TRENTON – Asked whether he knew that cross-aisle ally Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo was collecting his pension through a loophole before it ended up in front page headlines, Gov. Chris Christie said it was a surprise to him.
“I had no idea until I heard about it. I had no idea,” he said. “I don’t understand how you can retire from a job and stay in the job. Only in New Jersey.”
Christie said his pension reform proposals last year would have closed the particular loophole – then he questioned whether it wouldn’t be in the legislators’ best interests to pass such reform.
Asked whether DiVincenzo is greedy, he said, “I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that question.”
He was also asked whether the news was embarrassing to him, and he said, “It’s not embarrassing to me. I think it’s wrong – and it’s not just wrong for him. It’s no more embarrassing to me than any other public elected official…I’ve expressed that directly to Joe DiVincenzo.
“All the other public officials (who are making use of the loophole), they should stand up today and admit that they’re doing it,” he sad. “Let’s whoever is doing this raise their hands.”
He said it won’t change his chummy relationship with DiVincenzo: “It doesn’t effect my relationship. I have to work with him.”
If he had to avoid politicians who he disagreed with, he said, “I’d be sitting in there by myself.”
“Let’s not just isolate one person on this,” he said, but he was questioned over his past vilification of other officials or board members who may have worked the system – some of whom were pressured to leave their positions by the governor.
Christie differentiated the Essex exec from the others like former Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission executive director Bryan Christiansen: “This is a pension that he’s earned.”