Saying his position as executive director for the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission was the best job he ever had, Alan Steinberg stepped down in late December as part of a change in state administrations.
Steinberg, a Republican, was appointed to the NJMC in 1999 by Republican then-Governor Christine Whitman. With the election of Democrat James McGreevey as governor, Steinberg will become the chief of staff to Republican Essex County Executive James Treffinger.
“When a new governor of one party replaces an administration of the opposing party, he can and should appoint cabinet officials and executive directors who will be loyal members of his team,” Steinberg said at his last meeting in December.
Before coming to the NJMC in January, 1999, Steinberg served in numerous public and private sector positions from an executive for a watch company in Secaucus to the chairman of the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority (UEZA). He also was the Commerce Commission representative on the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA).
He began his state government career as Senior Policy Advisor to Assembly Speaker Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian in 1992.
Steinberg, who has been called ‘a voice of compromise” for his ability to negotiate in tough situations, came to what was then the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission during a perilous time, as the agency found itself in the middle of a war over open space in the Meadowlands. As an avid baseball fan – known as “Pittsburgh Al” to listeners on WFAN sports radio, Steinberg said he liked to work within the team, and though he had not planned great changes in the NJMC, he oversaw one of the most dramatic shifts in policy since the formation of the commission in 1969. He credited the team of professionals at the NJMC for his successes.
“We can be proud of the work we have done together,” he said. “We have a solid record of environmental accomplishment in open space acquisition and wetlands enhancement. We provided our constituent communities with tax-sharing relief and a mechanism to assist in their budget plans.”
Thanks to the work done during Steinberg’s tenure, the Meadowlands will see a new golf course soon, as well as associated office, hotel and retail components that provide the area with economic and recreation facilities while sealing off old trash dumps that had previously posed a threat to the environment.
“During Alan’s three year tenure, he moved the Meadowlands Commission forward as an environmental agency, ensuring open space acquisition, and preservation and paving the way to transform abandoned landfills to green open space and golf courses,” said Mike Gonnelli, Commissioner to the NJMC.
In a telephone interview early in January, Steinberg said his assignment on the NJMC surprised him and left him with a profound respect for people in the NJMC and those seeking to preserve the Meadowlands. “The most pleasant aspect was the staff,” he said. “They are the best staff I have found anywhere in the state.”
Reflecting back during the rough moments of his three years, he agreed he had been criticized by members of the business and the environmental community.
“I think by doing the right things here, we struck a balance,” he said. “That has always been the key.”
His resignation, he said, ends an era of his life. Described as others as “a good soldier,” Steinberg will leave state level service for the first time in over a decade, and he said this created for him a very emotional moment. He said the change made him look back, not just at his term at the NJMC, but overall at his state level public service.
Being a big baseball fan, he picked one particular moment to consider as among his finest, which was spearheading efforts to put up a Jackie Robinson memorial in Jersey City in 1998.
“For me, Jackie Robinson’s joining the Brooklyn Dodgers is among the most significant moments in the 20th Century,” Steinberg said. “In 1946, baseball was the national pastime, but it was a pastime that was dominated by caucasians. Martin Luther King Jr. once said Jackie Robinson made his job easier in helping to desegregate America.”
Hackensack Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan, a long-time opponent of the commission’s now defunct master plan, said Steinberg changed the direction of the NJMC to better reflect the policies adopted by acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco, who came to the Meadowlands last March to promote preservation.
“Since March, Steinberg is a new man,” Sheehan said, claiming the most significant change was the commission’s abandoning of its development-focused master plan. “As of now, the commission is working towards rewriting master plan for the Meadowlands.”