2013 Port Authority Brain Drain - To Be Seen In A New Light?

It didn't occur to me until today that this story from Crain's in September might be related to Christie's stacking of the PANYNJ staff with unscrupulous hacks.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, long a magnet for ambitious transportation, construction, engineering and real estate executives eager to ply their craft on a grand scale, is experiencing a high-level brain drain.

With its largest project, the $15 billion rebuilding of the World Trade Center complex, winding down and no huge developments on the horizon, key executives at the bistate agency are decamping in an exodus only worsened by a recent audit that triggered big changes in its management and salary structures.

. . . .

Executives at public agencies like the Port Authority have long moved on to more lucrative posts in the private sector. But the scale of the defections from the agency's upper ranks in recent months exceed its norm.

Perhaps an enterprising reporter would like to revisit this article and its theses.  I'm not saying there is a definitive relationship to Christie's burgeoning scandalpalooza.  But the timing is interesting.  In my experience people don't often flee a prestigious institution in droves in the absence of a toxic and/or intolerable working environment or some other compelling factor.