersey city that sustained severe flooding from Hurricane Sandy claims the Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in recovery grants because she refused to sign off on a politically connected development. MSNBC first reported her comments Saturday. |
TRENTON, N.J.
(AP) -- The Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in
Superstorm Sandy recovery grants from a New Jersey city because its
mayor refused to sign off on a politically connected commercial
development, the mayor said Saturday.
Hoboken
Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleged that Gov. Chris Christie's lieutenant governor
and a top community development official told her recovery funds would
flow to her city if she allowed the project to move forward.
Zimmer
said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno pulled her aside at an event in May and told
her Sandy aid was tied to the project - a proposal from the New York
City-based Rockefeller Group aimed at prime real estate in the densely
populated city across the river from New York City.
The
mayor said the administration officials wanted Rockefeller's plans for
the property approved, while Zimmer said she preferred to go through
normal channels and hear from all stakeholders, including the public and
owners of adjacent property. Rockefeller Group owns about three blocks
of the 19-block area.
"I was directly told the
by the lieutenant governor - she made it very clear - that the
Rockefeller project needed to move forward or they wouldn't be able to
help me," Zimmer told The Associated Press.
"There is no way I could ethically do what the governor, through the lieutenant governor, is asking me to do," she said.
Christie's
office denied Zimmer's claims, calling her statements politically
motivated. Spokesman Colin Reed said the administration has been helping
Hoboken secure assistance since Sandy struck." Christie himself was
raising money Saturday for fellow Republicans in Florida. The
fundraisers were closed to reporters.
Hoboken
is hiring a planner to rehabilitate the area, and Rockefeller will have
an opportunity to offer input along with others who have an interest in
development of the property, said Juan Melli, a spokesman for Zimmer.
A
state website that tracks the distribution of Sandy aid shows that
Hoboken received a $200,000 post-storm planning grant in October out of a
$1.8 billion pot of money controlled by the state. Hoboken also
received a $142,000 state energy resilience grant.
Besides
state money, Hoboken has received $70 million in recovery funds
distributed by the federal government, according to the Christie
administration. Zimmer said she has applied for $100 million to
implement a comprehensive plan to help insulate her city from future
floods.
Christie already is embroiled in
another scandal involving traffic jams apparently manufactured to settle
a political score. At a recent news conference to discuss the lane
closures on the approach to the George Washington Bridge, Christie
brushed aside questions about his aggressive governing style. "I am who I
am," said Christie, "I am not a bully."
But
Zimmer said Guadagno and Community Affairs Commissioner Richard
Constable, a member of Christie's cabinet, both delivered messages about
Sandy aid in no uncertain terms.
Zimmer, who
first spoke with MSNBC on Saturday, told the cable network that at
another event in May, Constable said "the money would start flowing to
you" if she backed the project.
The
Rockefeller Group did not immediately return a phone message left by The
Associated Press. In a statement to MSNBC, a spokesman said it had no
knowledge of any information related to Zimmer's claims.
Zimmer, a Democrat, said she is willing to take a lie detector test or testify under oath about the conversations.
Christie's office called Zimmer's claims a political move.
"Gov.
Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get
the help they need after Sandy," Reed said. "It's very clear partisan
politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to
grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on
television."
The Sandy aid matter is the
second time in recent weeks Christie's administration has been accused
of exacting retribution for political reasons.
Christie's
chief of staff, chief counsel, chief political strategist and two-time
campaign manager have all been subpoenaed for documents related to the
September closing of approach lanes near the George Washington Bridge,
which led to traffic chaos in the town of Fort Lee across the river from
New York City.
The agency that runs the
bridge, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is chaired by
David Samson, whose law firm, Wolff & Samson, represented the
developer in the Hoboken matter, according to Zimmer. A phone message
left at the firm's office was not returned Saturday.
Christie's
former community affairs commissioner, Lori Grifa, was a lobbyist
promoting the Rockefeller Group's plans for the Hoboken project,
according to MSNBC. The network quoted emails from Grifa that appear to
confirm her work on behalf of the developer.
Twenty
new subpoenas issued in the bridge closure matter on Friday reach deep
into the Christie administration, the port authority, and his
re-election campaign, but spare the governor himself.
The
U.S. Attorney's Office is reviewing the lane closings and a legislative
panel is investigating who authorized the apparent plot and why.
Zimmer
said she is telling her story in hopes that Hoboken gets much-needed
assistance in the second wave of relief funding yet to be approved by
the federal government for distribution by the state. That money, total
of $1.4 billion to be distributed through the state Community
Development Block Grant program, is awaiting federal approval. The focus
will be on improving infrastructure, Community Affairs spokeswoman Lisa
Ryan said.
Interviewed by the Associated
Press last month, Zimmer voiced concerns about the lack of storm aid to
her town, but expressed hope that the administration would come through
in the next round. She did not mention the real estate development in
the interview with the AP.
