Spitzer Names Port Authority Head and Fills 11 Other Top Positions

Spitzer Names Port Authority Head and Fills 11 Other Top Positions

Saturday, December 16, 2006

By PATRICK HEALY and WILLIAM NEUMAN (NYT)

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer’s choice to lead the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said yesterday that the Spitzer team would take a “fresh look” at the Freedom Tower project at ground zero. Mr. Spitzer cautioned that it was premature to say whether plans would change, but the new Port Authority leader, Anthony E. Shorris, said there was little flexibility to make a major overhaul.

The comments came at a news conference where Mr. Spitzer named Mr. Shorris to be executive director of the Port Authority and also tapped 11 others for top jobs in his administration. Half of the appointees are current or former members of Mr. Spitzer’s staff in the attorney general’s office, and others, like Mr. Shorris and Priscilla Almodovar — his choice to be president of the state housing finance agency — have been advisers to the governor-elect.

Mr. Spitzer’s selection of so many people close to him came despite promises made during the campaign that he would look broadly for the best possible talent. He said yesterday that he would make a wide search to fill other top jobs. Mr. Shorris’s remarks about a top-to-bottom review of the Freedom Tower reflected private comments made recently by some Spitzer advisers. They have vowed to examine everything from the project’s cost and leasing viability to its height, which Gov. George E. Pataki helped set at 1,776 feet.

Both the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site, and the state have many other significant infrastructure needs, from the Second Avenue subway to the rebuilding or replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge. And Mr. Spitzer is on record, as a candidate last spring, as saying the Freedom Tower could become “a white elephant” because it seemed to lack “economic viability.” “We’ll be looking at every aspect of it, both the plan and the execution of it, we’ll take a fresh look at the whole thing,” Mr. Shorris said yesterday. “But I also think the No. 1 priority of the governor is to get ground zero moving. The last thing that any of us wants to see is a slowing down of the progress.” He added that at this stage, with work already begun for the tower, there was “very limited” opportunity to rethink the project, especially with many New Yorkers impatient for action at the site.

Mr. Shorris was a top aide at the Port Authority from 1990 to 1995, and was deputy schools chancellor in New York from 2001 to 2003. He left the schools job soon after it became known that he held a second high-paying job as a consultant for then-Local 1199’s National Benefit Fund, with his supervisor’s approval.

Mr. Spitzer also appointed Elliot G. Sander as the executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He signaled that Mr. Sander might also replace Peter S. Kalikow, the powerful chairman backed by Governor Pataki, once Mr. Kalikow steps down. Mr. Kalikow has created tension with the Spitzer camp by saying he will not resign until federal financing is in place for both the Second Avenue subway and a Long Island Rail Road link to Grand Central Terminal, which is likely to occur in the first six months of next year. But Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Sander made clear that Mr. Sander will have effective control of the agency even with Mr. Kalikow still in place.

Mr. Sander is a senior vice president at DMJM Harris, an engineering firm with millions of dollars of contracts with the transportation authority. He is also a former city transportation commissioner. As he had during his campaign, Mr. Spitzer characterized the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as an agency that “needs a management shake-up,” and indicated once again that it would “make sense” to combine the powers of the transportation authority chairman and executive director.

He added that he needed to work with the Legislature to accomplish that. But Mr. Sander stressed continuity in at least one area, saying he planned to move ahead with the list of ambitious projects already under way at the agency, including the Second Avenue subway, the Long Island Rail Road link to Grand Central and the westward extension of the No. 7 subway line to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Mr. Sander will have to deal with immense deficits projected for the agency. He said that while there would be no fare increase next year, one was possible in 2008. He said one of his first acts would be to evaluate the transportation authority’s security program, including its antiterrorism efforts.