RLn NEWS: Dec. 12, 2014

 LB City Council Votes
LONG BEACH — On Dec. 2, the Long Beach City Council voted 8-0, to ask the city manager to provide a report within 60 day on the cost of installing a looping system for the hearing impaired in public facilities.
A looping system, also called an audio-frequency induction loop, consists of a loop of wire cable around a designated area, usually a room or a building, which generates a magnetic field picked up by a hearing aid. All hearing aids equipped with telecoils work with looping systems, allowing those with hearing aids to hear what is being said into a microphone in the “looped” location, free of distracting noise from the surrounding environment.

Two More Directors Hired at Port of Long Beach
LONG BEACH — On Dec. 2, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners announced new directors for the Harbor Department’s Construction Management and Information Management divisions.
Suzanne Plezia, who has been acting director of Construction Management since January, is now the permanent director, overseeing construction of port projects.
Nyariana Maiko, who since 2010 has been associate vice president of the Program Management Office for Molina Healthcare of Long Beach, will be the new director of Information Management.
The two women are filling slots vacated by directors who retired this year.
Plezia, who joined the Port of Long Beach as an intern in 1996, rose through the ranks at the port, working in the Design, Program Management, and Construction Management divisions, developing a depth and variety of experience. In 2012, she guided the procurement process for the Desmond Bridge Replacement contract. She was also promoted to deputy chief harbor engineer that year. Her promotion to director is effective immediately. Plezia earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California Irvine.
Before Molina Healthcare, Maiko worked in management of information technology and program management for a number of companies including Toyota Financial Services and Nissan North America. She has about 30 years of progressively more complex work experience in information technology and information management, business and strategic technology leadership. Maiko earned a bachelor’s degree in business with a specialization in quantitative methods and computer science from the University of St. Catherine-University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn., and a master’s in computer and information science from the University of Minnesota. She is scheduled to start at the port on Jan. 5, 2015.