Infrastructure

Port Pays Off (for port execs, at least)

Dominic Moreo writes in with this report on Seattle's ports:

Of late, corporate CEOs have enjoyed the perks of high salaries, corporate jets, golden parachutes and back-dated options even when profits plunged and stock prices headed south. And the public sector isn't far behind.

Consider Mic Dinsmore, who after 15 years as the executive director of the Port of Seattle brings in $323,435, making him the highest paid port director in the country.

Last week, a three-to-two vote of the port commissioners awarded him a six per cent pay raise —less than six months before he intends to retire. In effect, he's recieving a $3,000 pay jump in his post-retirement public pay.

Yet the Port of Seattle has lost tonnage to nearby Tacoma and southern California. A cruise ship terminal built under Dinsmore's watch in 2003 will be torn down in favor of a new cargo terminal. Dissenting commissioners have expressed concern about the port's financial performance and a proposal to raise port taxes.

Southwest Airlines tried to bolt from the port-run Sea-Tac Airport because of high landing fees in favor of King County-operated King's Field, staying only because the County vetoed the move. The day after Dinsmore's raise, King County Executive Ron Sims and the Port of Seattle announced continuing negotiations to swap Boeing Field for a 47-mile train corridor from Renton to Snohomish County on the eastside of Lake Washington that the county would convert to recreational use, while the port gained control of another airport.

In the public as in the private sector, failure is sometimes rewarded.

Quick Hits-Coast to Coast Crooks

—We'll have more on recidivism posted later this week. In the meantime, here's would-be A.G. Moonbeam on Oakland's returning prisoners [subscriber only link] in the weekend Wall Street Journal:

As attorney general, Mr. Brown wants to target prisoner recidivism in California, where roughly 120,000 convicts are released annually, and 80,000 returned to prison annually. "They have 8th-grade reading levels, no skills, their attitudes are bad, many are addicted to drugs and they are coming back to disrupt the community," he says. "That's why I'm putting GPS bracelets on them in Oakland. Whether they are active enough that we can root them out of certain neighborhoods at curfew and enforce it -- well, I am at least attempting to compensate for the failed parole system."

—Is there a Villaraigosa-Schwarzenegger alliance in the making? The governor's appointment of the mayor's sister "to a $149,160-a-year judgeship on the Los Angeles County Superior Court" has some Democratic Party loyalists fuming. The Phil Angelides gubernatorial campaign has accused the mayor of placing his family’s finances above his duties to the Democratic party. More likely Villaraigosa would like to see Angelides lose so that he can run for governor in four years when the term-limited Schwarzenegger has to step down."

—And a slap at Villaraigosa, as the Board of Education unanimously selected a new superintendent, retired Navy Vice Admiral David L. Brewer III, an education neophyte, just weeks before new legislation is scheduled to take effect giving the mayor substantial authority over local schools, including the functional ability to veto the hiring and firing of superintendents.

Villaraigosa, who won office in part because of black voters disenchanted with then-mayor James Hahn for his decision to fire black Police Chief Bernard Parks, will have to be cautious in criticizing the board's choice of Brewer, who is black.

—Miami may be known for its pay-to-play culture, but Orlando is making strides. It turns out the Magic, who are in the midst of a deal to build a new arena with about $280 million in taxpayer subsidies, have been caught paying $200,000 in "shut-up money" to well-known radio host, political consultant and so-called "Voice of the People" Doug Guetzloe. The arrangement came just after a report that Guetzloe had been paid $107,500 by the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, an agency he's often criticized, for a two page report.

The Magic's pay-offs were made through the team's law firm, which it turns out has paid another half a million dollars to Guetzloe over the past 10 years, with payments frequently coinciding with the radio host playing a politically active role in cities where the firm faced opposition to development projects they represented.

—In St. Louis, still more allegations of voter fraud directed at the left wing and supposedly grassroots group ACORN.

—In D.C., thugs are going where the money is.

Jersey Guts

While there are few things New Yorkers enjoy more than making fun of New Jersey, EJ McMahon pointed out to me yesterday that nothing like the idea of selling or leasing the Jersey Turnpike, which could be worth upwards of $20 billion for the state, has come up in New York, even in the midst of a gubernatorial election. The Turnpike Authority is the third largest toll-collecting authority in the nation with more than $700 million in annual revenue, more than $500 million of which comes from the Turnpike, which spans from the Delaware to New York crossings into the Garden State.

Part of the appeal of such a move would be to free up money that’s presently locked into debt and school construction payments for new investments .

And Jersey’s schools have problems of their own:

In Newark, sky-high spending and a state takeover of a public school system that had previously functioned as more hiring service than educational provider has led to nothing in the way of academic results. New mayor Corey Booker is looking to reassert control over the system, beginning with creating a safe and orderly environment within the classroom, prior to the return of the school system to the city next year, at which point he’ll be pushing for direct mayoral control, new charter schools and possibly vouchers, which he’s flirted with supporting in the past.

The control battle is headed in the opposite direction in Camden, which presently faces a grade and test falsifying scandal, a grand jury investigation, a state AG’s investigation of a former superintendent for paying herself unauthorized performance bonuses, and an ongoing probe by acting State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy.

In response, the district kicked off its year with a pep rally, where School Board President Philip Freeman bragged that "This board has not hesitated to take on issues time and time again, and not only take on issues, but effectively move forward from one crisis to the next." I can believe it.