Ward, who has run the Port Authority since David Paterson appointed him in 2008, will reportedly step down next month. Ward’s resignation means that there are two top gigs for Governor Cuomo to fill in fairly short order: The head of the MTA announced he was leaving over the summer, too. Ward oversaw the agency’s recent toll hikes, finagled a way to get the 9/11 Memorial to open on schedule, and helped lure Condé Nast as an anchor tenant for the World Trade Center development project.
Yet despite the latter two achievements, Ward clashed with Cuomo and his resignation isn’t exactly a surprise, says the Times.
But as with Mr. Walder, the governor never established a smooth working relationship with Mr. Ward. During Mr. Cuomo’s nine months in office, the two never spoke at length in person, according to the governor’s appointment schedules; e-mails from Mr. Ward’s office to the governor’s staff routinely went unreturned.
That sounds like a totally healthy working relationship!
