The sole political purpose of the Port Authority is to
deprive local authorities in Connecticut of their rightful authority over their
own ports.
The power grab may be plainly seen in the scandal unfolding
in New London, covered by the watchful New London Day. Perhaps the most
efficient way of depriving The Day of its reportorial authority would be to set
up a “journalism authority” to superintend stories and editorials in the paper.
Of course, no self-respecting reporter or commentator would agree to such an
overarching authority, and any state government that proposed one would be
marched in tar and feathers to, say, Venezuela, where newspapers are written
under the watchful eyes of Nicolás Maduro, a once and, one hopes, future
bus driver.
The Port Authority, just to begin with, is a quasi-public
governmental organ, somewhat like a centaur, half man, half beast – neither one
nor the other. It is a transcendent political organ, the political errors of
which cannot be corrected by the usual democratic means – vote the bums out! –
and therefore is, by its very nature, quasi-democratic. Like most quasi-public
agencies, the Port Authority is easily used by clever politicians as a political
walk-around. If a governor of Connecticut should wish to fiddle while the port
of New London burns, he can do so certain that no one will be clamoring for his
head. In fact, no head of any quasi democratic agency will roll off the public
guillotine, because such “Authorities” transcend the usual democratic process.
When mistakes are made at the Port Authority, which part of the centaur – the
quasi part, or the public part – will be held liable by the voting public?
Over the years, the Port Authority has become pox-marked
with such “errors.” Dave Collins of The Day has now
uncovered a doozy centering on Scott Bates, once board chairman of
Connecticut’s Port Authority, involving the purchase of six photographs, at an
eye-popping cost of over $3,000, taken by the daughter of then-authority chairwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, who resigned
from her position in July. Reemsnyder is Old Lyme’s first
selectwoman. Bates, presently deputy secretary of state in the Lamont
administration, authorized the $3,000 purchase of the photos, listed in public
records as “wall hangings.”
Bates was also an
indispensable player in securing a marketing and communications contract for
Dealy Mahler Strategies at a cost of $78,000. The contract was party
sub-contracted to “McDowell Jewett Communications, the Connecticut firm that
did public relations for the governor's election campaign.”
The general public
should bear in mind that the chief purpose of such “communications contracts”
is to sell the public what has sometimes been called “a pig in a poke.” The
“pig” in this case is the offshore wind industry.
Once Collins’ reports began to appear across the state in
different news venues, heads rolled at the quasi-public Port Authority.
Lamont declared through his
flack catchers that the head-rolling was necessary “to ensure continued success of the quasi-public state agency under the
highest standards of transparency and fiscal best practices; [to] consummate a
historic partnership with the offshore wind industry to make Connecticut the
hub of renewable energy development in the Northeast; and [to] provide
continued access for traditional maritime commerce in New London and throughout
Connecticut’s other ports.”
Indeed, elevating
Bates from the Port Authority to deputy secretary of state, Lamont praised
Bates exuberantly. According to the
Hartford Courant, “Lamont made
no mention of the photos. He said Bates was the ‘driving force behind
recruiting the offshore wind industry to Connecticut’ with the negotiation of a
port operations contract to draw private investment to the State Pier in New
London.” The governor’s own budget director and secretary of the state Office
of Policy Management, Melissa McCaw, has been directed to “oversee the port
authority’s finances.”
Of course, this is, by way of a preventative measure, the usual case of the fox being put in charge of the hen house. As Port Authority chairman, Bates was indeed the “driving force behind recruiting the offshore wind industry to Connecticut" – for Lamont, who has now suspended all port business with the exception of the off shore wind project, leaving undisturbed and intact the position taken by Bates and the Port Authority before its “work” had been suspended. By transferring to the governor's office financing for three of Connecticut's largest ports and exercising operative control of the ports, Lamont has effectually exercised eminent domain over three major cities. New London in particular may remember the tale of "The Little Pink House."
Nice trick. It’s not likely to fool Collins or other wide awake reporters and commentators in Connecticut. Lifting the Port Authority rock, Collins had publicized a swarm of politically compromising e-mails unearthed through an FOIA request made by, Collins tells us, "Kevin Blacker, the citizen critic who port authority Executive Director Evan Matthews once offered a consulting contract before finally threatening him with a police investigation." Collins may not be as fortunate in future requests now that the whole Lamont initiated operation has been absorbed by the Lamont administration.
But Collins’ efforts do point to a solution. If port
operations in the state can be democratized, the state would have no need of a
quasi-public authority, the principle political purpose of which is to serve as
a pig-hiding poke. Since Lamont already has seriously compromised the Port Authority’s
always artificial provenance over the ports, why not abolish the
Port Authority altogether and once again allow port cities such as New London,
New Haven and Bridgeport to direct their own affairs?
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