For years, the most unrelenting waves buffeting the port of Mobile, Ala., were political ones.
A new governor would come to office every four years and install his own director at the public port on the Mobile River. Several years ago, legislators and business leaders in Alabama's third-largest city, concerned that they were losing business to other ports, had had enough.
They engineered a sweeping overhaul that shifted much of the port's oversight to an autonomous commission as trade heated up with China, Europe and Latin America.
"I've been in the maritime business over 30 years and have watched a lot of things done for political reasons that are not in the best interests of the port, but this has worked really well for us," said James K. Lyons, the Mobile port's director and chief executive. "I thought we were the last ones to be run as an extension of the governor's office."
No, that might be Maryland. A review of other port structures indicates that Maryland may be more susceptible to political influence than most. Its board is advisory, and the director answers to the governor and the state transportation secretary. Virtually no other U.S. port runs that way, according to the American Association of Port Authorities.
A recent study by the association found that at 126 state or locally owned ports, most governors and their Cabinets do not have a direct role in choosing a port director or running day-to-day operations. Most have boards to oversee the port. They sometimes oversee additional infrastructure as well, such as airports, bridges and tunnels. Some have multiple locations within a state or are split between states, such as the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
The debate over whether the port of Baltimore should answer to someone other than the secretary of transportation picked up steam with the abrupt departure of its director for the past six years.
The issue will be taken up by the legislature today and tomorrow. House and Senate committees are holding hearings on bills that would separate the port from the state transportation department.
James J. White left as port director this month after disagreeing on spending and personnel changes with his boss, Robert L. Flanagan, the secretary of transportation. White had been appointed to his post in 1999 by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Flanagan became secretary under Robert L. Ehrlich, who in 2002 was elected Maryland's first Republican governor since 1966.
The rift at the port, a major economic engine for the region, led some business and political leaders to worry that progress of recent years could stall.
Last year was a record for cargo at the port - a reversal from the 1990s when Baltimore churned through directors and lost business to competitors. The threat of instability and political interference already has deterred some potential candidates for the vacant director's job, the head of the search committee said.
Autonomous boards are not immune from controversy or mismanagement, however.
An appointed Port of San Diego commissioner resigned recently after a controversy erupted over a trade agreement he signed with a Cuban company. Port officials said the commissioner had no authority to travel or sign a deal on their behalf. They also feared he violated the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and had a conflict of interest because his private company might have benefited financially.
In Florida, Hillsborough County legislators moved to revamp the Tampa Port Authority earlier this year to give more say to the governor and maritime industry because businesses were unhappy with some elected board members' decisions.
Many autonomous port authorities also have political strings attached. In North Carolina, for example, the State Ports Authority must get the governor's approval on any real estate transaction.
But generally, with an appointed or elected board, a buffer exists between the administrator of the port and the political administration. Also, with a board empowered to hire and fire, a director cannot be removed each time a new elected official comes to power.
Maryland's system likely endured because there has been little impetus to change a complex financial institution, said Larry W. Thomas, a former director of the University of Baltimore's Schaefer Center for Public Policy. Moreover, even when politics was a problem in the past, it was within one party, the Democrats, who controlled Annapolis for decades.
Although the call to separate the port has taken on new urgency, some have long called for greater autonomy for the port.
"All the ports are a bit different, but the [autonomous] boards are a common thread," said Helen Delich Bentley, the former Maryland congresswoman who is leading both the search for a new port director and port autonomy. "Mobile is probably a good one for us to look at."
