NJ Legislative Committee Investigating Bridgegate May Issue More Subpoenas
By Cleve Bryan
TRENTON (CBS) -- Lawmakers in the Fort Lee traffic scandal want to know by Friday if they will get information from the law firm that conducted that review for Governor Christie. Otherwise, they will have to use subpoenas.
Today's meeting had a lot of arguments about what actions the committee should be taking.
Meeting for the first time in almost two months, the bi-partisan legislative committee to investigate the Fort Lee lane closures took a very partisan turn Tuesday.
State Senator Kevin O'Toole said, "Don't trade charges with me about deliberately misrepresenting. I resent that and you withdraw it! (I will not.)"
Senator O'Toole defended fellow Republican Amy Handlin who says the committee should immediately start proposing reforms to the port authority of New York and New Jersey, an agency she says is wasting money by the minute.
Handlin says, "It's been going on for years but more to the point this committee has been willfully allowing it to go on for the 82 days that we've been in existence."
Co-chair of the committee, John Wisniewski, called Handlin's proposal showboating and says it's premature to make reforms until the committee completes its work.
He said in opening remarks the governor's internal review has critical and numerous deficiencies.
"This state still does not have a clear understanding of how this happened and there are still people we can question and documents we can gather to review and enhance our understanding."
After meeting in public for only about 12 minutes, the committee moved to a closed door session to discuss what they will do next.
Assemblywoman Handlin revealed the lawyer fees so far for the legislative committee are around $200,000 and Republicans have been denied a breakdown of the bill.