The Austin Port Authority approved Tom Dankert as its interim executive director during its meeting Wednesday.

Dankert, the city of Austin’s finance director, has worked with the port authority for several years.

“He’s been doing the work,” said port authority chairman Jerry McCarthy.

Dankert said he had worked closely with former executive director and city of Austin administrator Jim Hurm, including several recent port authority projects. Dankert’s appointment comes with no extra pay. He will stay the interim executive director while the Austin City Council discusses options to replace Hurm, who was fired last week as a result of a job evaluation conducted in September.

Dankert is currently the senior city official in Austin. Mayor Tom Stiehm said last week the council likely will not appoint an interim city administrator. The next city administrator presumably would take over the port authority’s executive director duties. Stiehm said the council won’t discuss replacing Hurm until 2014.