Posted on March 7, 2019
The Port of Corpus Christi could see a shakeup in its operations and governance, if a series of bills proposed by two state legislators gains traction in this year’s legislative session.
State Rep. J.M. Lozano — whose district includes San Patricio County — has filed five separate bills all related to the Port of Corpus Christi and its governing body, the port commission. Two of the bills — HB 2924 and 2925 — would alter the makeup of the port commission, though they differ in that one bill adds seats and the other leaves the number unchanged.
HB 2924 proposes to increase the size of the port commission — which currently has three members appointed by the city of Corpus Christi, three by Nueces County and one by San Patricio County — from seven to nine members. The bill would increase San Patricio’s number of appointees from one to three.
HB 2925 would leave the number of port commission seats unchanged, but would reduce Nueces County’s appointees by one and allocate that to San Patricio. That would give San Patricio and Nueces County counties two appointees each, and leave Corpus Christi with three.
The San Patricio Coalition on Port Governance, comprised of elected officials and economic development representatives from that county, has been advocating for more seats on the commission because of the amount of new industrial development taking place in San Patricio County.
Nueces County and city of Corpus Christi have already filed resolutions in opposition to any proposed changes to the makeup of the port commission. San Patricio County Judge David Krebs, a member of the coalition, said that the latter proposal to leave the total number of seats unchanged was drafted after hearing concerns from Nueces County leaders that a nine-member commission would be too large.
“That’s a compromise that we have offered according to all the things that they’ve been saying,” Krebs said.
Lozano has said he is also open to legislation that would create ex-officio, or non-voting, members to the port commission for San Patricio County.
“The first goal is for there to be a compromise so that both regions can move forward and focus on the infrastructure needs, regulatory concerns and bringing more jobs to the region,” he said, adding that the bills could be subject to change in committee hearings.
The bill filing process, he said, starts the discussion at the legislative level.
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini — whose district also includes San Patricio County — has filed companion bills on the Senate side with identical language for the proposed changes to the port commission.
Another bill, HB 2923, would change the port’s legal name to the Port of Corpus Christi Authority of Nueces and San Patricio Counties. The other two pieces of legislation — HB 2921 and 2922 — would make the port subject to review by the state’s Sunset Commission and would codify a code of ethics similar to the Port of Houston’s that was done in 2015, respectively.
The bills were filed late last week, and have not been assigned to a committee, according to online records. The pieces of legislation must go through a lengthy process before they become law, including votes in committee, by the state House of Representatives and Senate before they move.
Source: caller.com
