Port authority’s fate is up to legislators

Board meets ahead of public hearing on proposed merger bill

Gaffney Feskoe on Thursday asked fellow board members of the Connecticut Port Authority whether the quasi-public agency’s proposed merger with its larger counterpart, the Connecticut Airport Authority, was already a done deal.

“I just wonder if this isn’t really a fait accompli, that it’s sort of going to happen one way or another and if there is something we can do about it,” Feskoe said.

Feskoe has called “misguided” Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposal to fold the port authority into the airport authority where it would be known as the Connecticut Maritime Authority. The new entity would answer to the airport authority’s executive director and with the airport authority’s board serving as the new maritime authority board.

The proposed bill gets its first public hearing in the General Assembly on Friday before the joint Appropriations Committee. Feskoe spoke Thursday during a virtual special port authority board meeting called in anticipation of a public debate on the matter.

Port authority board Chairman David Kooris said the board needed to be realistic about the potential for an end to port authority as it is now structured.

“It is the governor’s bill and so I think we need to recognize that there is a certain amount of sway the governor’s suggestions would have before the General Assembly,” Kooris said.

But, he added, “I don’t think anything is certain.”

He said there are still potential for adjustments or modifications to the language of the proposal, which calls for the port authority to be a subsidi

ary of the airport authority.

“I certainly would not discourage folks from sharing their thoughts because they think it’s a done deal,” Kooris said.

Kooris, while not offering an opinion at Thursday’s meeting, submitted testimony to the legislature as an individual, crediting Lamont for his support of the port authority and calling the airport authority a “logical partner,” for the port authority.

Connecticut Airport Authority Executive Director Kevin Dillon, in written testimony, said his quasi-public organization, established in 2011, is capable of incorporating the functions of a new Connecticut Maritime Authority.

The CAA was approached by the state Office of Policy and Management last year, he said, to pitch the idea of a merger as a way to give the port authority access to more resources and staffing. The airport authority oversees operations at Bradley International Airport and five other state-owned airports in the state.

Port authority board member Grant Westerson said his concern was that, aside from the state’s three commercial ports in New London, Bridgeport and New Haven, there are dozens of small ports across the state that support a thriving recreational boating industry.

“It’s still a pretty significant part of the state’s economy that is depended upon by a lot of people. I don’t want to see boating get lost in the shuffle,” Westerson said.

Feskoe added that there is also a viable fishing industry in the state that should be supported and not overlooked.

Past problems

The port authority, since its formation in 2014, has stumbled over questions about spending under past leadership, with ethics violations and come under criticism for contracts made during the redevelopment of State pier in

New London. It has also come under fire most recently for the ballooning cost of the reconstruction of State Pier in New London to support the offshore wind industry, which began with a $93 million estimate and ended with a nearly $310 million price tag. Lamont has said the idea of a merger coincides with the completion of the construction work at State Pier, which is supposed to wrap up in the coming months.

The state Office of Policy and Management stepped in to provide oversight to the port authority and state officials have since passed legislation that includes items such as reporting requirements in an effort to provide better transparency.

Port authority board member Paul Whitescarver said he thought it odd that with legislation put in place to ensure the group was “on the straight and narrow,” over the past several years, the legislators would “want to throw all of that away,” with a merger that essentially gives the port authority less restrictions.

Kooris said he couldn’t speak to anyone’s thought process or intention but the proposal could be viewed in one a of several ways, including “a pivot away from the hard work of the last several years that the General Assembly spent sort of rolling up their sleeves.”

“You could also view it as a result of that hard work has positioned us to go along with an entity that has a very positive, longer standing track record,” he said.

Under the proposed bill, the port authority would keep its own staff and headquarters, which are located in Old Saybrook, Port Authority Interim Executive Director Ulysses Hammond said. The port authority employs an office manager, finance director and fiscal administrative assistant and is in the process of hiring a maritime business development manager.

“I certainly would not discourage folks from sharing their thoughts because they think it’s a done deal.”

DAVID KOORIS

CHAIRMAN OF THE CONNECTICUT PORT AUTHORITY BOARD