Counsel Dale Bohner and real estate director Peter Ferri are dismissed amid recent acrimony.
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published October 21, 2004
TAMPA - Interim port director Zelko Kirincich fired the Tampa Port Authority's legal counsel and real estate director Wednesday, a day after the agency's performance came under fire from port businesses and its directors.
Kirincich wrote board members that he terminated the executives "solely based on insubordination and lack of job performance" but did not elaborate.
At a board meeting Tuesday, port tenants and companies complained the agency took too long to conduct business, withheld information and didn't deal straight with them. Kirincich, port counsel Dale Bohner and real estate director Peter Ferri were singled out by name.
Three board members said they were upset with how the agency was running, just as they prepare to launch a search for a permanent director.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said she would vote for "fresh talent" rather than keep Kirincich in the top job.
Bohner and Ferri said they were summoned into Kirincich's office about lunchtime Wednesday and fired without explanation.
Both cleaned out their desks and were escorted from port authority headquarters by a security officer, they said.
"Zelko and I were at odds over how he was handling things," Bohner said. Kirincich removed him from cases, real estate transactions and dealings with the firm selected to find a director, Bohner said.
Ferri said he hadn't previously heard complaints from Kirincich, whom he blames for the discord at the port authority. "I'm sorry it's in such turmoil because of only one person," Ferri said.
Kirincich wrote board members that he had a plan for the agency to become more responsive to tenants and that port business would continue with interruption.
He declined to talk to the Times.
Kirincich said through a spokeswoman that legal work will be handled by outside attorneys and that Ferri's former boss, marketing director Wade Elliott, will be in charge of real estate matters.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms questioned how the port authority could operate smoothly without its only staff attorney and top real estate manager. She pledged to ask for an emergency meeting of the board.
"Talk about a ship with no captain," said Storms, who sits on the port board.
"This is a major, major problem. The board needs to meet as rapidly as possible. It can't go on like this."
Board member Gladstone Cooper disagreed. "He's the director," Cooper said. "Are we going to allow the director to do his job or second-guess every decision?"
The port authority manages public property at the port, which is responsible for more than 93,000 jobs in west-central Florida and $10.6-billion in annual activity, according to an economic effect study.
Port commissioners chose Kirincich as interim director in March after George Williamson left the top job to take an executive position with a building materials company in West Palm Beach. They also ordered a national search for a permanent director.
But three members - Cooper, Joseph Diaz and chairman Lance Ringhaver - voted in June to abandon the search and make Kirincich director for a year.
Storms and Iorio voted no. The decision, without advance notice to the public, created an uproar and led Kirincich to decline the offer the next day.
Port staff didn't recommend a search firm until last month. Board members picked Boyden Global Executive Search on Sept. 21, but the agency hasn't signed a contract with the company.
Bohner said Kirincich excluded him from reviewing documents from Boyden. "My concern for the board is that some attorney review the contract and give them advice," he said Wednesday.
Bohner was hired by the port board in May 2001 and said Wednesday that only the board has the authority to fire him. Kirincich wrote board members that the port's outside employment attorney said Wednesday his action was legal.
In a review dated Sept. 24. Kirincich gave Bohner, who earns $120,474 annually, ratings of "outstanding" or "exceptional" in five of six categories.
He was graded as "marginal" in personal qualities.
In areas to improve his performance, Kirincich wrote: "Need to improve in his explosiveness with senior management, shows lack of respect for peers and his directors. Should avoid overbearing behavior."
Ferri came to the port authority in January 2003. He received an "outstanding" overall rating in a Sept. 13 evaluation from Elliott, the marketing director, with all areas rated "outstanding" or "exceptional." He earns $81,702 a year.
