All major U.S. container ports today are under some form of public port authority. Huge investments have been made over the past several decades to accommodate the fast-growing container trade. The public taxpayers and bondholders play a significant role in funding this infrastructure.
What, then, should the public reasonably expect from the public port authority?
1. A clear explanation of the port’s mission, beyond the usual “enhancing the flow of commerce” and “generating jobs and income for the port district and region.” Worthwhile objectives such as strengthening port security, protecting environmental and aesthetic qualities of the seaport and maximizing productive use of port facilities can become priority “missions,” too, and should be publicized as such.
2. A clear explanation of what the port does and does not contain. The port community in U.S. seaports is almost always larger, older and more multifaceted than the port that is only part of the wider port community.
3. A clear explanation and recognition of the multitude of private- and public-sector port-related enterprises that many city-port citizens don’t even know exist. A little factual publicity and educational effort is called for.
4. An explanation of what the port’s main customers — the carriers and the shippers — are looking for at all geographical levels, from local to regional to global, and how the port fits or could better fit this pattern of customers’ needs.
5. A selective use of competitive and cooperative strategies by the port in “selling” the use of their facilities (e.g. container terminals). Not competing is sometimes an option, and competition at a micro-geographical scale with a nearby rival can be counterproductive. There also often are good reasons for and mutual benefits from cooperative efforts with rivals.
6. A steady effort to improve the productivity of the public port facilities. The port is a public enterprise and the “enterprise” part of it means that the bottom line needs to be taken seriously. And, since the port is no doubt competing at some geographical level with rival ports to attract customers, various productivity measures and comparisons of these with those of rivals are important. Although landlord public ports are common in the container trade, the port authorities still need to keep track of productivity measures at the facilities they own and have leased out.
7. Close cooperation and mutual understanding between the port and landside labor (the ILA and ILWU, for example). Labor is obviously part of the port community and needs to have a voice in port affairs. One obvious way of achieving this is by having a former labor leader on the port commission or its equivalent.
8. Factual reports from the port to the public on a regular basis. The port has an understandable promotional function in line with their general mission of enhancing commerce but “propaganda,” exaggeration and misleading statistical boasting should be filtered out of their reports to the public and to the rest of the local port community.
9. Close coordination with city government on preserving aesthetic, historical and environmental values at the waterfront and good judgment in resolving inevitable conflicts between city and port with respect to waterfront land use.
10. An executive director who has experience with port communities and who appreciates the historic and atmospheric aspects of the seaport. As Austin Tobin, the former New York port director, told a British writer and port-observer in the late 1960s: “Many of us within the authority have a great pride in our port and what it stands for. It has great romance and historical meaning, you see. It is very beautiful, too.”