KTVU has learned the Port of Oakland has been taking controversial actions to straighten out its finances. After multimillion dollar losses, the once prosperous port laid off 86 employees and found itself in debt for almost $1.5 billion while facing increasingly significant competition from other Pacific coast facilities.
Port officials have made one controversial deal that has embroiled the Port in litigation before the little known but powerful federal maritime commission. It pits the Stevedoring Services of America or S.S.A. — which leases berths from the port under terms of a 15-year contract — against the port itself. In the meantime, rumors began to bounce among insiders last year that in addition to the controversial deal now in litigation, port officials were quietly exploring the idea of selling Oakland Airport.