{"id":1052,"date":"2023-04-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2023-04-19T17:19:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T21:19:21","slug":"upcoming-demise-of-the-waterfront-commission-may-be-a-good-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/2023\/04\/20\/upcoming-demise-of-the-waterfront-commission-may-be-a-good-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming Demise of the Waterfront Commission May Be a Good Start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In On the Waterfront (Commission)<\/a><\/em>, I wrote about a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the State of New York was suing the State of New Jersey to compel NJ to remain a party to the compact which created the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor (the Waterfront Commission). On Tuesday the Supreme Court decided the case<\/a>, granting New Jersey’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and denying New York’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end the result was not a surprise as oral argument (transcript <\/a>| audio<\/a>) had effectively telegraphed that the Court had many problems with New York’s position. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the Court’s opinion in which all other justices joined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NJ.com’s initial coverage, “In a big win for N.J., U.S. Supreme Court rules against N.Y. in long fight over waterfront watchdog<\/a>,” while accurate in its reporting of the decision, throws shade on NJ’s decision to quit the Commission. It asserts that the State Legislature’s action was the result of political pressure from the unions and that “reports showing the continued influence of organized crime and abuses by local unions in hiring practices\u00a0had been suppressed for political reasons.” The wisdom of NJ’s decision was properly not a factor in the Supreme Court’s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would not be surprised if the Waterfront Commission had its own share of plum jobs for the politically connected. If there is continuing influence from organized crime and graft and corruption continue to be practiced by the unions, maybe the Waterfront Commission wasn’t up to the task. New Jersey is going to have a special unit of the state police take over supervision of port activities in the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bi- (or multi-) state commissions created by interstate compacts seem to me to be especially susceptible to political abuse. They are not accountable to either\/any state that created them and certainly not to the electorate. There will be a tendency to expand their activities beyond, say, mere bridge maintenance to justify their continued existence. They may be given their own ability to raise funds (bridge tolls for example), moving them even further from legislative oversight. They become a source of patronage for the governors who can allocate “spheres of influence” for each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thorough review of all such commissions is in order, with needed reform to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay Bohn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 20, 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In On the Waterfront (Commission), I wrote about a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the State of New York was suing the State of New Jersey to compel NJ to remain a party to the compact which created the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor (the Waterfront Commission). On Tuesday the … Continue reading “Upcoming Demise of the Waterfront Commission May Be a Good Start”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judicial-decisions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1059,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions\/1059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}