This Is a Plan? For the Port?

State of the Port

So the Virginia Port Authority 11-member board of commissioners has endorsed a resolution for a corporate restructuring of both the VPA, a state agency, and Virginia International Terminals Inc., its operating affiliate. 

What’s the sense of a corporate restructuring when three companies have offered to lease and operate the state-owned marine terminals?

Here’s a plan – and it’s free.

Get rid of VIT’s 11-member board. And don’t resurrect it as an advisory board. 

Trim VPA’s board to 7.

Appointees must be approved by both the governor and a bi-partisan committee of lawmakers, similar to Congressional confirmation hearings.

Shift positions and staff from the VPA to VIT. It was done with the VPA’s sales and marketing department, so I see no reason why it can’t be done with other positions and departments.

Among the shifts…

Move media relations, advertising and public relations to VIT, or get rid of some of the positions. 

The VPA has a media spokesperson and a director of external communications.

Say what?

The Maritimer, the VPA’s face and voice of the local and global community, has been shelved, which is still a mystery.

Get it back.

Keep a small administrative and financial staff to administer documents and future bond issues, as required by state law. 

Reduce the number of VPA deputy directors to one instead of four.

The executive director would serve a purely administrative and financial role. In fact, there may not be a need for a deputy director under this restructuring. 

The board decided at its Tuesday meeting that some of the restructuring would eliminate duplicate functions of the VPA and VIT.

We're in charge now!

That’s an issue that’s been discussed for years. Yet nothing was ever done.

After all this time, these are the best ideas the board has produced?

What a waste of time and money. Meanwhile, no one’s paying attention to the business because of the turmoil wrought by amateurs. 

The VPA’s board is on schedule with the Public-Private Partnership, said VPA board chairman, William Fralin, according to a press report.

"We're going to continue to negotiate the best terms we can and we're going to make a decision" on March 26, at the board's next regular meeting, the press report said.

Here’s one piece of advice, Mr. Fralin.

Stand aside and let Bob Stanton negotiate the best deal. If you really want the best deal. 

Or maybe hire Dorto. I hear he will be free soon. He negotiated 10-year contracts with some of the top global companies, which kept the state-owned terminals in the ball game and competitive.