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Seaports
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Port Everglades' governance structure proves too much for another director.
"There is a prescribed process for doing things in the county administrative code, and it's just not flexible," fired port director Ken Krauter says.
To say that the job is unforgiving may be something of an understatement. The 2,190-acre seaport, which posted record revenue last year, is one of only two in the state operating under the governance of a county commission and director.
County Manager Roger Desjarlais acknowledges that the port "has a history of having a difficult time" under its county governance, but Desjarlais believes that may have less to do with the structure than with the people chosen to operate within it.
Directors who've worked at more autonomous ports have a hard time navigating the decision-making layers that come with operating as a county department, he says.
Krauter, previously the CEO of the more independent Jacksonville Port Authority, does not disagree. Too many decisions at the port, from purchasing and contract negotiations to property management, get caught in a web of bureaucracy that interferes with the director's ability to run the port like the $100-million business that it is, he says.
"There is a prescribed process for doing things in the county administrative code, and it's just not flexible," Krauter says.
As a result, he explains, port executives have to continually ask the port's customers to be patient while decisions work their way through the process. "Private companies didn't understand that as a way of doing business as a seaport."
Desjarlais believes the answer may be to bring in a director experienced in navigating the bureaucracy. But his initial choice of Debbie Bowers, who for the past two years has served as the county's director of a $400-million parkland acquisition project and has no port experience, left some port users doubtful. He's since asked county commissioners to appoint county finance director Phil Allen on an interim basis while Desjarlais conducts a national search for a permanent port director.
