A contract to build a badly needed $21 million parking deck at Atlantic City International Airport was killed because of "improper, outside pressures" from the McGreevey administration, the contractor claims in a lawsuit against a state authority.
The lawsuit, which could prompt a multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-financed settlement, contends the contract was breached because of political interference by former Gov. James E. McGreevey's staff and other officials who did not "act honestly" and then refused to sign off on the deal long after the project was to have begun.
Among thousands of pages of sworn statements filed with the lawsuit is a transcript of a telephone call in which the head of the airport authority suggested the stalled project would move forward if the contractor called George Norcross, a Camden County Democratic leader who helped pave the way for McGreevey to become governor.
"The parking garage would be built today" if the contract had been honored, according to a sworn statement filed by Margate businessman Roy Goldberg, a partner in G&G/RPS LLC, the company awarded the project five years ago. The statement says construction was aborted because of "political pressure ... because I was a very active supporter of the Republican Party."
Goldberg added: "I understood it to be political because (the man who runs the airport) suggested that I contact George Norcross."
Neither side in the litigation would discuss the case, scheduled to go to trial next month in state Superior Court in Atlantic City. Both sides said settlement talks are under way and officials said a deal could be reached as early as this morning.
The voluminous court file asserts that a massive airport improvement project given a green light by former Gov. Christie Whitman, a Republican, got caught in the crossfire once Democrat McGreevey took office in January 2002.
Early in 2000, Goldberg's firm was awarded a two-part parking project by the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which runs the airport and the Atlantic City Expressway and regulates the buses that ferry gamblers to and from the city. G&G beat out three other companies in a competition for the rights to build and operate both a new surface parking lot and a 1,300-car garage at the air terminal.
The ground-level lot was built and put into service. But the garage was delayed by legal technicalities, then security concerns following 9/11, and finally by the change in administrations in Trenton.
While the governor's office does not run day-to-day operations at the agency, the board that controls the authority is appointed by the governor, who has final say on all its actions, including contracts with developers.
In a transcript of a July 2003 phone conversation between Goldberg and James Crawford, executive director of the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the contractor expressed frustration about the stalled project.
According to the transcript, Crawford told him: "If I put this on the (board's) agenda then the governor's office will just veto that item."
When Goldberg asked if "there's nothing we can do to push this along?" Crawford responded: "Well there may be ... Got any friends ... Well the person that would have to, that you would have to probably call right now that might be of use is what's his name in Camden."
He later suggested that when Goldberg's lawyer returned from a vacation, "it could be something he just mentions to Norcross (unintelligible) problem with this."
McGreevey, who resigned in November after admitting to a gay affair with a former aide, did not respond to requests for comment.
Norcross spokesman Richard McGrath said: "George Norcross has never met Jim Crawford, has never spoken with Jim Crawford. He knows Elvis better than he knows Jim Crawford because he's at least been to one of Elvis' concerts."
Crawford, a former assistant commissioner at the state Transportation Department who has announced he will retire in June, said: "I certainly wouldn't want to say anything that would jeopardize" the settlement talks. He declined to comment on Goldberg's accusation of political interference or the comment attributed to him in the transcript.
The South Jersey Transportation Authority contends in court papers that it changed its plans in 2003 and decided that instead of a private developer, the authority itself would build and operate the parking deck. It argues it had the right to make the switch. The authority also alleges Goldberg's group did not fulfill its obligation to provide an accounting of all parking fees collected at the ground-level lot.
A legal brief filed by the authority a year ago contends Goldberg's company "has acted wrongfully and has unjustly enriched itself, or its principals, at the public's expense."
Goldberg is a Republican with a history of contributions to GOP campaigns and long-standing support for Atlantic County's leading political figure, Republican state Sen. William Gormley.
At the time Goldberg alleges McGreevey's office was blocking the parking project, Gormley was in a bitter public dispute with both McGreevey and Norcross over the state budget and Gormley's move to force McGreevey's top contributor off the board that runs the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Norcross openly discussed maneuvers that could hurt Gormley's power base.
Goldberg and Gormley declined to comment on the ongoing dispute or its origin.
The project, meanwhile, has not gotten off the ground. Aimed at more than doubling the airport's parking capacity, the improvements are "extremely important if the Atlantic City International Airport is truly going to be an international first-class airport," said Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson.
