Public ports should be accountable to entire state

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • By Grady L. Patterson Jr. : Bill threatens retirement plan accountability and honesty (03/29/05) • By Bernard S. Groseclose Jr. : Public ports should be accountable to entire state (03/29/05) • By Nancy Dereng : Talk about death before it's too late (03/29/05) • R. Karl Dieter: Science not the social construct creationists make of it (03/28/05) • Edwin Leap: Easter reminds us we can be free of sin all year long (03/27/05) More details Bernard S. Groseclose is president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority. He earned a degree in business administration (economics) from Hampden-Sydney College and a master in business administration from the College of William and Mary. For more information, go to www.port-of-charleston.com

To be clear, port expansion in Charleston is essential because we must have additional capacity to serve our existing customers — we simply have no choice if we are to remain competitive.

At the same time, the Ports Authority has solid and specific plans to acquire property in Jasper County from the state of Georgia for a facility to serve a somewhat different base of shipping customers — largely Asian.

These separate and distinct projects are vital to the interests of Charleston, Jasper County and the entire economic infrastructure of South Carolina.

Despite our best efforts to convince them otherwise, Jasper County officials have launched a second initiative to condemn the land and build their own port. The S.C. Supreme Court rebuffed their first effort. And we believe the county's new condemnation effort will also fall short. The state of Georgia has legally challenged Jasper County's condemnation, in both state and federal courts, as an unconstitutional means of advancing the interests of a private company. The state of South Carolina, in general, and Jasper County, in particular, cannot afford to be back at square one three years from now.

The county is tied to a private stevedoring company, SSA Marine, through an exclusive agreement that freezes out other potential partners. And the county is attempting to ignore and downplay the importance of state law that authorizes the Ports Authority to work in the best interests of all taxpayers in the state.

The clear winner in that arrangement would be SSA, a company that owns no ships and controls no cargo. SSA alone would have exclusive rights to one of the last deepwater marine terminal sites in the Southeast and half of South Carolina's port capacity.

The entire state and hundreds of companies in the Upstate have a stake in this issue. It is in our collective interests that the Jasper County site be planned, financed, developed and operated with primary regard for statewide impact. This legislated mandate is a principal reason our board decided to act.

To finance the development, we invited the participation of ocean carriers and private terminal operators from around the world. More than a dozen have expressed interest. An open, competitive process can only benefit our state's public seaport system and fair trade.

While we envision private sector partners, the Jasper facility will be a public port operated for the public good and dedicated to improving the economic vitality of all of South Carolina.

And, contrary to the assertions of some, the Ports Authority has not requested any taxpayer support to finance the facility. In fact, not since the 1970s has the Ports Authority received tax money for capital assets. Not since the 1950s have tax dollars supported our operating expenses. In the last 15 years alone, we have invested more than $400 million of internally generated funds — not tax dollars — in the state's public port facilities.

Another misrepresentation is that the Ports Authority has no plan to develop a Jasper County facility. They say we only want to mothball the land.

The truth is that we have a reasonable timeline that reflects real-world conditions. Unfortunately, we can't control the myriad of regulators involved in permitting a port, and setting a date certain to satisfy a few critics would be dishonest. Case in point: SSA's original plan said its terminal would have been operational by now.

The Ports Authority has the legal standing and the resources to win the day. After successfully acquiring the site and addressing the necessary environmental issues through a permit process, which could take from one to five years, construction would follow immediately.

The Ports Authority's commitment to development of a marine terminal on the Jasper County site is evident in our actions. Within 24 hours of the Ports Authority's Board vote, we were under way with two major courses of action — we initiated the condemnation process and asked the Supreme Court to rule on the question of standing.

Under the Ports Authority's leadership, South Carolina will enjoy the benefits of a new public marine terminal on the Navy base as well as a state facility on the Jasper site. Most importantly, our actions will be accountable to the public and dedicated to the public good. That is why the South Carolina State Ports Authority was created, and we will honor that trust.