By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Oct 18, 2011 01:15 PM
TAMPA — Pressured by Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Channel District businesses, Port Director Richard Wainio pledged Tuesday to develop a plan to open the cruise ships docks to the public.
Federal and state security rules require that ports close off docks whenever vessels are tied up there. Local business groups currently get Coast Guard permission to open docks behind Channelside Bay Plaza at other times for events such as New Years Eve and 4th of July fireworks displays.
“It looks like you’re in prison looking (through gates ) from Channelside at the waterfront,” said Troy Manthey CEO of Yacht StarShip, a dinner cruise that docks near the waterfront shopping and dining mall.
Buckhorn has asked Wainio for report on what it would take to extend the city’s planned Tampa Riverwalk to the cruise ship docks.
Plans call for the project to stretch 2.6 miles along the Hillsborough River from Tampa Heights, through downtown to the Beneficial Drive Bridge to Harbour Island. The report will be ready for the December meeting of the Tampa Port Authority board.
“What about all those areas along the West Coast that use their waterfront (for tourism), said Sandy Murman, who represents the Hillsborough County Commission on the board. “I wonder if we’re missing out on an opportunity.”
But unlike the wharf in San Francisco, Wainio said, Tampa is a working port. Cruise ships dock from before sunrise to late afternoon every weekend and Mondays during the busy winter season.
After a public event, bomb-sniffing dogs and divers must check the dock for explosives before the next ship comes in, said Wainio,
Contact Steve Huettel at Huettel@sptimes.com or(813) 226-3384.
Port director gets two-year extension
By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Sep 20, 2011 11:48 AM
TAMPA – Disappointing his critics, the Port Authority board voted today to extend the contract of director Richard Wainio by two years.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman first proposed a one-year extension. After her motion was rejected, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn proposed the two year extension, and it passed on a 4-2 vote.
Questions over Wainio’s future rose in July, when the Port of Tampa Maritime Industries Association called for the board to let Wainio go when his contract expires next March.
The group, which represents 47 companies doing business at the port, cited significant declines in cargo tonnage at the port since Wainio took over in 2006.
Operating income at the Tampa Port Authority was nearly $5 million in the black at the beginning of his tenure and was $1.1 million in the red last year, the group said. The number is misleading, port staffers insist, because it includes millions in depreciation from new construction. The authority isn’t actually losing money.
Much of the conflict is over personality.
Critics say Wainio doesn’t listen to their suggestions on port business strategy, has been disrespectful toward business leaders and creates a ”chilling effect” on public comment at board meetings.
Wainio says his critics don’t represent the views of the larger port community. In a recent e-mail, he wrote commissioners that morale at the agency is suffering from the attacks.
“My staff and I are irritated by the generally baseless, erroneous and repetitive accusations from several people who quite frankly have no particular knowledge or expertise regarding the issues,” he wrote ”
Wainio, 61, has served as the Port Authority’s chief executive since 2005. He earns $251,118 a year.