HOBOKEN – Mayor Dawn Zimmer issued a strongly worded response on Thursday to a report released by the administration of Gov. Christopher Christie that largely vindicated the governor from any wrongdoing related to last September’s lane closures on the George Washington Bridge and sought to discredit the mayor’s claims that the governor played politics with the city’s Hurricane Sandy recovery funding.
In response to the report, which called Zimmer’s claims “demonstrably false,” City Hall issued the following statement:
“Randy Mastro [the lead attorney] could have written his report the day he was hired and saved the taxpayers the million dollars in fees he billed in generating this one-sided whitewash of serious misconduct by the Christie Administration.”
“Mastro’s conclusion that there was nothing to the [alleged] threat that was made to me that Hoboken would not get the Sandy relief money it needs and deserves unless I supported the Rockefeller Group project was sadly predictable. Surprisingly, as flawed as this report is, it includes the damning fact that after the Lieutenant Governor made the threat to me in the parking lot, she got in her car and told an aide that I was not ‘playing ball.’
“This report only reinforces the soundness of the decision I made not to cooperate with Mr. Mastro’s so-called investigation. To do so would only have leant credibility to an effort that, unfortunately for the taxpayers of New Jersey, has no credibility or legitimacy whatsoever.
“Mr. Mastro stated that none of the interviews that were conducted were under oath. I remain ready and willing to testify under oath as part of any legitimate investigation.”
The report cites a newly released e-mail that Zimmer sent to Christie last August, warning him about a reporter asking him questions about Sandy aid. (Read about that from our report earlier today here. It also cites witnesses and other items.
Look for a story on the report and more responses from Zimmer in this weekend’s issue of The Hoboken Reporter. For our earlier coverage of the issue, see links below. – Dean DeChiaro