HOBOKEN – The same Newark-based law firm represents both sides of the ongoing battle between Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer and the administration of Gov. Christopher Christie over the mayor’s allegations that high-ranking Christie officials threatened to withhold Hurricane Sandy aid unless she approved a development project important to the governor, according to a report on NJ.com.
Krovatin & Klingeman, the firm the Hoboken City Council hired two weeks ago to represent Zimmer during the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney, also represents Christina Genovese Renna, a Christie appointee who stepped down recently after being served a subpoena by a state committee investigating lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, said the report.
Gerald Krovatin is representing Zimmer while his partner, Henry Klingeman, is representing Renna. In a letter to the city’s attorney, Krovatin said that “out of an abundance of caution,” he and Klingeman will not share any documents or knowledge with each other.
But 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, a frequent critic of Zimmer, said she is concerned that the relationship between Krovatin and Klingeman creates a conflict of interest for the city, and that she is uncomfortable with providing confidential documents to Krovatin as long as Klingeman is representing Renna.
“Given Ms. Renna certainly would have a substantial interest in learning what information the mayor and/or other officials of the city have in this matter, the conflict of interest seems readily apparent,” she said in a letter to the city’s corporation counsel, Mellissa Longo.
Longo stated at a Wednesday night council meeting that she would issue a formal response to Mason in the coming week and provided Krovatin’s letter, which argued that because Renna is subpoenaed in the lane closure investigation, while Zimmer is involved in a separate investigation, the pair are not at odds, therefore precluding the existence of any conflict. – Dean DeChiaro
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