Sea change in port board personnel
Current terms end Oct. 1; officials confident six incoming members will be knowledgeable, competent
Within a few weeks, all but one member of the powerful Port of Houston Authority Commission will be newbies.
Port and government officials describe the rapid turnover of the seven-member governing board, mandated by the Texas Legislature as part of a controversial reform bill, as unprecedented in recent memory.
The change comes as the 86-year-old authority is preparing for an uptick in shipping activity expected after a wider Panama Canal opens in 2015 and as the federal government begins approving permits to liquefy natural gas for export.
The sweep is part of a law passed by the Legislature this year that took effect last week. The much-tweaked legislation, which most Houston-area state lawmakers opposed, consists mostly of reforms recommended last year by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, chaired by the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, after its staff spent five months reviewing the authority.
Bonnen and state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, a commission member whose 2011 amendment put the authority under review, insisted the agency would be better off immediately with new board membership.
“Most people would have some concerns when you’re losing that type of institutional knowledge,” said Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, who previously had called for commissioners to be replaced as their terms expired, rather than all at once. “But at the same time, the law is what it is and I think people are smart enough and I think the appointments that are being made, the people will be
smart enough to get up to speed quickly and do a fine job of representing the port. That is my hope.”
County Commissioner Jack Morman, whose Precinct 2 is home to the port, said the sweep “still is a bit of a concern, but as long as we keep appointing good commissioners like we’ve got now, then I think we’ll do fine.”
The law limits commissioners to 12 years on the board; those who have served longer are not eligible for re-appointment. Terms of current longserving commissioners expire Oct. 1 and replacements should be named by Oct. 2.
The city of Houston and Harris County appoint two commissioners each and jointly appoint the chairman; the city of Pasadena and the Harris County Mayors’ and Councils’ Association appoint one commissioner each.
Replacements for Mayors’ and Councils’ Association appointee Jimmy Burke and Pasadena appointee Steve Phelps, who both have served since the late 1990s, have not been named; the Houston City Council on Wednesday appointed Theldon R. Branch III to replace Kase Lawal, who has served for 14 years.
Harris County has appointed union leader Clyde Fitzgerald and former Nassau Bay City Manager John Kennedy since December, after the resignations of its two appointees, Elyse Lanier and Jim Fonteno Jr.
Longtime chairman Jim Edmonds stepped down in January when commissioner Janiece Longoria was promoted to chairman.
Nathan Wesely, president of the Houstonbased West Gulf Maritime Association, which represents employers operating at the ports in Texas and Lake Charles, La., said he has heard no concerns about the transition and thinks the appointing bodies have done “a pretty good job” of picking competent people.
The six new commissioners will be led by Longoria, a lawyer who has served on the commission since 2002.
Under the law, she will be eligible to serve as chairman for a total of six years.
Asked about leading a new board, Longoria wrote in an email that the “institutional and community knowledge of retiring commissioners” will be missed but that “newly appointed commissioners are knowledgeable and doing an excellent job.”
As for implementation of the other reforms, she said that process began even before the Sunset staff issued its report, “so implementation is almost complete.”
“We have improved and will continue to do so,” she said.