Futility and Fantasy

A Futile Gesture?  

Del Harry Purkey’s bill, HB 1334, to prevent the port of Virginia may be more of a political gesture than a game changing legal maneuver for Virginia’s state-owned terminals to be consumed by outside interests.

 

Purkey’s measure would prevent a sale of state assets.

Neither the Commonwealth nor the Authority shall enter into any contract affecting a change in ownership of any Authority seaport without the prior consent of both the Governor and the General Assembly, according to his bill.

But it wouldn’t prevent the lease of the properties in Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth and in Front Royal to someone else where the public terminals are located.

The original language in the law governing the Virginia Port Authority’s powers remains intact, such as renting and leasing port facilities.

Neither APM Terminals, subsidiary of Danish-based AP Moeller-Maersk, nor the consortium headed by JP Morgan in partnership with terminal operator real estate investment firm have any intention of buying any state property. 

They want to lease and manage the port operations for decades.

What is the Virginia Port Authority’s Mission?

The VPA is sending mixed signals to the public, politicians and the port community.

Something is amiss, and one should question whether the VPA’s board of commissioners are aware of this oddity.Or maybe it's an indiscretion.

On its Web site in bold, brassy words, the VPA says its mission is to establish The Port of Virginia as the leading ocean container terminal complex on the US East Coast.

The overall mission of the VPA, according to the Web site, is to foster and stimulate commerce through Virginia's state-owned general cargo terminals.

And the Port of Virginia acts as a critical economic engine, spurring growth in job creation, tax revenue and corporate investment across the Commonwealth, the Web site says.

Compare this statement with the VPA’s statutory mission, as embedded in state law.  

The Port of Virginia (Virginia Port Authority - VPA) fosters and stimulates the commerce of the ports of the Commonwealth, to promote the shipment of goods and cargoes through the ports, to seek to secure necessary improvements to navigable tidal waters within the Commonwealth, and in general perform any act or function which may be useful in developing, improving, or increasing the commerce, both foreign and domestic, of the Ports of the Commonwealth while conducting those activities in an environmentally sensitive and sound manner. (Virginia 2012 Budget document)

In other words, the VPA board and VPA staff, as well as the Secretary of Transportation, should start focusing on the entire port – coal terminals, oil terminals and the good-intentioned but benign Chesapeake Port Authority and its role in port commerce – and the entire state instead of wasting so much energy and dollars on prostituting for proposals to manage the state-owned and controlled terminals.