Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Business Journal article on Port consolidation:
Relationships take precedence over consolidation for local ports
Mark Holan, Tampa Bay Business Journal
Dec. 17, 2013
Hillsborough County and Tampa Port Authority Commissioner Sandra Murman on Tuesday said no efforts are being made to consolidate the four ports in the Tampa Bay area.
“What we do want to do is we want to engage in very strong relationships and cooperation with all the ports in our region,” she said. “We want to have regional relationships for economic impact.”
Her comments came at the end of Tuesday’s regular meeting of the port board and nearly a month after Port Manatee passed a resolution to “oppose any consolidation effort.”
The Bay’s smaller, southernmost port took the vote in the wake of several private meetings this fall with the Tampa Port Authority and the Florida Department of Transportation. FDOT has said it wants “to foster port cooperation – not port consolidation.”
As detailed over the past month by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Port CEO Paul Anderson also offered to work more closely with Port Citrus and the Port of St. Petersburg through “memorandums of understanding.”
Such an offer was not made to Manatee.“They weren’t interested,” Anderson said after Tuesday’s meeting, his first public comment on the issue. He declined to elaborate on the future of regional port cooperation.
“I stand by Commissioner Murman’s comments today,” he said. “That’s all I have to say about it. She said it very well.”
