The Citrus County Port Authority will meet Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 9am at the Citrus County Courthouse, Room 100, to discuss the business of the Port Authority. The Port Authority will review and discuss Task#1 of the Feasibility Study being conducted by TranSystems. The Courthouse is located at 110 N. Apopka Ave., Inverness, FL 34450.

This meeting is open to the public. The agenda and back-up materials will be available online at http://citruscountyfl.iqm2.com/Citizens/Default.aspx prior to the meeting.

Any person requiring reasonable accommodation at this meeting because of a disability or physical impairment should contact the Citrus County Administrator’s Office, 110 North Apopka Avenue, Inverness, FL 34450, (352) 341-6560, at least two (2) days before the meeting. If you are hearing or speech impaired, use the TDD Telephone (352) 341-6580.

A new consultant will now be developing the feasibility study for Port Citrus. During a meeting of the Citrus County Port Authority this morning, board members ranked and voted on TranSystems to handle the feasibility study for Port Citrus.

The Authority Board meeting started with an explanation of why this particular meeting was being conducted again by the Authority’s outside council, John Pelham from Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson Bell and Dunbar, P.A. “Even though it is our opinion that no sunshine law was violated, we have advised the Authority to go ahead and have a curative meeting to reconsider and re-evaluate feasibility study proposals by all nine firms who responded to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) back in January 2012.”

Mr. Pelham went through the entire timeline of events from the beginning, starting with when the Authority first made the motion to hire a firm to conduct a feasibility study for Port Citrus late last year. He then discussed the recent lawsuit filed by Robert A. Schweickert Jr. against Martin Associates and the Port Authority Board, alleging both violated the Sunshine Law during the ranking process back in April, in which Port Authority Board members heard public presentations from six port developers and ranked them individually to develop a future feasibility study for Port Citrus.

Before discussing each of the firms’ qualifications individually, the Authority made a unanimous motion not to extend an invitation to hear presentations from three firms that did not present in front of the Authority at the original feasibility ranking meeting back in April. After the motion, Authority board members discussed publically each firms’ qualifications which lasted more than 3 hours. This discussion was based on four criteria: Company information and Maritime Shipping qualifications, familiarity with port development, past port related development and prior successes, proposed team.

After the discussion, each board member publically filled out a ranking sheet, awarding points to each firm based on the above qualifications. Those individual rankings were then read publically by Port Attorney Richard Wesch, while staff publically recorded the rankings. The Authority ranked the firms in the following order:
TranSystems
Gulf Engineers and Consultants
Martin Associates
Hanson Professional Services
CDM Smith
Vickerman & Associates, LLC
Atkins North America, Inc.
BEA Architects
Civil Engineering Group

The Authority voted unanimously to go ahead and establish a Negotiating Team to work on a scope of services for development of the feasibility study of Port Citrus with the chosen consultant TranSystems.

The Citrus County Port Authority will meet on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 9:30am at the Citrus County Courthouse, Room 100, to discuss and reconsider responses from nine applicants to the Authority’s request for qualifications for the development of a Port Citrus Feasibility Plan. These responses were presented publically to the Authority back in the spring of 2012.

The reason for this Port Authority meeting is that a sunshine law violation has been alleged and litigation filed against the Port Authority regarding the ranking process. In an abundance of caution, the Authority is taking this action to re-evaluate the responses.

The Port Authority will meet as outlined above to review and consider each firm’s response. The Port Authority will rank by open ballot the best-qualified applicant to complete the feasibility study for Port Citrus.

Funds for the feasibility study are capped at $100,000 but the cost may be less depending on the scope of services negotiated with the top ranked firm.

This meeting is open to the public. The Courthouse is located at 110 N. Apopka Ave., Inverness, FL 34450.

This morning the Citrus County Port Authority Board discussed the recent lawsuit that was served to both the Port Authority Board and Martin Associates, the firm who was chosen by the Authority to conduct the feasibility study for Port Citrus.

Before the discussion, Port Director Brad Thorpe talked about the upcoming Ports Council meeting set for October 8-9 in Orlando, and the upcoming CEO Freight and Trade Summit on October 15-17 also being held in Orlando. The Authority unanimously approved the allocation of $250 from the Port Budget for expenditures for the CEO Freight and Trade Summit asked for by the Florida Ports Council so all 15 Florida Ports could attend.

During the Port Attorney report, Port Attorney Richard Wesch talked about events that occurred during the Port negotiating team meeting back on September 17. Wesch stated the team was ready to meet with Martin Associates in an open forum at the Lecanto Government Building. But instead, because of a lawsuit that was served the previous Friday to Martin Associates, the firm decided to put the negotiating meeting on hold to confer with corporate council.

Mr. Wesch talked about the email and phone conversation he had with John Martin from Martin Associates. Mr. Wesch said he, as well as the rest of the negotiating team, understood Martin’s position to not move forward until the litigation was resolved. Robert A. Schweickert Jr. filed the suit against Martin Associates and the Port Authority Board, alleging both violated the Sunshine Law during the ranking process back in April, in which Port Authority Board members heard public presentations from six port developers and ranked them individually to develop a future feasibility study for Port Citrus.

Mr. Wesch explained the Attorney/Client session to the Authority and the public regarding how the next Port Authority meeting will be conducted. He stated the Authority will open the public meeting and then under Florida Statute 286.011, the Authority will then conduct an Attorney/Client Session with the Authority’s outside legal counsel. After the closed door session, the Port Authority Board would then allow the public back into the meeting and discuss publically what has been decided in reference to the litigation. The Port Authority Board all understood this process of how the future meeting would be conducted and set the next Port Authority Board meeting for Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 10am at the Citrus County Courthouse in Inverness.

The Citrus County Port Authority will meet Wednesday, September 26 at 9am at the Citrus County Courthouse, Room 100, to discuss the business of the Port Authority. The Courthouse is located at 110 N. Apopka Ave., Inverness, FL 34450.

This meeting is open to the public. The agenda and back-up materials will be available online at www.bocc.citrus.fl.us prior to the meeting.

Any person requiring reasonable accommodation at this meeting because of a disability or physical impairment should contact the Citrus County Administrator’s Office, 110 North Apopka Avenue, Inverness, FL 34450, (352) 341-6560, at least two (2) days before the meeting. If you are hearing or speech impaired, use the TDD Telephone (352) 341-6580.

This morning the negotiating team of the Citrus County Port Authority was ready to meet with Martin Associates in an open forum at the Lecanto Government Building. But instead, because of a lawsuit that was served Friday afternoon at 5pm to Martin Associates, the port developer decided to put the negotiating meeting on hold to confer with corporate council.

Commissioner Rebecca Bays opened the meeting and turned it directly over to Port Attorney Richard Wesch to read into the record the email and phone conversation he had with John Martin from Martin Associates. Mr. Wesch said he, as well as the rest of the negotiating team, understood Martin’s position. Robert A. Schweickert Jr. filed the suit against Martin Associates and the Port Authority Board, alleging both violated the Sunshine Law during the ranking process back in April, in which Port Authority Board members heard public presentations from six port developers and ranked them individually to develop a future feasibility study for Port Citrus.

Commissioner Bays ended the meeting stating the Port Chairman will set an upcoming meeting of the Citrus County Port Authority to discuss the lawsuits and how to proceed in the future.

For immediate release

Contact:       Lindsay Ubinas

Public Information Officer

352-527-5484

The Citrus County Port Authority board members met Tuesday for a public meeting to hear port feasibility presentations from the six firms that were shortlisted from the original nine firms.

Port Director Brad Thorpe started the meeting by stating the procedures which board members will follow in filling out a ranking sheet.  He also explained the process that will be followed during the question and answer allotted time.

Each firm received 50 minutes to show their presentations to the board which also included a question and answer session.  The public was also allowed to ask the board any questions after each presentation.

The morning session included presentations from BEA (Miami), Gulf Engineers and Consultants (Baton Rouge, LA), and Hanson Professional Services (Springfield, IL).  Afternoon sessions included Martin Associates (Lancaster, PA), TransSystems (Jacksonville), and Vickerman & Associates, Inc. (Virginia).

Board members were all very impressed with the knowledge and professionalism by all six firms and learned a great deal about ports interconnectivity, the shifting of trade patterns, and components that make up a successful port project.

After hearing all six presentations, board members, through an open ballot process, ranked the firms’ 1-10.  Martin Associates was selected by a calculated tally of all five ballots.  Vickerman & Associates was the second ranked firm.

The meeting concluded with board members directing staff to begin negotiations of a scope of services for development of the feasibility study of Port Citrus.   The experts believe the feasibility study can be conducted between 3-6 months.

More progress will be made Tuesday when the Citrus Port Authority Board will hear oral presentations by RFQ applicants for the development of a Port Citrus feasibility study.

The six firms’ presentations will focus on why their company is the most qualified to conduct a feasibility study to determine how to establish a seaport in Citrus County along the former Cross Florida Barge Canal. [Read more...]

“Several things were discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of the Citrus County Port Authority Board.

One of the main agenda items the board discussed was the shortlisting of responders to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ).

The board approved to pick the top 6 firms ranked by a selection committee and hear from each firm during public presentations during the next Port Authority board meeting. [Read more...]

The Citrus County Port Authority will meet Tuesday, March 27 at 10am.  The board will meet in the board chambers, Room 100, of the Citrus County Courthouse in Inverness.

On the agenda, the board will discuss the consultant firms who have responded to the Citrus County Port Authority’s request for qualifications to conduct a feasibility study.

Once a shortlist is decided, the board will discuss a schedule for public hearings for each of the firms to present their qualifications.  Members of the public will not be allowed to address the presenters, but will be invited to address the board.

A report will also be given on the Port Element within the Citrus County Comprehensive Plan.

Also on the agenda will be a discussion regarding public relations. There will be a review and approval of a new Port Citrus logo; after weeks of voting by the public on the new website.

For those interested in reviewing the backup material prior to the meeting, you can visit the Clerk of the Courts website here:  http://citrus.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

For immediate release

Contact: Lindsay Ubinas

Public Information Officer

352-527-5484