Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 1:32pm EDT

Staff Writer – Tampa Bay Business Journal

The Tampa Port Authority Tampa Port Authority Latest from The Business Journals CSX, Kinder Morgan team up for ethanol hub at Port of Tampa CSX, Kinder Morgan team up for ethanol hub at Port of Tampa Tampa Port Authority to discuss director’s contract Follow this company board has extended the tenure of port director Richard Wainio until March 2014, despite criticism from some port tenants and concerns the agency lacks an adequate executive evaluation process.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman and new board member Patrick H. Allman, general manager of Odyssey Manufacturing Co., voted against the extension. They favored a one-year deal.

Wainio was hired in 2005 and is paid $251,000 annually. Compensation for the extension remains to be negotiated.

Allman pointed to the change of leadership at Tampa International Airport Tampa International Airport Latest from The Business Journals VSPC begins ‘Dolphin Tale’ marketing blitz Zink to head communications at Tampa International Airport Airfares slated to rise this fall Follow this company as an example of what he would like to see at the port. He called Wainio “an able leader and a good steward” of the port, but said there should more vision and better communication with port tenants.

Murman called for a more detailed and substantial evaluation form to measure the director’s performance, which the board agreed it would update by the end of the year.

Still unclear is whether the board will hire an outside firm to create the new form, or use human resource officials at the county and city of Tampa to do the work at no expense to the port.

Wainio’s contract was set to expire in March and would have renewed automatically for one year without board action.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and commissioners Lawrence Shipp, Stephen W. Swindal and William A. Brown supported the two-year extension. Commissioner Carl Lindell, who gave Wainio a strong written evaluation, was absent from the meeting.

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 01, 2011
Updated: August 01, 2011 – 5:17 PM

TAMPA —

The HART board today voted to increase the maximum possible millage rate to balance its 2012 and 2013 budgets by an amount that would add 41 cents to the average homeowner’s transit-related property tax to $45.21 a year

Without an increase in the millage rate from 0.4682 per $1,000 of household value to 0.5 mills, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority would lose $1.84 million in revenue next year because property values have declined, HART staff members said.

That would create further bus service reductions in addition to those enacted this summer and planned for November, HART staff members said.

The HART board adopts a millage rate Sept. 26. Hillsborough County Commissioners do not vote on HART millage.

HART commissioners Sandra Murman, also a county commissioner, and John Byczek opposed the increase in millage. Murman said she could not support any tax increase at this point in time.

HART commissioner and county commissioner Mark Sharpe said he changed his mind at the meeting to support the millage rate increase because he was concerned – as were other HART board members – that service cuts would be counterproductive to residents’ efforts to reach work or get jobs.

In other business, the HART board approved a contract to purchase 41 new shelters in 2012 from Tolar Manufacturing Co. Inc., for a price not to exceed $846,220.

HART has one shelter for every seven bus stops, up from one in every 15 three years ago. There are currently more than 3,500 bus stops throughout Hillsborough County.”This is good news for our customers who want more coverage from extreme weather elements this area experiences,” HART spokeswoman Marcia Mejia said.

Sandy Murman

HART board OKs small millage increase to preserve services

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune