Muñoz, meanwhile, “is a community leader with an excellent grasp of environmental and quality of life issues related to the Port of Los Angeles,” Bass said, “specifically impacting the working class communities of Wilmington, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway.” She also has experience in prioritizing federal funding “to improve conditions for ship traffic in the Port of Los Angeles.” Roybal-Allard has been a “champion for the people,” representing residents in South and Southeast Los Angeles for 30 years,” Bass said. The NRDC has been involved in a long-running legal dispute with the port over mitigation measures for the China Shipping Terminal.īass, in her statement, also underscored the experience both Roybal-Allard and Muñoz possess. “He’s a really smart guy, hard working,” Pettit said. “They’re both really smart, progressive people and I think they’ll quickly understand the issues at the port.” “I’m very pleased by the appointments,” Pettit said in a phone interview. “There’s a new mayor and the mayor has the authority to put in place the folks she sees fit for what she wants to accomplish.”īut David Pettit, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he liked the appointments pverall. “Let’s see what the end game looks like,” Pirozzi, who has served nearly 10 years on the panel, added. “It provides a majority perspective,” he said. The City Charter from 2000, drawn up during that Hahn era, requires at least one port-area resident serve on the commission.īut currently, there are three, the same number as under Hahn’s administration and a ratio that outgoing Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi said has made a significant impact on port-community relations. “Going back to my time with (Mayor) Jim Hahn, my personal view has been that it was important to have more than one local representative” on the commission, McOsker said. McOsker, an attorney, served in Mayor Hahn’s administration in City Hall. The move to put more local residents on the panel - which in the more distant past sometimes included no Harbor Area voices - came during the administration of Mayor James Hahn, whose sister, Supervisor Janice Hahn, also represented San Pedro and Wilmington at the same time on the City Council. His advice to the mayor, McOsker said, “is that it’s very important to have a harbor commission that represents the local area, as well as labor and as well as including eminently qualified professionals.” “I have a strong sense that there will be more appointments” to come, McOsker said in a Wednesday, March 29, phone interview, adding that he shares the community’s concerns about local representatives being important on the panel.
#Times telegram full#
The nominations must make their way through a City Council committee and then be confirmed by the full panel, which isn’t expected until elected officials return from the current spring recess on April 10.īut if Bass’s appoinments get confirmed, the only local commissioner remaining would be Diane Middleton, a San Pedro resident who served on the mayor’s transition team, though more nominees are anticipated to come.īass, in a written statement, said her appointments “recognize the port’s role locally, nationally and globally, as will future appointments that will be made soon.” Lucille Roybal-Allard to take the seat now held by Lucia Moreno-Linares of Wilmington and Michael Muñoz, research director for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, to replace Anthony Pirozzi of San Pedro. Replacing two local commissioners, one each from San Pedro and Wilmington, with nominees from downtown Los Angeles seems to go against the more recent trend of ensuring the communities next to the behemoth Port of Los Angeles - which are all too familiar with its various impacts, from pollution to traffic - have strong representation on the five-member panel. Mayor Karen Bass’s first two appointments to the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, which she announced this week, have drawn mixed reactions in the city’s port communities, with folks particularly concerned about the potential panelists not being local.
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