{"id":124426,"date":"2026-02-05T22:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124426\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T22:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:35:06","slug":"new-port-authority-leadership-garcia-and-roehrenbeck-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124426\/","title":{"rendered":"New Port Authority leadership: Garcia and Roehrenbeck approved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathryn Garcia was approved as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey\u2019s new executive director<\/a> Thursday, a vote that was almost overshadowed by praise heaped on her predecessor Richard Cotton.<\/p>\n

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul nominated then state operations director Kathryn Garcia in December. Garcia also served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation, leading its 9,700 uniformed and civilian employees. During the winter of 2019, she also stepped in as the interim chair of the New York City Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s vote also saw the return of a post that has been vacant for almost a decade. Jean Roehrenbeck, Gov. Mikie Sherrill<\/a>\u2019s former aide, was approved as the authority\u2019s deputy executive director.<\/p>\n

Deborah Gramiccioni, a former assistant federal prosecutor and policy advisor under then-Gov. Chris Christie<\/a> was the last deputy<\/a>, leaving the post in January 2015. The post wasn\u2019t filled after that.<\/p>\n

Chairman John Degnan said Gramiccioni\u2019s position would be eliminated following her departure, laying the groundwork for the new management structure.<\/p>\n

Instead, a recommendation from a Port Authority reform panel<\/a> said the executive director and deputy executive director positions should be eliminated in favor of a single chief executive officer.<\/p>\n

Before the vote, Garcia and Roehrenbeck waited for close to an hour while the authority paid tribute to Cotton\u2019s almost nine year tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the greatest public servant these states have seen in the last 100 years,\u201d said Kevin O\u2019Toole, board chairman. \u201cSomeone will write books about how he saved the Port Authority. The last thing we can say is thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotton who was appointed in July 2017 saw the agency through COVID-19, the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport, Newark Airports new Terminal A, start of replacing the long-loathed Port Authority bus terminal, modernizing PATH and start of replacement of the Newark Airport monorail. <\/p>\n

Cotton was presented with several tributes and gifts: his badge, a flag flown over the World Trade Center, two medals for distinguished service and the chairman\u2019s award, a resolution paying tribute to his accomplishments, two signed Mets World Series baseballs from 1969 and 1986, a clock and a hard hat signed by the commissioners and senior staff.<\/p>\n

The Authority also will dedicate three \u201cspecial spots\u201d in New York and New Jersey that will bear his name, the LaGuardia Airport Atrium, the JFK Ground Transportation Center and the meditation room in Newark Airport\u2019s new Terminal A. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathryn Garcia was approved as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey\u2019s new executive director Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,47521,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-124426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-north-bergen","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}