JAXPORT’S DEPUTY DIRECTOR ON PAID LEAVE
June 9, 2008

The deputy executive director of the Jacksonville Port Authority has been placed on administrative leave while the port reviews its procurement procedures in the midst of an ongoing Orlando-area FBI investigation.
Ron Baker, who has been with the port since 2001 and is considered one of the state’s best minds on port finance, requested a leave of absence, Executive Director Rick Ferrin wrote in a letter to Baker granting the request.

“We mutually agree that it is in the best interest of you and Jaxport that during the review you do not report to work,” Ferrin said in the letter. He added that the leave was not a form of disciplinary action.

The city’s attorneys are reviewing the port’s procedures at the request of board Chairman Dick Morales.
“Taking leave feels like the right thing to do at this time,” Baker told local reporters, because it allows the port and the port authority to focus on the various business deals they are pursuing.

Pursuant to an unusual subpoena issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Orlando area, the FBI interviewed Baker in May as part of an investigation into port authority board member Tony Nelson and port contracts. As deputy executive director and chief financial officer, Baker had signed off on some of those contracts.

Many of the contracts under review had been the subject of examination four years ago by Jacksonville federal investigators, and the Jacksonville district had found no reason to pursue allegations of insider dealings among several leading businessmen and politicians.

During his seven years with the port, Baker has been praised for his work in improving the port’s financial posture. He was seen as a key player in getting an Japan’s MOL to sign a deal to come to Jacksonville, with Ferrin calling his work in those negotiations “heroic.”

Nevertheless, in addition to the earlier contracts, the FBI has subpoenaed documents related to the construction of a terminal for the shipping line. In late May, the authority turned over boxes of documents to investigators, including travel records, calendars and disciplinary records for Baker, as well as for Eric Green, Jaxport’s government affairs senior director, and David Smolder, who is overseeing the construction of the TraPac terminal for MOL at Dames Point.

Agents also raided the offices belonging to two businesses led by Nelson, as well as two companies that have done work for the port. One, Subaqueous Services, was considered in November 2005 as a potential candidate to perform maintenance and emergency dredging that another company said it was under contract to perform.
That deal never took place because the original dredging firm completed the work. When Subaqueous was subsequently awarded a no-bid contract for a different emergency dredge project, the deal was called a “fictitious emergency” by the competitor.

The FBI also raided the offices of Nelson’s company, Muirfield Partners and the First Coast Black Business Investment Corp. Subaqueous hired Muirfield last year as a consultant after getting a city contract to dredge Goodbys Creek.

The offices of Rham Construction, another port contractor, also were raided. In 2006 Rham built houses in northwest Jacksonville for Urban Core Enterprises, a nonprofit company that Nelson founded for affordable housing, city records show.

Nancy Rubin, a port spokeswoman, said it would be premature to deal with those questions while the port is responding to the FBI’s subpoena and working with city attorneys on a review of the authority’s procurement procedures.

But Ferrin added: “It does appear at the early stages that there may be some inconsistencies between our procedures and the practices that were followed.”

No-bid contracts are allowed for emergencies, though officials need to seek as much competition as practical under the circumstances. The rules