Documents: Four Port Authority commissioners flying from area airports given special treatment

[George II]

Source: NorthJersey.com (The Record)


February 12, 2015, 4:27 PM Last updated: Thursday, February 12, 2015, 7:59 PM

By STEPHANIE AKIN and SHAWN BOBURG

For some Port Authority commissioners, the indignities of traveling through New Jersey and New York airports — like waiting in long lines and toting luggage — have been optional.

Four commissioners who flew through Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy airports in the last four years requested and received special escorts from tarmac to curbside, bypassing regular security lines, boarding planes early, and getting shuttled to an airport lounge in a golf court, according to documents released by the agency Thursday.

Such VIP treatment is usually reserved for “high-profile people” who travel with security details, including governors and a “small” number of other elected officials, a Port Authority spokesman said Thursday. But it has also been one of the perks of being an unpaid, governor-appointed commissioner of the bistate agency that operates the region’s major airports.

Current Port Authority Chairman John Degnan, who has tried to restore the agency’s credibility in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, said Thursday that the practice has “basically come to a halt.”

Read more: http://www.northjersey.com/news/documents-four-port-authority-commissioners-flying-from-area-airports-given-special-treatment-1.1270440

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Oh, if only Bridget Kelly knew the can of worms she was opening with her "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email to David Wildstein!!!

[forest444]

1. And as much as all that "special treatment" must have cost,

you know there had to be quid pro quo. I mean, take Chris Christie: he expects not only to be flown first-class charter to and from the event and of course given the red carpet treatment once he's there,

but then you have to feed him!

[rocktivity]

2. Get thee to the Christie Crime Digest!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025933523


rocktivity

[newthinking]

3. I wish that this was actually unusual. We are truly a multi tier society.

Anyone who travels very much knows that.

People who "know the right people" or have the right friends, or have lots of money, get all kinds of privileges and access. Not just in how we think of it. Have a problem with a friend who needs a visa? Well, class and status can get him to the front of the line or past others that waited years.

There are now two sets of rules in both industry and in government. Not simply with influence, with access and "customer support". Those for the management / wealth class, those for the rest of us.