Port Authority-Led Supply Chain Panel Steers NY/NJ
The compounding causes – technological difficulties, a labor shortage, and lingering effects of Hurricane Sandy – couldn’t be fixed by any single entity at the port. It led Rooney, then the manager of port security, to propose something unprecedented for that time: truly linking the supply chain in ways it never had been before.
The idea proved to be a fruitful one: 10 years later, the Council on Port Performance plays a vital role in the Port of New York and New Jersey’s successes, helping it navigate the cargo surge brought on by the pandemic more ably than other large seaports while positioning the port to continue innovating and cooperating to handle expected spikes in cargo growth in the coming decades. The concept proved so productive that the federal government implemented a strikingly similar initiative during the pandemic to help other U.S. ports manage cargo backups.
After that apocalyptic summer in 2013, Rooney came up with the idea over a December weekend when she was tasked by port leadership to generate ideas to avoid sequels to the previous months’ challenges.
“If there is anything good to come of the summer’s meltdown,” Rooney wrote in a white paper introducing the idea, “it is the fact that all of the stakeholders appear to believe that we have real problems and that those problems can only be addressed by a collective effort.”
Days after Rooney submitted the paper, then-Port Director Rick Larrabee approved its creation. The Port Performance Task Force was introduced, with members pledging to cooperate not just in their companies’ best interest, but in the common interest of the port and region. It was co-chaired by Larrabee and John Nardi, the president of the Shipping Association of New York and New Jersey.
“All the port sectors were very siloed, and our goal was to help everyone realize how inextricably linked all of us are,” Rooney said. “If one link starts seeing issues, those issues will be felt up and down the line pretty soon after.”
