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BOCC sets up port budget
Port Citrus will get its own budget, county commissioners agreed Tuesday.
The Citrus County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) will transfer money from the county’s general fund to start the account for the Port Authority of Citrus County. It approved the payment of $11,260 as the port authority’s annual dues to join the Florida Ports Council.
“We do need to establish a budget for the port authority, because that is a separate entity that meets separate from this board, and it is time for us to start distinguishing the funds that are required to support that initiative separate from the general fund,” County Administrator Brad Thorpe told the BOCC.
A distinction for expenses would be necessary because the five county commissioners, John “JJ” Kenney, Winn Webb, Dennis Damato, Joe Meek and Rebecca Bays, also serve as port authority board
members.
Thorpe said the BOCC needed to create a line item for the port authority.
“The reason we need this is that we have to pay the required annual membership dues for the Florida Ports Council in the amount of $11,260,” Thorpe said.
Starting a budget would help develop an annual budget to determine the expenses the port authority could expect. Damato asked about expenses and was told in addition to travel, paying annual dues to the Gulf Ports Council of $450 was anticipated.
Thorpe said creating a budget was important “so we can distinguish the expenses involved around the port authority with the intention that someday when the port authority is a revenue-producing entity those funds could be repaid in the future, and these could be considered a loan.”
Thorpe said the port authority would want to be careful about expenses as it got through the feasibility study, which will be funded by a grant and matching funds from CLM Workforce Connection, Citrus County Economic Development Council and the county’s occupational license fund.
Damato said it needed to be stated for the record that the board of county commissioners acts as the port authority.
“Although we’re spending a lot of time, we’re not getting paid any extra to do it,” Damato said.
Damato also said Thorpe had been designated by the port authority as the port director without getting extra pay to do that job. County Attorney Richard Wesch also was given extra duties as the port attorney.
“As we move forward,” Damato said, “we should be spending the least amount of money possible to go ahead and get us to a decision point, which would come after the feasibility study is done.”
Thorpe said he had been careful with his travel expenses to keep them within his travel budget as county administrator. But he said he thought it was important to distinguish those expenses so that at a future date they would have a track record of what was filed during the development of the future port.
Webb said it was critical to make sure that the money was recoverable from any port developer in the future.
“I don’t want to be spending taxpayer money on this if we can’t get it back,” Webb said. “I think it’s critical. As I’ve said before, we still are waiting on the port study. We don’t know where we’re going or what we’re going to do. We’re trying to be fiscally responsible. But we are also looking out for the future development and job creation here in the county. This has the potential of being a great opportunity. But we can’t jump on it yet because we really don’t know until we get that study back.”
The port authority also would need an account in which to deposit the $50,000 grant toward the feasibility study it will receive from the Florida Seaport Transportation and Economic Development Council and the $50,000 in local matching funds.
Chronicle reporter Chris Van Ormer can be reached at cvanormer@chronicleonline.com or (352)
564-2916.
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Barge Port or Ship Port?
The previous writer makes a single good point, the "Barge" canal is not deep enough to handle large cargo ships. How much would it cost to dredge and create more canal islands as was done with the inlet and outlet to the power plant.
The first undertaking, I think, would be for a professional feasibility study which would come back with an objective assessment as to whether or not a port in Citrus County has or can have a demand by the culture, investors, educational level, trained resources, etc. etc.
The new article notes that the County funds "could" be repaid. The Commission should strongly consider that EVERY County dollar spent in the Port Budget MUST be repaid to the County General Fund.
I have written before that a Port would not be successful by itself. There must be an enterprise zone adjacent to it. The enterprise zone would be the home of manufacturing facilities which would not have to pay taxes on goods manufactured or assembled within the zone. It should be noted that if the Port and Enterprise Zone are successfully operated there should be many additional jobs available for our younger maturing population. We need jobs for them!
"Follow the money trail!"
VOTE THEM ALL OUT !
This is what just infuriates the Taxpayers of this County, but this is even worse than the Ottawa Rip Off, or the Meadowcrest Damato family deal, this borders on Criminal negligence and malfeasance in office.
Everyone who has followed this from the beginning know that this is nothing less than a Rip off of the Taxpayers! ushered in by REBECCA BAYS, at the behest of Dixie Hollins, those campaign paybacks always come at the Taxpayer expense.
This BAD investment is the beginning of a Solindra on a smaller scale, but don't be surprised after thousands of your Tax dollars are wasted to find out what we already know, that this is a Farcical Fantasy and a product of one GREEDY man at taxpayer expense !
As soon as the Environmentalist get cranked up, and all applicable State and federal Regulatory Departments get involved, the Costs of this Nonsense will make the first installments look like chicken feed.
Of course the first thing that they will find, which most of us already know is, the waterway to the Canal is Way to shallow to take large ships, that's when this farce will get put on the heap of bad decisions by this Group of BOCC ! and OUR MONEY will have been wasted on FANTASY !
CRONY CAPITALISM HERE IN CITRUS COUNTY AT IT WORSE, DaMato, Meek and Webb out in 2012, Bays and Kenny out in 2014, that calls for the question, how much more damage will they do before we can be rid of them ?