Christie top lieutenants said Sandy money ‘connected’ to city redevelopment plan: Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable both made her offers she couldn’t confuse: Favor redevelopment and the Sandy money would flow. The mayor, who says she would testify under oath, recalls Constable telling her, ‘If you move that (redevelopment) forward, the money would start flowing to you.'

BY LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2014, 12:02 PM
UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2014, 3:35 AM

ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has made accusations that she was pressured to favor a development firm connected to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in exchange for Hurricane Sandy relief funds.
The mayor of Hoboken accused a pair of top Gov. Chris Christie lieutenants of a “Sopranos”-style shakedown, denying the city hurricane aid over a delayed redevelopment plan.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer said New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and a second official warned her that millions in Hurricane Sandy relief for her city were tied to the approval of the Rockefeller Group’s proposal.

In classic Jersey style, the blunt conversation with former prosecutor Guadagno occurred on May 13 in the parking lot of a Hoboken ShopRite, Zimmer told MSNBC in a Saturday interview.

Guadagno “pulled me aside ... and she said, ‘I know it’s not right, I know these things should not be connected, but they are. And if you tell anyone, I’ll deny it,’ ” Zimmer recalled.

“I mean,” Zimmer added, “the bottom line is it’s not fair for the governor to hold Sandy funds hostage for the City of Hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer.”

LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS

Zimmer says New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno had a blunt conversation with her in the parking lot of a Hoboken ShopRite.


The Manhattan-based Rockefeller Group, a global real estate business, boasts close ties to Christie.

Zimmer, 45, the mother of two sons, kept a diary detailing the disturbing meetings held just four days apart. In one excerpt cited by MSNBC, she expressed her disgust with the Republican governor, who is weighing a 2016 presidential run.

PATTI SAPONE/THE STAR LEDGER

Zimmer says Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable also linked her support of the Rockefeller Group project to recovery funds.
“I was emotional about Gov. Christie,” she wrote. “I thought he was honest. I thought he was moral. I thought he was something different. This week I found out he’s cut from the same corrupt cloth that I have been fighting for the last four years.”

The alleged refusal to assist the waterlogged city on the banks of the Hudson River came as the governor was starring in a $25 million ad campaign touting New Jersey’s hurricane comeback.

PETER FOLEY/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
'It’s not fair for the governor to hold Sandy funds hostage for the City of Hoboken because he wants me to give back to one private developer,' Zimmer says.

Christie, Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable and the Rockefeller Group all issued statements denying the allegations. Zimmer said Constable delivered the second threat from Trenton.

“Mayor Zimmer has been effusive in her public praise of the governor’s office and the assistance we’ve provided in terms of economic development and Sandy aid,” said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak. “What or who is driving her now to say such outlandishly false things is anyone’s guess.”

Zimmer said Hoboken, which was seriously flooded by the 2012 hurricane, requested $127 million in Sandy funds — and received a total of $342,000. Hoboken suffered an estimated $100 million in private property damage, and an additional $10 million in public property destruction.

MEL EVANS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Christie, seen here at a press conference addressing the Bridgegate scandal on Jan. 9, has released a statement denying Zimmer's allegations.

“There is a growing chorus of public officials speaking out against New Jersey's bully-in-chief,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Moe Elleithee.

Zimmer’s allegations come after Christie’s presidential chances were slammed by revelations that one of his aides ordered a punitive shutdown of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge. Members of the two state legislative panels investigating Bridgegate immediately said the Zimmer charges deserved the same scrutiny.

CLAUS GUGLBERGER/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Hoboken, N.J., which is near the mouth of the Holland Tunnel.

“The allegations discussed today by Mayor Zimmer are serious and yet again raise concern about abuse of government power,” said Assembly Investigation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski.

New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, a Bergen County Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Investigation Committee, said her panel was just as interested. “We have a respected mayor with diary entries and obviously what seems like an agonizing decision to come forward,” she said. “Then we have a denial from the administration. This is another in a long line of issues that the investigating committees are going to have to sort out.”
ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer chats with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie before a joint press conference on Nov. 4, 2012 in Hoboken, N.J.

Christie, 51, was in Orlando, Fla., for a private Saturday fund-raiser. He drove past reporters without taking questions.

Zimmer became mayor in 2009 after her predecessor resigned in a corruption scandal unearthed by former federal prosecutor Christie.

The Rockefeller Group, hoping to develop a 3-acre parcel, hired former Christie cabinet officer Lori Grifa as a lobbyist. And the group’s law firm is Wolff & Samson — the home of Port Authority Chairman David Samson, who was handpicked for the position by Christie.

Samson was among the members of the Christie inner circle issued subpoenas last week by an Assembly panel probing Bridgegate. The Daily News reported that Samson is likely to step down in the next month.

While Bridgegate focused on Fort Lee and the GWB, this possible scandal involved the city near the Holland Tunnel’s mouth.

The Rockefeller Group hoped to press forward with its lucrative development plan for a three-block stretch of north Hoboken. The commercial development was initially planned with a 40-story office tower — making it the tallest building in town.

Four days after the Guadagno meeting, Zimmer said, she received a similar warning from Constable. The two were together for a public TV program on Sandy recovery when Constable linked her support of the Rockefeller Group project to recovery funds, Zimmer said.

“The buzz is that you are against (redevelopment),” she quoted Constable as telling her. “If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you.”

Zimmer, in her MSNBC appearance, said she had no plans to back off her charges now that she’s gone public.

“I’d be more than willing to testify under oath, and answer any questions and provide any documents, take a lie detector test,” she said. “And you know, my question back to all of them is, ‘Would all of you?’ ”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/hoboken-mayor-dawn-zimmer-christie-top-lieutenants-sandy-money-connected-redevelopment-plan-article-1.1583828