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Lawyer Looking Out for Port Manatee: Port Has a Lobbyist on Patrol Inside the Capitol

Posted on: Friday, 14 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Stephen Majors, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Apr. 14--TALLAHASSEE -- To keep track of the numerous bills that may impact its operations, Port Manatee has its own eyes and ears roaming the Capitol -- a lobbyist who will look at the legislative fine print, quash the bad and trumpet the good.

For ports across the state, life has grown more regulated and regimented since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

David Ramba, an attorney with Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A., is a lobbyist in Tallahassee for Port Manatee. Since 9/11, much of his work has revolved around monitoring changes in port security regulations handed down by the state.

And in the current political climate of the Dubai Ports World controversy, Ramba's job has only grown in stature. Federal politicians, including many Republicans, were outraged at the proposal by President Bush's administration to hand over several port operations across the country to a company based in the Middle East. State lawmakers have moved port security bills through the Legislature and are weighing in with their own ideas.

The biggest concern is that the Legislature will impose needless security regulations that will translate into unfunded mandates for ports like Port Manatee, Ramba said.

"The last thing we want to do is hold up commerce," he said. "We want the common sense to be there. If it's an open timber container, we don't need to be looking at the logs to make sure they're logs."

Ramba is monitoring about 35 bills this legislative session, but said he spends most of his time on a comprehensive port-security bill and a bill that deals with growth management issues affecting ports.

State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, is the sponsor of a bill that would exempt a change in a port's master plan -- the blueprint for its structures -- from having to undergo a Development of Regional Impact review by the state. Such reviews were instituted so that large developments with an impact on the environment or on transportation systems would be forced to pay for their fair share of the impact.

Ramba likes the bill because he said it gets rid of a duplicative review process that is unnecessary as a result of growth management legislation last year that set standards for transportation requirements.

Under the bill, ports would only have to work with the local government instead of getting involved with the state.

But Bennett stuck in a provision several weeks ago that ports weren't happy with. The provision says that port operations in the state can't be sold to a foreign government or foreign business without the approval of the Legislature.

The provision was more of a "nuisance" because it is a federal matter, Ramba said, and its inclusion would likely result in lawsuits and confusion because it could put a wrench in the Bush administration's efforts.

"The people of the state of Florida want to make sure that foreign nationals don't control their ports," Bennett said. "I think that with the security issues we have in the ports we want to have some control over them."

Bennett wouldn't divulge his end-game with the measure. But he said, "the Dubai thing might have put this to rest."

But Ramba said Wednesday that Bennett had agreed to remove the provision from the bill. It was a tactic to potentially stall the Bush administration's plan to cede control of the Port of Miami in the Dubai controversy, he said. Now that it looks unlikely that the transfer will take place, there is little need for that provision, Ramba said.

Still, the provision remains intact in other bills, and Bennett said he wanted to address the issue one way or another.

On the issue of port security, the House will soon vote on a bill that would create an 11-member advisory council to review statewide standards for port security according to the latest terrorist and drug-trafficking threats. It also would set statewide standards for the creation of different security areas in the state's ports.

Ramba said he supports the bill as it is currently written because it wouldn't place an additional financial burden on the ports. When the bill was first written, Ramba said, it would have affected ports negatively with costly requirements.

"We're monitoring it more than anything else," Ramba said. "We're not standing up and down screaming."

Most security mandates come from the federal government, so ports don't want anything duplicative from the state, he said.

Steve Tyndal, the senior director of trade and development and special projects for Port Manatee, said the port has met with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Ports are able to enter agreements with local law enforcement, or provide security with their own staff, which is what Port Manatee does.

Because the Manatee County Jail is right next to the port, sheriff's office deputies often drive through the ports to monitor security, Tyndal said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

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