By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Chugging through its 6th year, the Christie Administration is experiencing more turnover today with the news of Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable‘s departure, effective this upcoming Friday, March 27th.
Governor Chris Christie lavished effusive praise on his departing friend and ally.
“Rich has served me extraordinarily well for more than a decade and I appreciate his service to this state and the country,” said Governor Christie in a joint statement. “He has worked with me closely as a federal prosecutor, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Labor & Workforce Development and as Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, where he took on some of the most complex issues impacting New Jerseyans, from controlling local property taxes to Sandy recovery. I thank him for his service and his friendship and wish him well in his new endeavors.”
Constable initially joined the cabinet in 2012; he oversaw, among other government functions, significant portions of the Sandy recovery effort as Chairman of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority (NJRA) and, despite the Administration’s best efforts to defund it, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).
On the controversy front? In addition to ongoing complaints about the Sandy recovery effort generally, Hoboken Dawn Zimmer alleged that it was Constable who conditioned Sandy aid for Hoboken on the Mayor’s support for a development project.
Constable said only that it was time to go.
“I’m extraordinarily grateful for the opportunities Governor Christie has given me to serve the public over the last 13 years. While it is the right time for me to move on, I will nevertheless miss my colleagues in the Cabinet, at the State House, and so many friends on both sides of the aisle,” said Constable. “I would also like to thank all the employees at the DCA for their hard work, professionalism, and commitment to the New Jerseyans we serve every day.”
DCA Deputy Commissioner Charles Richman, yet another veteran of Democrat administrations, will serve as Acting Commissioner of the Department pending a formal nomination and Senate approval of his indefinite stewardship.
