Here's what the editorial had to say:
Gov. Chris Christie says a lot of the right things about how government should be run efficiently and responsibly.
But, like most any other politician, he doesn’t always lead by example.
The governor has, for instance, railed against New Jersey’s plentiful authorities and agencies that past administrations have turned into patronage pits. Yet he’s been more than willing to push people with minimal credentials into jobs at the Port Authority, arguing among other things that because he had already gotten rid of so many more unqualified people there that it’s all good. Well, no, it isn’t.
The stench of the AshBritt debris removal deal also isn’t going away. After superstorm Sandy ripped through the state, Christie quickly signed on with AshBritt, “piggybacking” onto a Connecticut contract with the same company, which is another way of saying that New Jersey simply adopted the Connecticut deal without bothering to negotiate one of its own.
It was a no-bid operation, in other words, the kind Christie in the past has often found so offensive. The administration spin is that since the deal was the product of competitive bidding in Connecticut, that was good enough. The state was also operating with a sense of great urgency given the overwhelming storm damage, suggesting speed was of the essence.
But was it that important to get a deal in place that quickly? Several Shore towns chose to bypass AshBritt and strike separate deals on their own, reportedly at lower costs and without any great concerns about inferior work or delays. It also doesn’t help that Christie is friendly with former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who advised Christie to sign up AshBritt because of that company’s work along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Barbour, however, just happens to be the founding partner of a lobbying firm that represents AshBritt. The chairman of that firm held a fund-raiser for Christie’s re-election in Virginia in February. Christie would frown on such cozy relationships if they involved other lawmakers and businesses.
Now comes word of a supposed warning from FEMA issued shortly after the AshBritt contract was sealed that federal reimbursements could be at risk because of the piggyback nature of the contract. That bit of news was delivered to Christie by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in a February letter.
Both the Christie and Lautenberg camps said the correspondence is merely routine, and considering the Democrat Lautenberg and Republican Christie have often been at political odds, it’s no surprise that Lautenberg may have simply wanted to give the threat a bit more juice than it really deserves.
It does, however, highlight one thing: the feds don’t view the state’s no-bid piggybacking onto the Connecticut deal as simply a convenient time-saver. Fact is, there were likely better deals out there that would have cost less, and help extend the overall reach of the Sandy aid. Some towns seem to have found those deals. And the more money unnecessarily poured into AshBritt, the less there is for other relief needs.
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