N.J. mayor says Christie aides tied Sandy funds to project

TRENTON, N.J. – The Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in Superstorm Sandy recovery grants from a New Jersey city because its mayor refused to sign off on a politically connected commercial development, the mayor said Saturday.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleged that Gov. Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor and a top community development official told her recovery funds would flow to her city if she allowed the project to move forward.

Zimmer said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno pulled her aside at an event in May and told her Sandy aid was tied to the project: a proposal from the New York City-based Rockefeller Group aimed at prime real estate in the densely populated city across the river from New York City.

The mayor said the administration officials wanted Rockefeller’s plans for the property approved, while Zimmer said she preferred to go through normal channels and hear from all stakeholders, including the public and owners of adjacent property. Rockefeller Group owns about three blocks of the 19-block area.

“I was directly told by the lieutenant governor – she made it very clear – that the Rockefeller project needed to move forward or they wouldn’t be able to help me,” Zimmer said.

“There is no way I could ethically do what the governor, through the lieutenant governor, is asking me to do,” she said.

Christie’s office denied Zimmer’s claims, calling her statements politically motivated.

Christie already is embroiled in another scandal involving traffic jams apparently manufactured to settle a political score. At a recent news conference to discuss the lane closures on the approach to the George Washington Bridge, Christie brushed aside questions about his aggressive governing style. “I am who I am,” Christie said. “I am not a bully.”