By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOT By the time AJOT readers see this column; the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) Board of Commissioners will have held their public hearing on October 4 to air concerns regarding the evaluation of proposals for operators wishing to operate the Port of Virginia’s marine terminals. A press release that went out a week before the hearing announcing the event referred to it as “a robust public engagement program during which time customers, shippers, localities, transportation, freight forwarders and the Hampton Roads community in which the terminals reside could air their opinions about the bids.” As the writer of this article, I wish my deadline would allow for me to complete this article in time to report the many comments that were said. But production schedules dictate otherwise, so I am writing before the fact. All I can say is, I bet the VPA program was “robust”— if not heated. The press release indicated that representatives from the Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships would also be attending the October 4th hearing to provide a brief presentation and to listen to the public feedback. To put it mildly, a number of entities and individuals are worried about the rush to make a decision on privatizing VPA’s port operations. Some say that the proposed fast-track outsourcing of Virginia’s publicly owned Hampton Roads port operations would hurt maritime businesses and local governments in the region. Portsmouth Mayor Kenneth I. Wright Portsmouth was reported by Longshore & Shipping News as telling a state legislative panel of the Virginia House Appropriations Committee that “the proposal would clearly be a stake in the breast.” of Portsmouth, the city’s mayor, Kenneth I. Wright, told a standing-room-only meeting. According to Wright, Portsmouth could lose 2 percent of its real estate tax revenue under one of the proposals, adding: “The loss would be nothing short of catastrophic.” The Board also invited representatives of the three private entities (APM Terminals, Carlyle Group, and RREEF America) that submitted conceptual proposals as well as existing port operator Virginia International Terminals (VIT), to provide a brief presentation at the public hearing. APM Terminals, the Carlyle Group, and RREEF America submitted conceptual proposals to manage the Port of Virginia’s four terminal Hampton Roads operations. APM Terminal’s bid also included the inland port in Front Royal. The private firms had until July 12 to submit conceptual bids to operate the port as part of a public-private partnership, an opportunity created by the Virginia Department of Transportation after it received an unsolicited P3 proposal from APM Terminals. APM Terminals is the global terminal operator and owner of the state-of-the-art container facility in Portsmouth and a unit of the conglomerate A.P, Moller Maersk. Time Table Change Detailed proposals were set to be due on October 5 with an update to the VPA and announcement on October 15 as to who the preferred operator would be. However, on September 15, the Virginia Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships announced that those deadlines had been pushed back . Now, it says, detailed proposals are due November 1 and the update to the VPA, November 27. As for announcing the “winner” – that date is now to be determined later. Members of the VPA Board are heavily engaged in the review of the proposals and plan to take the necessary time for a thorough evaluation. “We want to ensure the voices of our port stakeholders are heard and their feedback is part of the evaluation process of the proposals,” said Michael Quillen, VPA chairman, in a statement. Quillen also said that the board strongly believes the evaluation process must be transparent in its deliberation and provide ample opportunities for input from stakeholders. “We (the board) encourage the port community to take this opportunity to provide input. The VPA Board will be asking the specific question: ‘Can we do bette