Star-Ledger: Hoboken mayor claims Christie administration held city's Sandy recovery funds 'hostage' [View all]

[flamingdem]

Zimmer, a Democrat who has long been an ally of Christie, made the explosive accusation this morning on national television, telling MSNBC host Steve Kornacki that she was pressured by Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, Richard Constable, the current commissioner of community affairs, and Lori Grifa, the former commissioner.

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Zimmer, however, did not support those development plans despite pressure from Grifa, who once tried to set up a conference call with her and Samson to push for it, according to emails Zimmer provided. And Hoboken’s planning board in April voted against designating those three blocks for development, pushing to develop all 19 instead.
At the same time, the Christie administration was distributing Hurricane Sandy recovery funds. Hoboken had been devastated by the storm. Almost 80 percent had been flooded. There was more than $100 million in property damage, according to Zimmer's office.

But even though Zimmer requested more than $100 million from Christie, she received only $342,000.

In May, Zimmer again took to her diary to recount an event she participated in with Constable.

“We are miked up with other panelists all around us, and probably the sound team is listening, and he says ‘I hear you’re against the Rockefeller project… If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you.”

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/hoboken_mayor_claims_christie_administration_held_citys_sandy_recovery_funds_hostage.html