Questions are being raised about the appropriateness of a Port of Brookings Harbor commissioner’s company getting paid to upgrade the port website.

Commissioner Jim Relaford owns Mainbrace Technologies Inc., the firm that has received payment to make small changes to the website for several years, port  Manager Ted Fitzgerald said.

Now Mainbrace is completing a major renovation of the website with the port hoping to reap up to $150,000 annually from advertising.

Port Commissioner Kathy Lindley said she’s gotten calls from citizens who wonder if it’s right for the port to give the work to a port commissioner’s company.

“Did it go out to bid?” Lindley asked. “If it did, I’m not aware of that.”

Fitzgerald defended the decision by saying Mainbrace  has been tweaking the website, for payment, over a period of years and the latest upgrade was part of that. It is not a specific project, such as the port’s steel wall reconstruction, for which a specific amount of money has been budgeted, he said.

“The website has been an ongoing thing, a long scenario,” Fitzgerald said. “The new website has been built over time. They (Mainbrace) have been making changes as I have requested them.”

Total payment to the company so far has been about $7,500, he said. The total, including the most recent upgrade, should not exceed $10,000, he said.

Relaford said he feels good about the deal because it has been transparent. He asked to have the issue put on the port’s December Board of Commissioners meeting so everyone would know about it.

“We have had some situations before my time when things were not transparent,” Relaford said.

He added that Mainbrace has charged the port 21 percent of its normal billing rate for such work. If it had billed at its normal rate, he said, the cost would be between $25,000 and $30,000. 

Fitzgerald said the goal is to have Mainbrace bring the website to a stage that is simple enough to operate that port staff members can make additions and deletions in the future, thus saving money.

Besides the citizen calls that Lindley reported, the Pilot also has been contacted by some local residents who question the setup. Fitzgerald said he’s “cognizant” the arrangement might seem unusual, but said that’s actually not the case.

“It’s pretty common to have these relationships,” he said. “I’m not specifically concerned because I know it is a fairly regular occurrence for port commissioners or port commissioners’ families to have business with the port.”

He added that Mainbrace is a port tenant, and keeping tenants in healthy financial condition is good for the port in the long term.

“It’s kind of nice to hire your own,” Fitzgerald said.

He added that it would have been “foolish” to hire an out-of-town firm to do the website redesign because Mainbrace already was familiar with the site. Hiring Relaford’s company “was the most cost effective way to go forward,” Fitzgerald said.

The port’s website address will remain www.port-brookings-harbor.com. The new design should be unveiled any day.