Anthony Sartor, commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, resigned Monday amid investigations following the George Washington Bridge closure scandal.
A spokesperson for Sartor, who played a key role in overseeing the agency’s work on the World Trade Center redevelopment, told the Wall Street Journal that his resignation had no connection to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s new probe into the agency’s work on the project. A grand jury recently subpoenaed a number of records from the authority, and federal prosecutors are also investigating the agency.
Sartor told the Journal his resignation was long planned for after the 2013 governor’s race, but that his recent attendance at a grandson’s birthday point was the catalyst to depart now.
“Timing for such things is never perfect for all concerned,” Sartor wrote in a letter submitted Monday to the Port Authority’s secretary.
Port Authority records show that Sartor recused himself 181 times out of 332 votes pertaining to the World Trade Center since 2002, according to the Journal. Four Port Authority officials told the paper that Sartor was routinely involved in World Trade Center contract discussions before recusing himself from voting. He was also purportedly involved with talks to sell his New Jersey-based company, engineering firm Paulus, Sokolowski & Sartor, to STV Group — one of the largest engineering firm contractors at the World Trade Center site, the Journal reported. [WSJ] — Julie Strickland