(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, I'm Steve Adubato.

More importantly, I'm about to introduce a segment we did with two leaders who are making a huge difference in the region.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Never heard of them.

They matter.

George Washington Bridge, the airport, Newark Airport, PATH, all of it operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The chairman of the board, Kevin O'Toole and the executive director, Rick Cotton, who is leaving in early 2026.

But they've had a long time partnership as chairman of the Port Authority and the day-to-day executive director of the Port Authority, Kevin O'Toole and Rick Cotton, making a difference in our lives, whether we realize or not.

Talking about leadership, talking about economic development, transportation, a whole range of other issues.

Let's check it out.

Once again, we're joined by two important significant leaders in our region.

Kevin O'Toole is Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And let me disclose Port Authority, a longtime underwriter of our programming around economic development, infrastructure, et cetera.

Good to see you gentlemen.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- You got it.

Hey Kevin, kick this off.

The two of you have been in these two roles, which by the way, it's rare.

It may be unprecedented.

Rick has been the executive director.

You've been the chairman since '17, 2017?

- Correct?

Eight years.

- Eight years.

And lots of governors.

- Yeah, a couple, a handful.

And you know, you know a few of them.

- Yeah.

How the heck have two strong leaders collaborated, worked together and somehow put egos to the side?

Kevin and then Rick?

- Well, listen, listen.

When I met Rick in June of '17, we said we had to just make this place work.

And we talked long and hard back in June of '17 that we had to work together working with the governors at the time, whether Republican or Democrat, we're gonna make this thing work.

And it's been eight years, and I will tell you, Rick and I have been totally hand in glove working with our commissioners, with senior staff and the 8,000 employees.

And we have done amazing things with the Port Authority because we've worked together as opposed to against each other, which has happened in the past.

- Yeah, just a little bit, and by the way, background, Kevin O'Toole, former state senator, and also one of the co-founders of O'Toole Scrivo, a significant law firm in the region.

Rick, let me ask you this.

When you met Kevin, I mean I've known Kevin for more than a few years, he says what he thinks, he's extremely candid and direct.

What was your first reaction to him and did you know, Hey, we're gonna have a great partnership?

- Well, I think we hit it off right from the very first time we met each other.

And the foundation is what Kevin just said.

We both came to the table, we almost used the same words with each other.

We wanna get things done.

And we also wanted to put behind us and the agency, the divisions and the dysfunction which sometimes appeared.

And so we set out to do exactly that.

And we took a regional focus.

We took the key ambitions of each state into account, and we've worked together to deliver.

And I think the last eight years have been very productive.

- Lemme make it clear for those folks who say, Hey, what the heck has the Port Authority created in a compact of 1921, two states coming together, New Jersey and New York.

Hey, wait a minute.

There are a whole bunch of things that affect both states.

We need to come together and do things together.

That was on paper.

The reality of that, as Rick and Kevin are talking about, very different, more challenging.

Kevin, you and I talked about this the other day, a couple of the most significant initiatives, whether it's the airport, at the airport, several airports, but also the bus terminal.

Then Rick jump in as well.

Go ahead, Kevin.

- Yeah, I mean, it's astonishing.

So you're seeing renovations going on at Newark and LaGuardia and JFK, $19 billion at JFK.

You're talking LaGuardia, which has gone from the worst to the best and Terminal A at Newark, which is amazing.

And now we're working on the planning stations for Terminal B. It's astonishing.

All three regional airports, which have record numbers, are going through this massive renovation and getting, you know, recognized across the world for being amazing in terms of state of the art.

We talk about the bus terminal, which is, as you know, is from 1950s, it should have been... had a wrecking ball to it probably 30 years ago.

So we just passed over $4 billion in its first stage.

Can't wait for that to come online.

You're seeing a $3.5 billion new AirTrain in Newark.

You're seeing new renovations at the port, you're seeing upgrades at the GW, $1.9 billion, $2 billion to rewire the the GW.

So there's a massive infrastructure being done right now and it's overseen by Rick.

And you know, Rick was very kind to talk about, you know, what his impression was of me.

I'll tell you my impression of his remains today.

He's the most hardworking, the most diligent, the most transparent, most hands-on leader I've ever worked with Steve, and Steve, I've worked, as you know, at federal, state, local, county.

He's the most distinguished and amazing public servant I've ever worked with, bar none.

- Well said.

Rick, lemme follow up on that.

Kevin mentions all these projects and there's the word, the B word is in there a lot, a lot of billions.

Here's the question.

From a leadership point of view, from a getting things done point of view, how the heck do you, have you gotten these approvals along with Kevin and the board and the executive team at the Port Authority when you're talking about so much money.

Those are critical investments that have been avoided forever, confronting and dealing with falling apart infrastructure.

People talk about all the time, very few people do anything.

How is that connected to leadership?

Rick, talk to us.

- Well it starts with a vision and it starts with a commitment and it starts with being clear with the organization and indeed the public where you want to go.

And it was very early on that Kevin and I committed not only to get things done, but that world class was our standard.

And we are gonna do that across every aspect of the operation.

The buildings we built, the capital structures that we brought online, how we are gonna operate the place and we did it together.

And you need to communicate clearly where you're going for the organization.

You can't have different visions and fighting is very destructive.

So the emphasis that we put on it, very straightforward, as I say, world-class quality, speed of execution, getting things done and working together to do that.

And I think the agency has pulled together across all of our priorities and Kevin and I have done it together.

- But the other part of this, Rick and Kevin, which again, Kevin, let's just say Kevin O'Toole knows politics better than most.

And he is had to navigate and negotiate a whole range of complex things on the Jersey side that I'm more familiar with, but obviously at the PA, Port Authority.

If I'm not mistaken, each governor, the governor of New Jersey and the governor of New York have the constant, they have the legal authority to quote, veto the minutes of any meeting of the Board of Commissioners to the Port Authority.

And if they veto those minutes, anything that's approved in those minutes doesn't happen.

Kevin, accurate?

- Absolutely accurate.

And it hasn't happened on our watch Steve.

And lemme tell you, because the governors on both sides understand if they do that they'll be killing jobs, killing initiatives, killing progress, and killing any of these big projects we're talking about.

And they have, and we're working on their agenda so they wouldn't really undermine their own agendas.

- However, let me get a little more complicated here.

New York has a governor in place right now.

Governor Hochul's there.

As we do this program, it's right before, this will be seen after the election.

We don't know.

It could be Mikie Sherrill, it could be Jack Ciattarelli.

How the heck does the Port Authority leadership with you as Chairman, Kevin, and Rick, how do you prepare for a new governor, because Governor Murphy will not be there in January of 2026.

How do you engage he or she on the Jersey side to what's important and how do you engage them in the process?

Kevin, then Rick.

- Listen, so once we have the winner, you know, 34 days from today, we will set up a transition team.

We'll have a briefing.

And frankly, whether it's Congressman Sherrill, whether it's Jack Ciattarelli, you know, those folks have reached out and want to have some input now and talk about what's going at the port.

We've had some discussions.

And once the election's over professionally and what we do, the same we did with Governor Murphy, by the way.

We will sit down and talk about Some of the exciting things that are happening.

And it's pretty seamless, believe it or not.

And for those who have been paying attention, they're not be shocked by some of the ambitious plans we have at the Port Authority.

- Rick, jump in here 'cause you've seen a few governors as well.

- The key in my judgment is that the priorities that the Port Authority is working on are really shared by the governor.

Where both state houses very clear in terms of what their priorities have been, that has enabled us to put together a regional agenda.

But if you think about it, world class airports is what we're building.

You look at LaGuardia, hopefully your viewers have been to Terminal A at Newark.

World-Class structures widely characterized that way.

And so we're going to the state houses, we're going to the public and saying, look, this is what we want to build and we wanna operate them in a way that they are rated in terms of their operations at the absolute top of the game.

And that's the agenda that we're bringing to the state houses.

That's the agenda we'll bring to new governors, different governors.

But we've had support because these are shared objectives.

No one wants the New York, New Jersey airports to be at the back of the line.

They wanted them to be at the front of the line.

People want the bus terminal built and we're committed to that.

So I think it's in delivery, it's in shared priorities that makes the relationship with governor's work.

- And Steve, to that point, you know, years ago when we started talking about the bus terminal, not everybody was on board.

The locals in New York and New Jersey, not everyone understood and appreciated it.

We had a groundbreaking, everybody unanimously was on board, the community boards, governors, local officials because we took their needs into into consideration, talked about what was really important to them.

And now literally everybody's on board the bus terminal, which would be one of the biggest projects in the country.

- It's so interesting.

It's easy.

And I'm not gonna get in my soapbox, but people in governmental and political positions and in the corporate world as well, it's easy to blame.

It's easy, why don't they do this?

It's so easy to be against things, to build something, to create something and then have to get other people on board, easier said than done.

To Kevin and Rick, I wanna thank you for joining us.

Thank you again for longtime collaboration with the Port Authority.

We call it infrastructure, it's economic development.

It's transportation, it's sustainable energy, it's the environment, it's all kinds of stuff, and quality of life.

To the chairman of the board and to the executive director of the Port Authority, thank you so much.

Thank you gentlemen.

- Thanks Steve.

Appreciate it.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by United Airlines.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

IBEW Local 102.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The North Ward Center.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

And by Congress Hall.

Promotional support provided by NJBIA.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- (Narrator) For the last 125 years, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 102 has powered progress and built a brighter future.

As we celebrate this incredible milestone, we honor the dedication of our past, the strength of our present, and the promise of our future.

Together, we're stronger.

Together, we're Local 102.