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Reform efforts by the Port Authority Board of Commissioners' new oversight committee have included a panel discussion on April 21, seen here, and more recently, an email address where members of the public can send their own recommendations.

(Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger)

Inviting the public to weigh in directly on how to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, the agency's board has created a digital suggestion box open to anyone with access to email.

Members of the public are now able to send a message to reform@panynj.gov to tell the agency how it can provide better service, operate more efficiently, regain trust lost as a result of the scandal, or anything else they may want to tell Port Authority officials.

The new online suggestion box was set up by the board's oversight committee, convened last month to compile ideas for preventing abuses that stemmed from the politicization and divided leadership of the agency exposed by the Bridgegate scandal.

"The committee will collect and review all comments and recommendations and address them at future public meetings of the committee," the Port Authority said in a statement.

The oversight committee's work on reforming agency customs and structures is separate from ongoing investigations by the agency's inspector general's office, state and federal prosecutors in New Jersey and New York, and a special joint committee of the New Jersey State Senate and Assembly.

The co-chair of the legislative panel investigating Bridgegate said it was up to lawmakers to reform the agency, not the same Port Authority board members who sat by silently for months while questions about the September lane closures went unanswered, including the oversight committee chairman, Scott Rechler, and vice chairman, Richard Bagger.

"Pardon me for being a little bit cynical, but where have these guys been since September 13?" said State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), referring to the date the closures were lifted. "Even though folks are feeling like it's a new day (at the Port Authority), those folks are not off the hook."

And, Weinberg added, "ultimately, it will be up to the legislators of New York and New Jersey to decide how to reform this agency."

Commuters were outraged by revelations that the closures were orchestrated by Christie-backed officials at the Port Authority and one of his deputy chiefs of staff, apparently as a form of political retribution. But even before then, public anger toward the agency had been stoked by a controversial toll hike approved in August 2011. So some wondered just how constructive the criticism received through the new email address would be.

"I'm just being reminded about the NYPD," said Steve Carrellas, the New Jersey delegate to the National Motorists Association. "And they did the twitter bit and all the people just dumped on them."

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