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‘Czar of Infrastructure’ Embraces Role as Pillar for Port Authority

Rick Cotton, the incoming executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, during a groundbreaking event at La Guardia Airport last week.Credit...Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo needed someone to take responsibility for rebuilding several of the New York area’s crumbling transportation hubs, he did not have to look far. Rick Cotton had been by the governor’s side for nearly three years.

So it is not surprising that Mr. Cuomo offered the job of executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to Mr. Cotton, whom he has called New York’s “czar of infrastructure.”

The puzzle is why Mr. Cotton, who has been a partner at a prestigious Manhattan law firm and the chief counsel for a major television network, would forgo a cushy retirement to run the troubled bistate agency.

The simple answer, Mr. Cotton said over lunch last week, is that there are big projects to be completed and that he is someone who gets things done. The simpler answer may be that Mr. Cuomo asked him to do it.

After taking responsibility for fixing New York City’s troubled subway system, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, moved Patrick J. Foye, the Port Authority’s executive director, to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help devise solutions. The governor then chose Mr. Cotton, who has worked for him on infrastructure issues in recent years, to fill the void.

In Mr. Cotton’s new role, which he said he would assume at 8 a.m. Monday, he will retain oversight of one of Mr. Cuomo’s pet projects: the $8 billion overhaul of La Guardia Airport. He will also be responsible for a few other huge Port Authority undertakings, including the replacement of the bus terminal in Midtown Manhattan and, in partnership with Amtrak, the building of a train tunnel under the Hudson River.

But after a few years at Mr. Cuomo’s side, Mr. Cotton is no stranger to ambitious campaigns to conquer seemingly intractable transportation muddles. He has overseen the opening of the first segment of the Second Avenue subway, the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge and the financing of the long-stalled development of the James A. Farley Post Office into a train hall for Pennsylvania Station.

“He’s doing this only because he believes in public service and wants to make a difference,” Mr. Cuomo said last week. “While he’s been here, he single-handedly has been managing our toughest projects.”

The governor, who does not give credit lightly, went on to say about Mr. Cotton that “we would not have made the progress we made but for him.” He said that at a groundbreaking last week at La Guardia, he told Mr. Cotton that the airport would not shed its “third world” image without his efforts.

So at 73, when he could be spending his days playing tennis and traveling the world with his wife, Betsy Smith, he instead will occupy the hot seat at an agency with a history of cronyism and political infighting.

Mr. Cotton will be succeeding Mr. Foye, who escaped the scandal surrounding the Port Authority’s politically motivated closing of bridge access lanes in New Jersey with his reputation enhanced. It was Mr. Foye who sounded the alarm in September 2013 about the lane-closing scheme concocted by allies of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Two Port Authority officials were convicted of crimes connected with that scandal, which is often referred to as Bridgegate.

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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, center left, has called Mr. Cotton, center right, New York’s “czar of infrastructure.”Credit...Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

Another ally of Mr. Christie, David Samson, pleaded guilty this year to abuse of his power as chairman of the Port Authority, for coercing United Airlines to operate regular flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and an airport near Mr. Samson’s weekend home in South Carolina.

In the past few years, Mr. Foye feuded publicly with Mr. Samson’s successor as chairman, John J. Degnan. Mr. Degnan’s supporters saw him as a bulwark against Mr. Cuomo’s grasping for undue influence over the Port Authority’s vast resources.

But as Mr. Cotton enters the agency, Mr. Degnan is leaving, replaced through an agreement between the governors by Kevin O’Toole, a former state senator in New Jersey.

Given Mr. Cotton’s low-key demeanor, people who have worked with him do not expect to see hostility among the agency’s leaders.

“He has established a terrific reputation over the past three years for getting stuff done that had been sort of sitting and not happening for years in the infrastructure area,” said Kathryn S. Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, which represents private employers.

“Rick’s a problem-solver,” said Gail Grimmett, a travel industry executive who previously managed operations in the New York area for Delta Air Lines. “He’s somebody who is constantly looking for solutions and constantly looking for resolution.”

In negotiations that led to Delta’s agreeing to tear down and rebuild the terminals it occupies at La Guardia, Mr. Cotton drove a hard bargain without leaving people feeling steamrollered, Ms. Grimmett said.

He “takes deep dives into the details” and challenges people with strict deadlines and high expectations, she said. But the tough conversations occur face-to-face, “not after you have left the room,” said Ms. Grimmett, president of Travel Leaders Elite.

Mr. Cotton honed his negotiating skills over more than two decades as a lawyer and executive at NBC Universal. Before that, he was a senior official of the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare, then a partner at the Dewey Ballantine law firm. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, he also clerked for Justice William J. Brennan of the Supreme Court.

Between bites of edamame salad in a Midtown restaurant, Mr. Cotton said he endorsed the Port Authority’s plan to reduce the influence of the two governors by hiring a chief executive to replace the appointed executive director — a move that would eliminate his position.

In the interim, he said, he intends to work “hand in glove” with Mr. O’Toole. He said they had already begun visiting Port Authority facilities, including the three major airports the agency controls. Last week, they also toured the bus terminal and operations of the PATH train, which connects northern New Jersey and Manhattan.

“This region deserves to have world-class infrastructure,” Mr. Cotton said. “We’re a long way from that goal.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Czar of Infrastructure’ Embraces Role as Pillar for Port Authority. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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