Christie took 10 months to implement federal Sandy aid law, report says
By Matt Friedman/The Star-Ledger
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on February 01, 2014 at 10:16 AM
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie took nearly a year to implement a law he signed that would require close oversight of federal Hurricane Sandy recovery money, a report this morning said.
Christie signed the "Integrity Monitor Act" in March — a bill that would require independent monitors to oversee how the state government distributes billions in aid. The monitors would be assigned to all projects of $5 million or more.
But integrity monitors weren't put in place until January 2014, according to a report by MSNBC's Steve Kornacki. And, the report said, a company given a prominent role in the monitoring employs Christie's brother, Todd.
Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts told the TV show that the monitors spent the past 10 months being trained and that no quarterly reports to the Legislature required under the law "have been filed because none have yet been due."
Roberts added in an email to the Star-Ledger that before Christie signed the legislation, he issued an executive order that "mandates the pre-approval by the state comptroller of all contracts dispersing Sandy-related funding."
"Integrity monitors are only one facet of oversight from the administration and it would be wrong to characterize this as the only oversight taking place," Roberts said.
But the Christie administration has already disbursed millions in Sandy aid. And Kornacki highlighted a project in Belleville that was the subject of a Star-Ledger report on Tuesday, saying there's no way to tell if those funds had any oversight.
One of the monitors hired by Christie was Ernst & Young, which employs Todd Christie as director of its Northeast practice market.
The firm told Kornacki that Todd Christie played no role in Sandy oversight. And Roberts noted the company has 175,000 employees and was selected through an open process.
The Christie administration, however, vetoed a law passed shortly after the monitoring act that would have required even stricter Sandy oversight.
Kornacki noted a Star-Ledger report that a senior housing project in Belleville got $6 million in federal Sandy dollars even though it was never touted as a way to help Sandy victims and that there's no way to tell who oversaw the disbursement.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/christie_took_10_months_to_implement_federal_sandy_aid_law.html
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