The latest dispatch from Crew Christie Airlines --"You're The Graft Beneath Our Wings":
Quote:
NorthJersey.com: Four (Port Authority) commissioners who flew through Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy airports in the last four years requested and received special escorts from tarmac to curbside, bypassing regular security lines, boarding planes early, and getting shuttled to an airport lounge...according to documents released by the agency...Such VIP treatment is usually reserved for "high-profile" people who travel with security details, including...a "small" number of...elected officials, a Port Authority spokesman said...But it has also been one of the perks of being an unpaid, governor-appointed commissioner of the bistate agency that operates the region's major airports...
Commissioner David Steiner and his wife requested much of the VIP treatment, but escorts were also provided to former commissioners Anthony Sartor, Virginia Bauer and ex-chairman David Samson and their family members...Steiner is a real-estate developer who also owns Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, the largest film and television production complex outside of Hollywood...(For) Steiner's Aug. 19, 2013 flight to Moscow from JFK, with two friends and his wife, (a)irport officials started exchanging emails...three days in advance..."This is extremely important," Port Authority Airlines Supervisor Stephen DiTomasso wrote...to more than two dozen Port Authority employees. "As you can see, Commissioner Steiner is traveling a(nd) we MUST have a Port Authority Rep available to meet him."
Another airport official...said airport and Delta Airlines officials arranged for Steiner's friends, who were meeting Steiner at JFK after a flight from Washington, D.C., to be met by a representative of Delta, escorted through expedited screening and driven on a golf cart to a lounge...A week later, Steiner and his family arrived back at the airport. "All went well: assisted the Commissioner with luggage; cleared Customs; and walked him to his limo which was parked in the inner roadway closer to the taxi lane," ...an operations group supervisor for the Port Authority at JFK wrote...
Current Port Authority chairman John Degnan, who has tried to restore the agency's credibility in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, said Thursday that the practice has "basically come to a halt."
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Now before you start getting pissed off, remember that these commissioners are UNPAID: between making contributions to Christie and Cuomo large enough to qualify for PA commissions, and paying for their plane tickets out of what they can earn by doing things like running a movie studio, you're going to begrudge them a little free curb service? How petty can you get!