Nick Jimenez

Sunday, January 14, 2001

Storm flags fly at the port

The list of local boards and commissions that have been in the hot waters of controversy lately is a very long one. Some are familiar fodder for the news - the West Oso school board comes quickly to mind - and their history of disagreement goes deep into the political archeology of our town.
   Other sources of friction are new in comparison with their history, but have now made themselves at home in the big-letter headlines. Of these, count the Corpus Christi Independent School District Board.
   Others are regular sources of sparks, not so much by their personalities, but by the kind of targets they are. The Corpus Christi City Council is one of these. The council is to controversy what a bug light on the porch is to insects.
   And now we have the port commission. The port commission?
   The port commission, in its past, has been the most colorless, least fractious, most hum-drum political body there is. The port was the "home on the range": where a discouraging word was seldom heard. The board's proceedings were, again in the past, a model of placidity. Votes were taken and motions passed with hardly a ripple of the harbor waters.
   That's not to say that there might not have been disagreements. Maybe there were, but who was to know? The port commission was made up of solid men (and these were, over most of the years, men) who took care of matters quietly and businesslike.
   The port these quiet men created became the bedrock of the city's economy, moving tons of grains and oceans of oil. But matters were far too cozy. As someone recently described it to me: the port commission was handled as if it were an extension of the Town Club.
   The port's leadership considered itself above politics. The late Jimmy Storm, longtime chairman of the port commission, once said it would be a "disaster" if commissioners were elected.
   "There is no place for campaigning and wanting to get on the board for some reason we don't know of," Storm said in 1984. "This is a no-pay, no-thank-you job . . . you should insist your elected officials go out and hunt people who would make the best commissioners."
   The kind of commission that Storm presided over was a far cry from the port commission that was on display this past week, with commissioners accusing each other of power grabs and intense private button-holing of commissioners prior to the unseating of the chairman on a divided vote.
   At the end, Yolanda Olivarez was in the lead chair and Bill Dodge was not.
   If it wasn't Yolanda Olivarez, it would have been some other Hispanic in the chairman's post eventually. For the same reason that we have new Hispanic judges (women, too), a Hispanic county judge, a Hispanic congressman, and Hispanic legislators, the leadership of the port, a very prestigious bauble, was bound to go to a Hispanic in time.
   Was it Dodge's misfortune just to be in the wrong place at the wrong point in history? Dodge has been a highly effective chairman. Under his leadership, the port has opened a refrigeration warehouse, a port terminal and convention center. And there are plans for containerization. As far as I know, Dodge lost not because he had done a bad job but simply because he didn't have the votes.
   The change on the port commission raises questions about how and under what conditions this continuing demographic transition to Hispanic leadership is going to take place. More Hispanics will win office because the growing Hispanic electorate wants representation that looks like itself. And Hispanic politicians will appoint boards and commissions that reflect their own constituency.
   Nothing says that the port under Olivarez won't continue to be a vibrant base of the local economy. Or that a bruising brand of politics doesn't make for a more open environment on the port.
   But the transition will mean losers and winners. Some of the losers, like Dodge, have been effective public servants. But should they go because history says they must? Is it enough to say, well, we've got the votes and you don't?
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@ caller.com.)
  
  

---

  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.