Enright elected Port of Palm Beach Commission chair

RIVIERA BEACH — Jean Enright was elected Thursday as the new chair of the Port of Palm Beach Commission. Enright joined the commission in 2005. She was re-elected in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Enright received a bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University, a master’s from Howard University and a doctorate from the Catholic University of America. She has worked as a university administrator, public school administrator, university instructor, and teacher.

The commission elected Peyton McArthur vice-chair and Katherine Waldron as secretary/treasurer.

McArthur was elected to a fouryear commission term in 2014. He served as the port’s director of human resources from 2003 to 2010 and works as senior aide to Palm Beach County Commissioner Paulette Burdick.

Waldron, a real estate agent, was elected to the commission in 2016.

Officers of the five-member commission serve one-year terms. They are paid $9,500 a year.

The full-service Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach provides cruise and cargo services to more than 30 onsite tenants and users, handling more than $7 billion in commodities, 2.5 million tons of cargo and 500,000 cruise passengers annually.

As one of the largest employers in Palm Beach County, the port and its tenants employ more than 2,850 people and contributes more than $185 million in business revenue and $17.5 million in tenant-contributed state and local annual tax revenue.

Although the port has the statutory authority to annually levy up to $200,000 of ad valorem taxes on taxable property within the port district to cover operating and maintenance expenses and the cost of capital improvements, it has not levied any taxes since fiscal year 1974-1975.