NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Kathryn Garcia, a top aide to Governor Kathy Hochul, has been nominated as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bi-state agency which runs the metro area’s air and seaports.
Garcia currently serves as the director of state operations for New York, and previously was the city’s sanitation commissioner. New York’s governor appoints the Port Authority’s executive director, while the New Jersey governor names the chairman of the board of commissioners. She succeeds incumbent Rick Cotton, who plans to retire in January after eight years in the role.
“From the Gateway Tunnel to Micron, the Interborough Express to our Nuclear Moonshot, Kathryn helped us launch and advance generational infrastructure projects and rebuild our economy following the pandemic with an eye toward the future,” Hochul wrote in a Tuesday press release.
The news was first reported by The New York Times.
Cotton had led the charge on modernizing LaGuardia, delivering a successful turnaround for the airport once considered among the country’s worst. He also guided one of the nation’s busiest ports through the supply chain disruptions and the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cotton called Garcia’s nomination a “superb” choice. “She has deep knowledge of city and state government combined with extraordinary insight and judgment and a collaborative spirit,” Cotton wrote in a statement.
Hochul also announced that Jackie Bray, commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Operations, will succeed Garcia as the new director of state operations.
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