In a 3-2 vote, the Tampa Port Authority gives the former No. 2 a contract and shelves plans for an executive search.
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published June 16, 2004
TAMPA - A sharply divided Tampa Port Authority board voted Tuesday to give interim port director Zelko Kirincich one year as permanent director instead of opening the job to nationwide competition.
Port commissioners agreed in March to hire an executive search firm to find a successor to George Williamson, who resigned to work for Rinker Materials Corp., a construction materials company based in West Palm Beach.
They changed course Tuesday before the search began. Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms told fellow port commissioners that a potential candidate called her office Monday, saying he heard the decision already had been made. "Did I miss the memo?" she asked.
Commissioners Joseph Diaz and Gladstone "Tony" Cooper then praised the work done by Kirincich, previously No. 2 to Williamson, on improving communications with port tenants during his 21/2 months as interim director.
"Right now, the Port of Tampa is in the midst of many endeavors," Diaz said. "I just wonder if going into a national search will interrupt the business of the port."
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio called Tampa's port one of the most important in the country. The port community - and Kirincich - deserve to have him compete against against the country's best maritime executives, she said.
"It's good (for him) to be matched up against people on a national level so we know we've selected the best," Iorio said. "To do anything less is to shortchange the port. . . . In the long term, it's a disservice to the interim director."
Port Authority chairman Lance Ringhaver, Diaz and Cooper - all appointed to the board by Gov. Jeb Bush - voted to offer Kirincich a one-year contract. Iorio and Storms voted no.
Kirincich later said he was surprised by the decision and hadn't had time to think about what he wanted to accomplish.
"Whatever the board asks me to do I will execute and do the best I can," Kirincich said. "Let me digest it."
An outside attorney will likely draft a contract for Kirincich under terms set by the board, said port counsel Dale Bohner. Kirincich earns $178,568 annually. Williamson made $195,000 a year as director.
Kirincich was hired in March 1996 as deputy port director and added the post of chief operating officer three years later. A graduate of Manhattan College, Kirincich previously worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The Tampa Port Authority has been caught in a number of disputes with tenants and maritime businesses over the last year. Tenants complained they weren't consulted about a security gate on Hooker's Point that they say will slow access to their property by employees and customers.
Gulf Marine Repair Corp., the smallest of the port's three ship yards, must move in 2006 to make room for a commercial development and says the agency is dragging its feet finding a new location.
Tenants have said port authority staffers have been more accessible and easier to work with under Kirincich. The board can consider a national search if Kirincich doesn't perform well over the next year, Cooper said. "We lose nothing to offer an opportunity to the interim director," he said.
But Iorio said giving Kirincich one year won't let him do any long-term, strategic planning for the port.
She couldn't remember a local public agency picking a new chief without competition. New companies and executives are coming to Tampa because they see the city as dynamic and innovative. This kind of selection process undercuts that image, Iorio said.
"It's important we go through a process where we reach out and say to professionals, "we'd like to hear your ideas,' " she said. "When you don't take that opportunity, you're missing out."
Storms said she was disappointed by the decision and suggested she and Iorio, both new to the port board, might find themselves at odds with the gubernatorial appointees in the future. "This is probably the start of a pattern of 3-2 votes," she said. "We'll see."
In other action Tuesday, port staff members said Tampa Bay Shipbuilding will pay a $132,000 bill from the agency's financial consultant, Rudy Jordan, for evaluating a loan to the ship yard.
Port staffers were surprised by the size of the bill when it arrived in February. Although the ship yard agreed to reimburse the port's expenses for the financing, staffers had said the agency would need to vouch for the validity of Jordan's bill and get board approval to pay it.
The port authority's chief financial officer, Michael Macaluso, determined the bill was justified. Port counsel Dale Bohner said the ship yard can pay Jordan directly.
