In port drama, jealousy and taxes prevailed

Dorto, the Capo

 Joe Dorto, the former capo di capo of the port, is gone.

In retrospect, his ouster (retirement) was a sardonic tale of petty jealousies and prejudices perpetrated by state officials and a willing and compliant Virginia Board of Commissioners.

He battled for his million+ salary and bonus.

He battled for his reputation.

Whether or not he lost or won is up to the readers to decide.

Many of you who know or have known Dorto know that modesty isn’t one of his qualities.

Connaughton, the ? 

Perhaps he was brought down, in part, by his pride, or hubris.

But, obviously, he was also brought down by personal resentment and jealousy.

This is how I see his downfall, in hindsight, as a long-time observer and one-time participant of the port.

My view is based on bits and pieces of evidence collected and assimilated over the course of several years, ever since his first engagement with a VPA board and a bulldog reporter from The Daily Press.

Even then, he could hold his own against presumed official infallibility (or the “we know best attitude”) and the poking and prodding of a very persistent reporter.

But the wholesale replacement of the VPA board and the state’s willingness to accept bids to operate the bids in the most recent drama were nothing more than smokescreens.

Which brings me to “payment in lieu of taxes,” an obscure agreement between the three port cities – Norfolk, Newport News and Norfolk – and the state.

The state, to offset city services, agrees to pay a specified amount of money to each of the localities. Usually, the money is approved by the legislature in the budget and disbursed by the Virginia Port Authority.

It’s a perennial parade before the General Assembly. The localities, arguing that the VPA (the state) doesn’t pay taxes, should be paid in lieu of taxes.

And they are paid.

Norfolk gets more than a $1 million while the other cities get somewhat less because their terminals are less in size than the terminal in Norfolk. 

In the late 90s, the state agreed to give $4 million a year to Norfolk, but it was subject to budget appropriations. Unfortunately for Norfolk, the legislature never saw fit to hand over the money.

Localities complain every year that the payment is never enough to offset city services, even though the three terminals have their own fire-fighting equipment, their own police and their own self-contained eco-system.

But in the soggy mists of Tidewater time, the three port cities begged the state to buy the land many years ago. (This is an oversimplification of a complicated issue, and Norfolk’s case is even more complicated.) 

But that historic sound bite is forgotten.

Recently, Mayor Paul Fraim briefed Norfolk City Council on the “payment in lieu of taxes” issue.

He was assured by AP Moeller-Maersk, which owns the Portsmouth container terminal, that Norfolk would have received $4 million a year should it operate the port, he told Council.

Secretary of Transportation, Sean Connaughton, told Fraim that Norfolk could have received $17 million a year in payment if the Danish-based shipping giant had assumed operation of the port.

“That’s billions of dollars that go to our bottom line,” Fraim said to Council, April 2. (Video: 4:15, Virginia Port Authority – Payment in lieu of taxes. Presenter: Mayor Paul D. Fraim).

“When the Secretary of Transportation [Connaughton] called me and said there’s a guy over there [Doro] making more money than the city of Norfolk…That was an in your face comment,” Fraim said.

That was when everything fell into place.

That was the got ‘cha moment.