The Gary Common Council is likely next month approve bylaws for the city’s port district board.
Although a port district for Gary technically has existed since the late 1970s, city officials never appointed anyone to sit on the board until last fall.
The board now has five members, chosen by Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and confirmed by the Common Council. Earlier this year, the board gave approval to a 16-page document outlining bylaws for the board.
That document was reviewed Tuesday by the council’s Finance Committee, and likely could get final approval by the full council when it meets again June 5 at the Indiana University Northwest.
According to the tentative bylaws, the five-member board has three members who will serve four-year terms and two others serving three-year terms. After that, all board members will serve four-year terms.
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Bo Kemp, who serves as head of the Gary Economic Development Corp., said the point of that set-up is to ensure that there will periodically be the opportunity for new members to be appointed and that there won’t ever be a time when the entire port board comes up for re-appointment.
As currently structured, the board members do not receive financial compensation for their work; an issue that was of concern to Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt, D-1st.
They also do not have their own budget for the 2018 calendar year.
But Kemp said the bylaws do include provisions that would allow the port board to create a budget for future years, and that they could decide to provide themselves with some sort of salary in the future.
“They would have to create a budget for that to happen,” Kemp said, adding that until such a measure is taken, any revenue the port board would manage to generate would go straight into the Gary municipal government’s general fund.
Bylaws dictate that the port board will have a reorganizational meeting every March, at which time officers can be picked from among their members.
The port board will meet once a month, at 6 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month. Sessions will be held in the Gary Room at City Hall.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.