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Port Authority Chairman David Samson cast a vote that benefited a client of his law firm, according to a report.

(Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)



Another possible conflict of interest involving Port Authority chairman David Samson has come to light, according to a report on NorthJersey.com.

While Samson's law firm worked for NJ Transit, he cast a vote authorizing the Port Authority to lease a park-and-ride lot in North Bergen to the transportation agency for $1 a year, the report said.

Later Wednesday, Darrell Buchbinder, general counsel for the Port Authority, released a letter addressed to Samson that stated due to a "clerical inadvertance" Samson's recusal was not correctly noted in the minutes to the Feb. 9. 2012 meeting.

Before the 49-year lease was approved, NJ Transit paid the Port Authority $900,000 a year for the Hudson County lot. Commuters pay $9.50 per day for a parking space and a round-trip bus ticket to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan.

NJ Transit paid Wolf & Samson as much as $1.5 million to "advise" it how to generate additional revenue from its parking facilities, the Record reported.

In March 2012, Samson was among the Port Authority commissioners who voted to approve a $256 million renovation of the Harrison PATH station. The vote came just three months after a developer represented by Samson's law firm proposed converting a nearby warehouse into luxury apartments.

Samson's law firm was also at the center of a controversy in Hoboken. That city's mayor, Dawn Zimmer, claimed she was twice approached by the Christie administration to persuade her to approve a three-block development project sought by the Rockefeller Group, which was represented at the time by Wolff & Samson. She alleged the administration threatened to withhold Sandy funds because she refused to expedite the project.

Samson's firm has pulled in nearly $5 million from government contracts since Chris Christie became governor four years ago. Two former Christie administration officials work there as well.

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