Columnist: Florida ports should look at cooperation

   A Florida-based management consultant who previously was a port executive suggested that because Florida ports are receiving more assistance from the state they should “engage in an exchange of ideas of how to make our port system better, ideas that may include consolidation or rationalization, and even the long-whispered state port authority, among many others, to ensure that public money is spent most efficiently and effectively.”
   Stan Payne, founding partner of Summit Strategic Partners and a former CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority and deputy executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, wrote in an opinion column in the Tallahassee Democrat that because increased support from the state under Gov. Rick Scott “there is simply more reason to look at ways to make the system better both from the perspective of the ports and FDOT. This will ensure public dollars are not used to fuel ruinous competition that not only undermines the system but also contributes nothing to promote competition against ports outside of Florida, which should be the primary goal. FDOT should insist upon it, not almost apologize for it.”
   Payne also wrote “state funding should not be used as a safety net to protect Florida’s ports from their business practices that have left them short of funding.”