by Commission President, Steve Tucker

As the Port moves into 2015, we face a range of important issues that will require strategic thinking and hard work. Beginning in February, Port Commissioners and senior staff will participate in a series of retreats designed to facilitate our work moving forward.

Regular commission meetings are important venues for discussing business, contracts, finance, and the like. However, all of us have realized that we need a different sort of structure to discuss how we work together, and to discover – then discuss – what our dreams and goals for the Port are. When we have a better understanding of where each of us is coming from and where we want to go, we will have a better understanding of how to work better together towards the same ends.

By law, Commissioners on a three member commission aren’t allowed to talk with each other about Port affairs outside of official meetings. This is important to ensure transparency – but it does, in fact, limit our ability to share information and ideas with each other.

These retreats, which will be facilitated by David Goldsmith, will provide us with an opportunity to have a different sort of discussion about the Port, and all of us are looking forward to them. The structure for these public meetings will be a bit different. As with any public meeting, the public can attend. However, we won’t be taking public comment at the retreat, so that we can focus on how we work as a team, together.

Of course, as with all Commission business, we’ll share the results of these retreats with you here on the Port website.