NJ Watchdog Group....

[Laxman]

followed through on their promise to file an ethics complaint against David Samson today. This is good news. However, I'm waiting for the NJ Attorney Ethics complaint against Samson. His conflicts of interest are clear violations of the Attorney Cannon of Ethics. Any other attorney doing what he has done would face disbarment. In the meantime, the wheels of justice continue to turn.....

Port Authority chairman hit with ethics complaint by NJ Working Families Alliance

A New Jersey watchdog group filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission today charging Port Authority Chairman David Samson with using his position at the bi-state agency to benefit developers and other clients of his law firm.

"This complaint alleges that Samson violated the CIL by using his position as Chairman of the Port Authority to influence decisions of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners that would benefit clients of his law firm, Wolff & Samson PC," states the complaint, filed by the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a Democratic-leaning coalition of consumer, environmental and labor groups including the Sierra Club and Laborers Union Local 32BJ.

read the rest of the article here: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/03/port_authority_samson_ethics_complaint.html#incart_m-rpt-1

and here is a link to the actual complaint for those afflicted with policy wonk disease: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1033946-3-2-14-final-complaint.html

[Beach Rat]

1. Keep chopping away!

If Christie falls in the woods does it make a noise?

[Laxman]

4. Splat? n/t

[Beach Rat]

6. I was thinking more along the lines of Boing!

what's n/t mean?

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. n/t = no text (like eom = end of message)

[Beach Rat]

8. Thank you. I was thinking-nice touch?

[bettyellen]

2. good!

[Jersey Devil]

3. I don't understand why attorney ethics charges haven't been made

I am a NJ lawyer and you are darn right that any other NJ lawyer who has done what he has done would have been disbarred for much less than what Samson has done.

[Laxman]

5. It's Beyond Me...

the first thing that I think of is why the District Ethics Committee hasn't been all over him since the first instance came to light! Just going through the list that I accumulated in the Christie Crime Digest is unbelievable. The stuff with the American Dream Mall, Hoboken, the Port Authority and Harrison, The PA and Hoboken, South Jersey Transportation Authority and The Port Authority with Atlantic City Airport, that's not even the whole list. I know lawyers who have gotten suspended for conflicts with their client's prior consent on the representation. Talk about the appearance of impropriety let alone actual impropriety!

[Laxman]

9. Another Article...

on this matter from the Bergen Record.

Quad Est In Loco-The Fix Is In!

Complaint: Port Authority chairman David Samson had ethics conflicts

The group argues that the ethics commission has jurisdiction to hear the matter even though the Port Authority is an independent bi-state agency because New Jersey’s Conflicts of Interest Law covers members of “any interstate agency to which New Jersey is a party.”

The argument is bolstered by a 2009 Port Authority resolution requiring each commissioner to comply with the laws and rules of “his or her state of appointment,” the group says in the complaint.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Complaint_Christie_confidant_David_Samson_had_ethics_conflicts.html?page=all

Let me see. How can I work both sides of this deal?

[Laxman]

10. A Much More Thorough....

look at the Samson Ethics Complaint from today's NJ Spotlight.

Samson Complaint Tests Independence Of Embattled Ethics Commission

Samson’s law firm was also in the middle of a controversy involving the Ethics Commission itself two month ago, when the governor’s office asked the commission to issue a ruling barring Ed Lloyd, a respected environmental lawyer serving on the Pinelands Commission, from voting on an application by South Jersey Gas to build a pipeline across a protected Pinelands preserve. Even with Lloyd not voting, the pipeline plan failed to win approval due to a 7-7 tie vote in a rare defeat for both the Christie administration and the Wolff and Samson law firm, which represented South Jersey Gas.

Samson, whose law firm’s lobbying and bonding business has skyrocketed since Christie’s election, is in the middle of the two most serious scandals that have rocked the Christie administration in the eight weeks since the governor acknowledged that his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, ordered the controversial George Washington Bridge lane closures in apparent retaliation against Fort Lee’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie for reelection.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/03/04/samson-complaint-tests-independence-of-embattled-ethics-commission/