The new governor of New Jersey and her counterpart in New York have settled their first public dispute, breaking an impasse that had held up filling the top two spots at the transportation agency they jointly control.
After talking on Monday, the governors, Kathy Hochul of New York and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, agreed to stop blocking each other’s picks to run the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. The agency’s board is now scheduled to vote on Thursday to confirm Kathryn Garcia as its executive director and Jean Roehrenbeck as the deputy executive director, a revised agenda for the board’s meeting shows.
Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, nominated Ms. Garcia in December to succeed Rick Cotton, who is retiring after more than eight years as the Port Authority’s executive director. Mr. Cotton operated without a deputy, but Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat who took office last month, insisted on appointing one.
That was when the friction started.
Divided loyalties within the agency have led to problems in the past, most notably in the 2013 scandal that came to be known as Bridgegate. Back then, Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director at the time, was implicated in a political dirty trick that involved abruptly blocking local lanes that led to the George Washington Bridge to intentionally tie up traffic in Fort Lee, N.J.
Mr. Baroni was convicted of seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud. But he took his appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and those convictions were overturned.
Mr. Baroni had been appointed by Chris Christie, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who had unsuccessfully sought the endorsement of the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee.
Since then, the traditional structure of the Port Authority’s executive ranks, in which the director answers to the New York governor and the deputy reports to the New Jersey governor, has been seen by close observers of the agency as a recipe for more trouble. Ms. Hochul did not want a lack of communication and coordination to jeopardize the big projects the Port Authority was building, including massive terminals at Kennedy International Airport, an $11 billion bus terminal in Manhattan and a new AirTrain at Newark Liberty International Airport.
To assuage that fear, Ms. Sherrill agreed that Ms. Roehrenbeck would report to Ms. Garcia, who would answer directly to the Port Authority’s 12-member board of commissioners.
“The governors came together and figured out how to get past the impasse,” said Ms. Garcia, who left her position as director of New York state operations to join the Port Authority last year. “I really congratulate them for doing that and not allowing this to drag on.”
After talking with Ms. Roehrenbeck, Ms. Garcia said she was confident that they would have “a very good partnership” and would not operate in what she called silos. “Neither one of us wants to see that happen,” she said. “We think it’s very damaging to the customers of the Port Authority and our ability to get things done.”
Ms. Roehrenbeck, a former aide to Ms. Sherrill who has worked in government affairs in Washington, has a family connection to the Port Authority: Her mother worked for the agency for 30 years. She was not available for comment on Wednesday, a spokesman for the governor said.
Ms. Hochul said that she was “delighted that the entire region will now benefit” from Ms. Garcia’s leadership. “Kathryn will provide the leadership and vision we need to take the Port Authority to new heights,” she said.
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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