Staff Writer
After briefing management and employees of the Jacksonville Port Authority the past several days, Board Chair David Kulik took time Monday to talk about the resignation of CEO Rick Ferrin and the direction of the port authority.
Some people were caught off guard when they learned of Ferrin’s resignation, which was accepted by the port authority board of directors Thursday at a meeting scheduled to discuss the resignation, the hiring of a firm to find a replacement for Ferrin and the elections for the board of directors.
“It was surprise to everyone,” said City Council President Jack Webb. “Rick has given great years of service to the City and his contributions to the City and the port speak for themselves.”
Webb has a history with Kulik. “David Kulik was my boss at CEVA Logistics, so I have a great deal of respect for him and the board, and I support the decision made by the board.”
Daniel Davis, the City Council liaison to the Port Authority, also didn’t expect the resignation.
“It was a surprise,” said Davis. “But you have a very qualified and capable board of directors and I support the board’s decision and look forward to helping the board, as City Council liaison, in any way I can.”
Kulik explained Monday that Ferrin’s resignation did not happen overnight, but it developed as the board conducted a reorganization of its business management plans recently.
“One of the comments that was made was that (Ferrin’s resignation) was in the works for about a year. This is not true,” said Kulik.
“The reorganization occurred about a year ago, and that’s when we took the span of control of all of our senior people and, in my opinion, put it more in line with the business. Rick’s direct reports went from a dozen to five,” he said.
Kulik said the board then put more responsibility on Chief Operating Officer Chris Kauffmann, Chief Financial Officer Michael Poole and Chief Marketing Officer Roy Schleicher.
“The organization was reset with a specific set of directives to allow all people to become more effective in their positions,” said Kulik.
Despite the reorganization, the board thought it wasn’t getting the results it wanted, Kulik said.
“We (the Port Authority), in my opinion, were continually raising more obstacles than opportunities and those obstacles were not getting knocked down as quickly as we would have liked them to,” said Kulik.
“No individual, no member of the board, senior management, Rick Ferrin, is going to be able to move the federal government as fast as we need them to. However, I believe that we need to assemble the right number of people and the right resources in order to attack this problem with the federal government. We can’t get deep water without Washington. There’s not enough money in the City or the State and the port itself to finance what we need.”
Kulik appreciated the support the Port Authority received from local, state and federal representatives for the development of the port, but that support hasn’t brought the funding necessary to deepen the port for the larger Post-Panamax ships that will be traveling through the Panama Canal beginning in 2014.
The port will need to deepen the channel to accommodate the larger ships or lose the business to other ports on the East Coast.
“It’s doubtful that, unless things change, we are going to have the water for it when that first 8,000 TEU (twenty-foot-equivalent-unit) ship comes up the coast and can make a left into Jacksonville,” said Kulik.
“I’m not trying to be pessimistic about this. I’m just trying to be realistic,” he said.
“Based upon the current process, you have to have an approval, then you have to have appropriations, then you have to get put on a bill to get funding. That process could happen, but I don’t see our legislative support for that. (Local, state and federal representatives) are all supportive of Jacksonville, but I don’t see the money,” said Kulik.
Despite the funding dilemma, he didn’t believe that Jacksonville would be left out of the Post Panamax era.
“With that said, that sounds like we are going to miss the Post Panamax era. No, we have strong relationships with these customers. We have customers that have put a lot into the infrastructure here at Blount Island, Dames Point and Talleyrand. We’ll be there,” said Kulik.
Another place the port plans to be is in the cruise ship business.
“We want to keep the cruise business. They are a great customer,” said Kulik. “We are trying to find reasonable alternatives for cruise. This is an extremely sensitive issue with constituencies on both sides of the river. We are sensitive to it, and I don’t think we were as sensitive as we should have been the first time we went into the cruise business. Those are lessons learned.”
These are some of the issues the next executive director will have to focus on as well as how he or she addresses the challenges of the port.
“We’ve got to do things much differently and we have to think about alternatives not yet on the table. The challenge for the next executive director is to take these assets, the people assets, and stretch them and force them to think about ways of doing business that maybe no other port thinks about,” said Kulik. “We won’t be the biggest port on the East Coast, but we certainly have the opportunity to be the best port, not necessarily because we have the best deep water or the best cranes or even the best people. What’s going to separate us is how we innovate.”
Kulik made it clear that one person will not be in the candidate pool as the port searches for a new director. He expects a decision by Jan. 1.
“As Lyndon B. Johnson once said, ‘I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected,’” said Kulik, regarding rumors that he was interested in the executive director position.
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