Garcetti Announces POLA Changes
SAN PEDRO —On Jan. 21, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that his deputy mayor for City Services, Doane Liu, will become deputy executive director and chief of staff at the Port of Los Angeles.
Liu will assume his new position on Feb. 1. He will continue to help oversee the Mayor’s Office of City Services until the transition to a new deputy mayor is complete. A search for his successor, coordinated by Garcetti’s Chief of Staff Ana Guerrero, is already underway. The Mayor’s Office of City Services advises the mayor on policy related to and oversees the:
- Department of Water and Power
- Department of Public Works:
- Bureau of Contract Administration
- Bureau of Engineering
- Bureau of Sanitation
- Bureau of Street Lighting
- Bureau of Street Services
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Recreation and Parks
- Los Angeles Public Library
- Los Angeles Zoo
- Department of Animal Services
- Department of Cultural Affairs
- El Pueblo de Los Angeles
- Department of Aging
- Department of Disability
Liu was appointed to be one of four deputy mayors by Garcetti in July 2013. His office is focused on the mayor’s goals of restoring the city services that make our neighborhoods livable and attractive while providing excellent customer service to our residents and businesses.
Liu was previously chief of staff for Councilman Joe Buscaino and served as chief of staff for Councilwoman Janice Hahn, deputy mayor for Mayor James K. Hahn and district director for Rep. Jane Harman. He was also senior vice president of government banking at JP Morgan Chase and vice president in the real estate industries group at Security Pacific National Bank.
Liu graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received a masters in business administration from the University of Southern California. He and his wife live in San Pedro and have four grown children.
Mayor Garcetti appointed Seroka as the Port of Los Angeles’ new executive director after his unprecedented effort to assess all departments and require all department heads to reapply for their positions. In addition to Liu’s new chief of staff position, Seroka announced the following members of the port’s leadership team: Marla Bleavins, chief financial officer; Ron Boyd, chief of Port Police and Emergency Management; Mike DiBernardo, marketing and customer relations; and Tony Gioiello, development.
Port of Los Angeles Container Volumes Up 6 Percent
SAN PEDRO — Container volumes at the Port of Los Angeles increased 6 percent in 2014 compared to 2013.
Total volumes reached 8,340,065 Twenty-Foot-Equivalent Units (TEU). It was the third busiest year in the port’s history, just behind 8.4 million TEUs in 2007 and 8.5 million TEUs in 2006. Current and historical data isavailable here.
In December 2014, overall volumes increased 1 percent compared to December 2013. Total cargo for December 2014 was 658,567 TEUs compared to 653,358 TEUs in December 2013.
Container imports in December increased 4.4 percent, from 322,500 TEUs in December 2013 to 336,674 TEUs in December 2014. Exports declined 12 percent, from 172,261 TEUs in December 2013 to 152,112 TEUs in December 2014. U.S. exports have been declining in recent months due to weaker demand abroad and a stronger U.S. dollar, which makes U.S. goods more expensive.
Combined, total loaded imports and exports fell 1.2 percent, from 494,761 TEUs in December 2013 to 488,786 TEUs in December 2014. Factoring in empties, which increased 7 percent year over year, overall December 2014 volumes (658,567 TEUs) edged up 1 percent compared to December 2013 (653,358 TEUs).
Current and past data container counts for the Port of Los Angeles may be found at:
http://www.portoflosangeles.org/maritime/stats.asp
POLB Sees Third-Busiest Year Ever
LONG BEACH — Cargo container trade climbed 1.3 percent in 2014, bringing the Port of Long Beach its third-busiest year ever behind the peak years of 2006 and 2007.
This past year’s overall volume rose to 6,820,806 TEUs or twenty-foot equivalent units. Imports increased 1.8 percent to 3,517,514 TEUs, exports declined 5.9 percent to 1,604,394 TEUs, while empties rose 8.2 percent to 1,698,898 TEUs. Empty containers are sent overseas to be loaded with cargo.
For December 2014 alone, the port moved 567,237 TEUs through the Harbor, a 2.6 percent decrease compared to December 2013. Imports dropped 5.1 percent to 276,516 TEUs. Exports fell 11.2 percent to 131,496 TEUs. Empties rose to 159,225 TEUs, an increase of 11.5 percent.
Port officials attributed the growth in 2014 overall to strong relationships with the shipping industry.
For the latest monthly cargo numbers,click here.
For more details on the cargo numbers visitwww.polb.com/stats.
Long Beach City Council
Officeholder Expense Funds
LONG BEACH — On Jan. 20, The Long Beach City Council voted 5-3, with District 3 Councilwoman Suzie Price, District 5 Councilwoman Stacy Mungo and District 7 Councilman Al Austin opposed, to make amendments to this ordinance that governs officeholder expense funds.
The will set the officeholder expense account limits for city council members at $30,000 per year and $75,000 for citywide officeholders (mayor, city attorney, city prosecutor and city auditor).
These are not city funds but money that elected officials can raise from private contributions that may be used to offset the costs of being in office, such as: providing refreshments and supplies for community meetings, advertising or contributing to community organizations.
Civic Center
The Long Beach council voted 7-0, with Councilwoman Suzie Price absent, to authorize the city manager to execute a contract with HOK Inc. for professional design review and entitlement consulting services related to the Civic Center master plan development.
HOK Inc. is a subconsultant to ARUP North America Limited, the firm that the city hired to help with civic center bid proposals.
The contract would not exceed $216,676 for one year and the city manager would have the option to renew it for an additional one year period.
Ed “Pops” Davenport Park
The city council voted 8-0, to approve an application to the Department of the Resources Recycling and Recovery for a grant that would help pay for the installment of a landfill cover system and landfill gas collection on the 55th Way Landfill, a former waste landfill that operated between 1945 and 1948.
The land was purchased by the former Redevelopment Agency as replacement parkland on which the North Police Substation was built. It is scheduled to become Phase II of Davenport Park but must first undergo abatement due to its former landfill function.
If the grant is received, it will offset the cost of landfill abatement, allowing more of the $1 million budgeted for Phase II of the park to be used for its design and construction.