A name now making the rounds -- very unofficially -- as a potential replacement for Anthony Shorris as Port Authority executive director is Christopher O. Ward, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York and a former New York City environmental protection commissioner.
Ward also has been on the board of directors of the New York Independent System Operator and was Chief Executive Officer of American Stevedoring, Inc. before joining the general contractors group in 2006. (There was some falling-out between the company and the city over Brooklyn pier operations, which might now be water under the dock).
Ward, known as collegial and deeply versed in port issues, has been at the Port Authority before -- as chief of external affairs and director of port development, from which he pushed to create the monorail line between Jamaica and JFK Airport in Queens. He'd also been vice-president at the city's Economic Development Corp.
Dan Janison