Cuomo replaces Bridge Authority Board
Governor has sought to merge agency with Thruway Authority
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has gotten state Senate approval to replace the entire state Bridge Authority board with appointments that are expected to be friendly with his wishes for a merger with the state Thruway Authority.
The announcement was made by Cuomo’s office as part of appointments to 20 agencies around the state and puts new people to seven Bridge Authority seats. The board had five members and two vacancies.
Representatives for Cuomo were not immediately available Friday for comment.
The move comes nearly four months after lawmakers rejected a proposal for the five Hudson River crossings operated by the state Bridge Authority to be taken over by the state Thruway Authority. It was a move that opponents considered to be an attempt to subsidize Thruway projects, including the $4 billion Mario M. Cuomo Bridge connecting Westchester and Rockland Counties, and leave Mid-Hudson residents with higher bridge tolls.
However, the negotiations that removed the takeover from the budget also put in a provision that
allowed Cuomo the entirely replace appointments with Senate approval.
Maintaining the independence of the Bridge Authority managed to bring elected officials on both sides of the political aisle together. State Sen. Sue Serino, R-Hyde Park, in a press release noted she saw the move coming as part of the budget process and said the wholesale replacement of board members amounts to a “de facto takeover” of the agency.
“What is the reason for cutting short the terms of these dedicated public officials if not to replace them with people more apt to agree with your position?” she said.
“We led the fight against the Bridge Authority merger because we have significant concerns about what it would mean for toll prices and local control of the bridges,” Serino said. “Defeating the merger was a major victory for the region, but the devil is always in the details and language tucked into the final state budget gave the governor the authority to totally replace the governing board of the authority.”
Of the seven new appointees, Serino did vote in favor of Michael O’Brien, a Dutchess County resident, and cited the desire to have that candidate fill one of the two vacancies.
Sen. Jen Metzger, DRosendale, said in a prepared statement on Friday that she “strongly” opposes “any effort to merge the Bridge Authority with the Thruway Authority, and we were able to successfully block the Governor’s proposed merger in state budget negotiations.”
Metzger added that, “With the Board appointments, it was important to me to make sure that the Governor’s appointees were not ‘yes’ men and women, but were actually independent-minded, and Senator Skoufis and I insisted that they be interviewed by the Senate Finance Committee before the vote even though such interviews were not required. I was satisfied with most committee members’ interviews, except for two, whose appointments I voted against. We’ll be closely watching this new Board’s work to make sure the Bridge Authority’s integrity remains intact.”
Among the people removed from the agency board was its Chairman Richard Gerentine, who is also a Republican Ulster County Legislator from Marlboro. He said it the removal of all board members was unexpected but did not come as a surprise because of Cuomo’s efforts during the past year.
“I did think they were going to do something,” he said. “I didn’t exactly know what.”
Gerentine suspects the new board will be asked to lobby state lawmakers to support a Thruway Authority takeover.
“They are going to have to make decisions and some of those decisions could be if they’d like to do some kind of merger with the Thruway Authority,” he said.
Gerentine, who was appointed to the agency board in 2006, noted that there will be a lot of institutional knowledge lost by replacing 23-year board member Roderick Dressel.
“I think we did the best job ... that we possibly could,” Gerentine said. “That’s demonstrated by how the bridges are run and the conditions of the bridges.”
Dressel said his experience as a long-time appointee led him to understand the politics of the board removal in light of the members’ willingness to remain respectfully independent.
“You’re told you’re supposed to do what your consequence tells you what you’re supposed to do ... but it also got its blessings from Albany,” he said.
Dressel noted that Cuomo had problems getting support from the Bridge Authority board for the merger.
“It was handed down to us that this was being talked about, that it would be more efficient and so forth, and ... the board just couldn’t quite go along with it,” he said.
The sudden removal of the board left Dressel with the impression that Cuomo was unable to demonstrate “appreciation” for efficiencies and safety measures taken by the Bridge Authority board over the past several years.
“I got the feeling he didn’t grease the skids that well,” Dressel said.