Dissension is already flaring between the newly inaugurated Democratic governor of New Jersey and her counterpart in New York, and the friction has left the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in limbo.
Mikie Sherrill, who was sworn in as the governor of New Jersey on Tuesday, is insisting on appointing a deputy executive director to the Port Authority, the agency that runs some of the region’s biggest transportation hubs, seven people familiar with the situation said. She is likely to choose Jean Roehrenbeck, a former federal transportation official who once was her chief of staff, according to three people with knowledge of the process.
But her insistence on filing that role is delaying the confirmation of a new top executive director chosen by Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York.
Ms. Hochul’s nominee, Kathryn Garcia, recently left her post as the director of state operations for New York to assume the executive director position at the Port Authority. Ms. Garcia, 55, would succeed Rick Cotton, 81, who had planned to retire this month after more than eight years of running the agency.
A confirmation vote was expected by early February, but the vote has been put on hold until the deputy role has been sorted out.
Doing so is more complicated than it seems.
Ms. Sherrill’s push to revive the deputy executive director role, which has been vacant for more than a decade, is an effort to shift a perceived power imbalance between New York and New Jersey, said Kevin Corbett, a senior fellow of transportation studies at Rutgers University and the former head of NJ Transit. While the title suggests deference to the executive director, the deputy role was considered an autonomous voice for New Jersey in interstate negotiations, he said.
The Port Authority’s chain of command was once more predictable. New York’s governor appointed the executive director, and the governor of New Jersey appointed a deputy executive director, so that each state’s interests were closely monitored.
But that tradition died in 2013 after executives installed at the agency by Chris Christie, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, pulled off a political dirty trick known as Bridgegate.
The scheme involved blocking roadways that led to the George Washington Bridge to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, N.J., to punish that city’s Democratic mayor. Bill Baroni, then the deputy director and an ally of Mr. Christie, was convicted on seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud, a verdict that was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
But the scandal stigmatized Mr. Baroni’s former position at the agency as a vehicle for patronage, and it has sat vacant ever since. Ms. Sherrill’s desire to revive the role has created concern among Port Authority insiders and close observers of the agency who remember the dysfunction that stymied the agency in the wake of Bridgegate.
“This is actually needless meddling in the operations of a superb public authority,” said Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University. “It’s an example of excessive political reach.”
He suggested that Ms. Sherrill wanted to restore the deputy position in order to gain more operational control at an agency where the makeup of the current board is largely set for several years.
Each state controls half of the 12 seats on the board of commissioners, which is led by one of the New Jersey representatives. The outgoing Democratic governor, Philip D. Murphy, renominated chairman Kevin O’Toole near the end of his term and filled other commissioner seats that traditionally would have been selected by the new governor.
A spokesman for the Port Authority referred questions to both governors’ offices; they both declined to comment.
Ms. Sherrill believes that Ms. Roehrenbeck’s experience in arranging federal financing for major projects, including the $11 billion replacement of the Port Authority’s bus terminal in Midtown Manhattan, would make her a valuable addition to Ms. Garcia’s team, according to two people familiar with Ms. Sherrill’s thinking.
Ms. Roehrenbeck declined to comment when reached on Friday.
To assuage critics of the plan, Ms. Sherrill has assured New York officials that Ms. Roehrenbeck, 41, would report to Ms. Garcia, the two people said. Before Bridgegate, there often was limited communication between the top two executives at the agency, and the deputy executive director would report directly to the New Jersey governor.
Tom Wright, the president of the Regional Plan Association, an influential urban planning group, said there were valid reasons for not wanting to reinstate the deputy director position, which has caused oversight issues and unnecessary complications within the interstate bureaucracy.
“Nobody wants to see them go back to that kind of structure,” he said. “It was bad even before Bridgegate.”
The political squabble comes at a time when the Port Authority is embarking on a slew of major projects. In December, the board of commissioners approved its largest ever capital plan, $45 billion over the next decade. The work will include completion of the new bus terminal, major renovations of John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty international airports and improvements to PATH train service, among several other projects.
On Tuesday, Mr. Cotton heaped praise on Ms. Garcia before admitting that he was unsure about when she would take the reins from him.
Benjamin Oreskes contributed reporting.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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