>N.J. Gov. Chris Christie nominates health commissioner, school construction chief
Gov. Chris Christie continued to expand the management team for his 8-day-old administration today by nominating an insurance company’s medical director to lead the state Health Department and a federal prosecutor to run the controversial Schools Development Authority.
As he introduced Marc Larkins as the schools authority’s chief executive officer, Christie also declared he’s ended the agency’s free-spending days. The governor said that on Tuesday he stopped the authority from making a $1.2 million payment for a $28.7 million high school in Burlington City that already was nearly $17 million over budget. He nullified the authority’s approval by vetoing the minutes of the Jan. 6 meeting when the change order was approved. “You could practically build another school for what they are over budget,’’ Christie said incredulously yesterday. “This is exactly why the Schools Development Authority has continued to run through billions of dollars of taxpayer money — because of this kind of irresponsibility.’’ Christie said he intended to maintain the authority that members of his transition team said in a report last week will be insolvent by March. “The question is how it operates going forward,’’ he said. Christie, who was Larkins’ boss at the U.S. attorney’s office, said he hired the 35-year-old Irvington resident again for his “compassion and accountability. … He will bring extraordinary focus and personal experience to this position.’’
The governor said he picked Poonam Alaigh, 45, of Warren Township, to lead the state Department of Health and Senior Services because of her versatile experience as a physician and as manager in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the largest health insurer in the state, hired Alaigh 10 months ago as its executive medical director for Quality and Care Management. She previously had been the medical director for the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. She is also a practicing physician, specializing in vascular diseases. Alaigh told reporters at a Statehouse press conference yesterday her first priority is to help the governor “balance the budget,” which Christie has said is hobbled by a $1.3 billion deficit. But the economic pressure on the Health Department is always intense, particularly from the troubled hospital industry, hobbled in recent years by bankruptcies and closures and dependent on government subsidies to treat uninsured, elderly and poor people. (Livio, Star Ledger)
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_gov_chris_christie_nominate_2.html
