(a) The Connecticut Port Authority and the Commissioner of Transportation shall enter into one or more memoranda of understanding that will facilitate the authority's governance of the ports and harbors of the state, and provide for an orderly transition and transfer of ownership, jurisdiction or authority to control, operate and maintain such ports and harbors from the Department of Transportation to the authority. Such memoranda of understanding shall include, but not be limited to: (1) Those assets, funds and accounts, contracts and liabilities, powers and duties associated with the ports and harbors of the state that will be transferred to the authority, whether by deed, lease, management contract, agency agreement, assignment or assumption, and the manner of such transfer; (2) the time or times when such transfers shall be effective; and (3) the reimbursement to the state for the services provided under any memorandum of understanding. The memoranda of understanding shall provide for the lease, assignment or transfer of ownership, jurisdiction or authority to control the ports and harbors, together with all assets, funds and accounts, contracts and liabilities, powers and duties and the manner and timing of any such lease, assignment or transfer. The authority, from time to time, shall advise the Department of Transportation of its readiness to accept any such lease, assignment or transfer in accordance with such memoranda of understanding, and such leases, assignments or transfers shall not be unreasonably delayed or withheld. If any bonds or other obligations issued under any provision of the general statutes for projects or purposes relating to ports and harbors remain outstanding, the Treasurer shall also be party to any such memorandum of understanding. Once any such power, duty, asset, fund or account, contract or liability shall have been transferred to the authority, the commissioner shall not thereafter exercise any such power, perform such duty or take action with respect to any such asset, fund or account, contract or liability.

(b) No memorandum of understanding entered into between the authority, the commissioner and the Treasurer, if applicable, shall provide for any powers to be ceded to the authority, any duties to be assumed by the authority or any transfer of assets, funds or accounts, contracts or liabilities to the authority if such cession, assumption or transfer shall contravene any contract now extant between the state and any other party including, without limitation, any bonds or other obligations issued pursuant to any provision of the general statutes for projects or purposes relating to ports and harbors or any trust indenture or other agreement with respect to such bonds or other obligations. The Treasurer, the commissioner and the authority, and each of them, shall enter into such agreements, amendments, consents, assignments, supplemental indentures and other documents and instruments necessary to provide for such cession, assumption or transfer. The authority may, with the consent and approval of the Treasurer, assume the obligations of the state as issuer of any bonds, notes or other obligations issued under any provision of the general statutes for projects or purposes relating to ports and harbors that remain outstanding, and thereafter to indemnify and release the state from all liability and expense relating to such obligations. Any such assumption by the authority and release of the state shall be subject to the terms and provisions of any indenture securing such bonds, notes or other obligations of the state and approval of the State Bond Commission.

(c) The authority shall further do all acts and things necessary by federal or state law, rule or regulation or relevant contractual requirements to effect the lease, assignment or transfer of ownership, jurisdiction or authority to control, operate and maintain the ports and harbors of the state in the manner deemed by the authority to be in its best interests whether by deed, lease, management contract, agency agreement, assignment or assumption, all to the extent contemplated by such memoranda of understanding. The Department of Transportation shall receive no compensation in consideration of any such leases, assignments or transfers. Upon satisfaction of all such requirements, the authority, from time to time, shall notify the Department of Transportation of its readiness to accept such leases, assignments or transfers with respect to the ports and harbors of the state and all documents and contracts necessary to effect such leases, assignments or transfers shall be executed.

(June Sp. Sess. P.A. 15-5, S. 9.)

History: June Sp. Sess. P.A. 15-5 effective July 1, 2015.