Carla Katz

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Carla A. Katz (born 1959) is president of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America, representing 16,000 public and private sector workers in the state of New Jersey. Revelations of a romantic relationship with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine raised questions of whether the relationship improperly influenced contract negotiations between Katz's union and the state of New Jersey.

Katz was born to Arnold and Angelina Katz and was raised in Paterson, New Jersey with her brother Allan and sister Genise. Arnold Katz worked as a factory laborer in Paterson before getting a sales job and relocating his family to Burlington County. He later served as mayor of Edgewater Park in 1982 and 1983.^[1]^[2]

After finishing high school, Katz attended Burlington County College, Boston University, and Johns Hopkins University, before eventually obtaining a bachelor's degree in labor studies from Rutgers University in 1981. She also received a master's degree from Rutgers. A year after graduating from Rutgers, she started as an organizer for the CWA, becoming president of Local 1034 in 1999. She married Lawrence McKim, an artist and high school teacher, and they settled in Alexandria Township, New Jersey, where they raised two children, Montana and Cooper. Katz and McKim divorced in 2001.^[1]

Katz first met Jon Corzine in the spring of 1999, when he was running for the United State Senate. As Katz later recalled, Corzine offered her a job on his Senate campaign, but she declined the job offer.^[3] Corzine and Katz were soon dating, appearing in public as a couple in early 2002, shortly after Corzine's separation from his wife Joanne. (The Corzines divorced the following year.) Katz lived with Corzine at his apartment in Hoboken from April 2002 until their breakup in August 2004.^[4]

After Corzine's breakup with Katz, their lawyers negotiated a financial arrangement in November 2004. According to later press accounts, the settlement for Katz exceeded $6 million, including a large lump sum of cash (in part used to buy a $1.1 million condominium in Hoboken), a college trust fund for her children, and a Volvo sport utility vehicle.^[4] In December 2004, Corzine also forgave a debt of $470,000, a loan that he had provided Katz in 2002 so that she could buy out her ex-husband's share of their home in Alexandria Township.^[5]

In the summer of 2005, when Corzine was running in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, news first emerged of his previous relationship with Katz and the financial package she received after the breakup. Corzine was elected despite the scandal. After Corzine was sworn in as governor in January 2006, Katz maintained close contact with him. In the fall of 2006, during an impasse in contract negotiations between the Corzine administration and the state's seven major state employee unions (including the CWA), Katz contacted the governor by phone and e-mail, personally lobbying for a renewal of the negotiations.^[4]

A state ethics panel, responding to a complaint from Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan, ruled in May 2007 that Katz's personal contact with Corzine during labor negotiations did not violate the governor's code of conduct.^[4] Separately, New Jersey Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson filed a lawsuit to release all e-mail correspondence between Corzine and Katz during the contract negotiations. On May 30, 2008, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Paul Innes ruled that at least 745 e-mail records should be made public, but Corzine's lawyers immediately appealed the decision.^[6]^[7]

Katz enrolled in Seton Hall University School of Law in 2004. She has also been active as a lecturer at Rutgers University and contributes to the "NJ Voices" blog on NJ.com.^[8]