May 2014, Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney struck a deal whereby Christie would re-nominate Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in exchange for Sweeney's support of the nomination of Superior Court Judge Lee Solomon. This was a victory for judicial independence, according to the New Jersey Bar Association. Both men were confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2014. Christie again nominated Bauman in February 2016. Of the nomination, Sweeney said "I will not stand for Chris Christie's repeated attempts to pack the court" and Christie's attempts "to end the 70-year tradition of partisan balance and judicial independence." Christie nominated Walter F. Timpone, who identifies as a Democrat, in April 2016. Council on Affordable Housing The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) is a state agency within the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs responsible for ensuring that all 566 municipalities in the state provide their fair share of low and moderate income housing, created by the New Jersey Legislature in response to the Fair Housing Act of 1985 and a series of New Jersey Supreme Court rulings known as the Mount Laurel decisions. On February 9, 2010, Christie suspended COAH and appointed a committee in preparation to dismantle it. In January 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that it was not within his power "to abolish independent agencies that were created by legislative action." It also ordered the COAH to come up with new regulations regarding the development of affordable housing. COAH passed new guidelines on May 1, 2014, which increased the number of units developers are permitted to build in exchange for one affordable housing unit from four to nine. When asked the agency refused to provide the contract for the Rutger University professor who prepared the plan and claimed that the documents used to calculate the new guidelines had been lost, leading an affordable housing group to offer a $1,000 reward. In July 2014, a superior court judge ruled that the contract must be released and a search conducted for the missing documents. In October 2014 the COAH Board failed to meet the deadline by the Supreme Court for establishing new Third Round guidelines, when the Board voted 3-3, to adopt the proposal. In the absence of action by the state, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in March 2015, that determination of affordable housing obligations would be administered by the court. Christie absence from New Jersey In his second