by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The Board of Directors of the Jacksonville Port Authority wrapped up 2008 Wednesday by approving several contracts, signing a 30-year lease with Korean shipper Hanjin and unanimously approving — with no discussion — a $28,000 raise and $22,500 bonus for the Port Authority’s Executive Director Rick Ferrin.
Board Chair Dr. William Mason said he met with the Board’s Compensation Committee to conduct Ferrin’s annual evaluation. He said the committee agreed Ferrin’s performance warranted a raise from $225,000 annually to $253,000 for 2009. The committee also approved a bonus the equivalent of 10 percent of Ferrin’s 2008 salary.
“This will bring Mr. Ferrin in line with comparable-sized ports in this region of the United States,” said Mason. “We had the option of a performance bonus. We studied the pros and cons and concluded that this was a really, really good year.”
The Hanjin signing may have been the clincher for the raise and bonus. Along with several key staffers, Ferrin helped orchestrate the deal that — along with the Mitsui OSK Lines TraPac Terminal, which is scheduled to open in about month — will see the amount of cargo passing through the port triple by 2011. By then Jacksonville will be the third-largest port on the East Coast and in position to continue growing.
The deal is also expected to serve as an economic catalyst for the Northside. Ultimately, the $300 million Hanjin project will create about 5,600 jobs that currently don’t exist and have annual economic impact of $1 billion. There are also the tens of millions of dollars worth of roadway and infrastructure projects planned for the area — work that’s needed to assure the 2.4 million containers passing through the port starting in 2012 can efficiently get in and out of Jacksonville.
In other news from the meeting:
• The board will hold a cruise ship workshop Jan. 26 to study how the cruise industry has performed the past five years in Jacksonville and what the future holds for the cruise industry here. Dave Kaufman, senior director of planning and properties for the Port Authority, said he’ll update the board on the status of the proposed cruise terminal at Mayport, an issue that’s currently before City Council and will be revised slightly.
“The goal is to develop an educated decision on how to move forward with that business,” said Kaufman, adding the signing of the Hanjin deal essentially assures the Port Authority will have to develop the Mayport cruise terminal or lose the cruise business until another site can be found, purchased and developed. “We have meetings between now and the workshop in Miami with one or more of the cruise lines to get their impression of Jacksonville.”
• Roy Schleicher, the Port Authority’s senior director of global marketing and trade development, said he will keep an eye on travel expenses in 2009.
“There are some things we need to attend,” he said, adding those may range from a trade show in Atlanta to meetings in Asia. Schleicher said he’ll let the board know which trips he thinks board members should make.
“I do think it’s important to board members to meet with customers in their office as often as economically possible,” said Mason.
• The Mitsui terminal is ahead of schedule, with 131 acres completed and another 27 acres that are nearly done. Some of the buildings have already been turned over to TraPac.
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