As the coming and going of ships at the Docks are so important to the economy of Lüm, the city government has designated a special administrative body encharged with monitoring and running the goings-on in the neighborhood: the Port Authority. Though it's still officially subordinate to the municipal government, the Port Authority has been granted a wide latitude in its activities, and has considerable power in the Docks, if much less power elsewhere. Though the city guard does patrol the main roads and docks of the neighborhood—even if they rarely venture into the warren of residential alleyways—the Port Authority also has its own constabulary that keeps order in the areas under its jurisdiction and investigates when they or the Port Authority's inspectors turn up anything suspicious.

In practice, the Port Authority focuses its efforts on the docks themselves and the ships berthed there, and to a lesser extent on the warehouses and the main roads, and pays little attention to the inland parts of the neighborhood that aren't as directly concerned with the maritime trade. It's not that the Port Authority is unaware of the crime and suffering that exists there, nor even that they don't care; it's mostly that they have their hands full just dealing with the ships and the harbor, and have scant effort to spare on other matters. Still, within this limited purview the Port Authority is quite vigilant and active; little escapes its notice when it comes to the activities on and around the berthed ships, and its constabulary is quick to quash any hint of malfeasance.

The current director of the Port Authority is a harried crast named Riddory Hallan, who has an office in the back of the Port Authority headquarters in the west center of the neighborhood. Hallan spends most of his time in his office frantically sorting through seemingly endless piles of paperwork, and most of his time out of his office skittering to and fro along the docks looking in on his subordinates and making sure there are no incipient fires that need to be put out. Most of the direct oversight of the Authority's operations and dealing with other people and departments falls to Hallan's assistant director, Jangen Kjell. In appearance and demeanor, Kjell is nearly Hallan's opposite, a tall, thin, unflappable gjana with a slow and deliberate manner. Despite their differences, however, Kjell is very loyal to Hallan and has deep respect for him, considering him to have considerable wisdom and excellent judgment belied by his frantic deportment.

Riddory Hallan is a short, broad crant with not only the hairy arms typical of his kind but reddish hair all over his body. He has a thick neck, a wide mouth with large teeth, and untidy gray hair that sticks out in all directions. He has a deep, throaty voice and speaks quickly, frequently interrupting himself to pursue a different topic that suddenly came to mind, and glances constantly around as if just noticing important matters in different directions. He wears ivory-colored suits that are slightly too large for him and splotched with tea stains.

Jangen Kjell is tall and slender even for a gjana, and has smooth skin with subtle lighter stripes. He has an oblong head with a protruding occiput, a long chin, and deep nasolabial folds. Kjell rarely smiles and even more rarely raises his voice, speaking calmly and evenly even in his buttery voice even in the most stressful situations. He favors smart light azure silk tunics and trousers, and his typical footwear is kuwaks, a type of Ahacantian wood and leather shoe that for Kjell is perhaps a bit of a quirky sartorial affectation.