Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Four seek seat on Tampa port board

Three challengers emerge for the seat held by chairman Tony Cooper, one of the board's most vocal members.

TAMPA - At least three rivals are competing for the seat held by the Tampa Port Authority's controversial chairman.

Gladstone "Tony" Cooper says he is seeking reappointment by Gov. Jeb Bush for a second four-year term on the agency's board of directors.

But the unpaid position also has attracted the interest of a former Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce chairman, a retired Coast Guard admiral and the chairman of Mayor Pam Iorio's new global business committee.

Only retired Rear Adm. William Merlin said he knew Cooper's term expired this month when he filed an application for the post with the governor's appointment office. He declined to say what kind of job Cooper has done.

"I don't want to start off making enemies," said Merlin, a Tampa native who has served on the board of the Tampa Bay Harbor Safety & Security Committee and as chairman of the SS American Victory ship and museum.

Jeff Knott, chairman of the mayor's committee, applied in September at the urging of local people involved in international business, unaware he would compete for Cooper's seat.

"It was sheer coincidence," said Knott, vice president/international for retailer Rooms to Go.

Former Tampa chamber chairman A.D. "Sandy" MacKinnon applied in May after the Legislature passed a bill to add new two seats to the five-member board. Bush signed the bill.

But MacKinnon, owner of Yale Industrial Trucks, said he isn't qualified for the new seats, set aside for people with maritime business experience. But he is interested in another of three port commissioner positions selected by the governor.

On Friday, Cooper said he didn't know about other applicants and didn't care. When Bush appointed him in 2001, Cooper was the second African-American to serve on the board of the public agency. A member of the Tampa Bay Black Republican Club, he replaced the port board's first black member, Fassil Gabremariam, a Democrat.

He quickly became one of the most vocal members. The port authority revamped its contracting policies after Cooper complained that black-owned companies weren't getting a fair shake.

Cooper took on port tenants who complained the agency didn't listen to their concerns. He also defended the agency's deals to lease public waterfront land used by shipyards for a warehouse and office project and for a proposed hotel and conference center.

The St. Petersburg Times has reported that a half-dozen creditors had judgments or liens over money they claimed were owed for goods and services provided at a Temple Terrace Apartment complex owned by one of his partnerships, Beresford Associates.

Two other partners accused Cooper of mismanaging the complex and sued last year to remove him. They won a default judgment against Cooper in Hillsborough County Circuit Court in May. The two sides reached a confidential deal and suspended action on the case Aug. 10.

On Friday, Cooper said he has tried to get away from politics at the agency and concentrate on growing business at the port. "For years, we wanted to talk about everything but business issues," he said. "Instead, we wanted to get into the politics of personal destruction. My total focus is on the port."

Cooper's term expires Nov. 25. A spokesman for Bush said Monday that the appointment office hadn't received his application for another term.

Separately, a committee representing two local maritime groups is reviewing 14 applicants for the two new port board seats. It is scheduled to recommend several to Bush by Nov. 30, and the he will appoint two before year's end.