Posted on August 22, 2017
By David Bauerlein, jacksonville.com
City Council members asked Friday if they can meet in private with Jacksonville Port Authority officials to clear the way for getting all their questions answered about the ramifications of deepening of the St. Johns River for bigger cargo ships.
It would be an unusual meeting, and the private session wouldn’t be open to the public.
But council members have been pressing for more information about the river deepening since JaxPort said in June it would seek $47 million to $150 million from the city in a couple of years to deepen 11 miles of the river at a cost of $484 million.
JaxPort officials have met privately with individual council members. But a law firm hired by the authority has advised JaxPort officials to refrain from making public comments about the deepening until there is a ruling in a federal lawsuit filed by the St. Johns Riverkeeper seeking to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from doing the dredge.
The port authority, which is an independent city agency, decided to intervene in the federal lawsuit.
During a council Finance Committee meeting Friday that included a review of the port authority’s proposed budget, City Council member Lori Boyer asked if council members could gather in a “shade” meeting so there wouldn’t be anything prohibiting JaxPort from answering the questions.
“If our independent authority, which is within the umbrella of consolidated government, is engaged in a lawsuit and is being advised they can’t tell us, as their government body, answers to questions because of a pending lawsuit, how can we get that information?” Boyer asked.
Assistant General Counsel Paige Johnston said a shade meeting for City Council members might be possible, but she would have to research the question. Florida open-meetings law allows local government entities to gather in sessions that aren’t open to the public so they can discuss litigation.
The seven-member JaxPort board voted in April to intervene in the suit. Intervenors in court cases can fully participate in court hearings and pleadings, engage in legal strategy, and discuss settlement options, according to a presentation made to the JaxPort board at its April 24 meeting.
The Finance Committee’s budget hearing marked the first time JaxPort officials have appeared in a public session to discuss the harbor deepening since the port authority revealed how much it would seek from the city for the project.
JaxPort Interim CEO Eric Green and Chief Financial Officer Michael Poole answered most of the questions posed by council members, but drew the line at discussing environmental mitigation, which is at the heart of the Riverkeeper’s lawsuit.
“That particular question on mitigation is a slippery slope for us,” Green said after City Councilman Tommy Hazouri said $3 million for environmental mitigation falls far short of protecting the river’s water quality.
Hazouri also pressed Green on JaxPort’s announcement in June that it would shorten the 13-mile deepening of the river to 11 miles in order to cut the cost of the project by $200 million.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still is approaching the deepening as a 13-mile project because Congress authorized it at that length. The JaxPort board has not taken a vote to shorten it. Green said board members have discussed the shorter length and asked the staff to move forward with that approach.
“We are not taking away the ability to build a 13-mile project,” Green said, noting the deepening will take place in phases over a period of years.
Green agreed to respond to a series of questions the City Council Auditor’s Office wants to examine.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman, who was in the audience during the Finance Committee meeting, said the question of whether the dredging will cover 11 miles or 13 miles of the river shows the project is moving forward without all the answers in hand.
The Army Corps of Engineers plans to start the initial 3-mile segment of dredging in December.
Source: jacksonville.com
