LA Briefs: City Workforce Developments and Port of LA Clean Truck Funding Plan

CD15 Policy Update on Los Angeles Workforce

LOS ANGELES — On May 23, Los Angeles city council approved councilman Tim McOsker’s motion to create a standardized process for reassigning city employees at risk of layoff into vacant, funded positions across departments. This effort is part of a broader strategy to protect city workers, avoid service disruptions and maintain operations. The personnel and hiring committee, which McOsker chairs, May 23 held its first hearing on the layoff avoidance plan, or “transfer portal,” with a presentation from the personnel department and city administrative office. The committee will meet weekly to track progress on reassigning among the over 600 employees who are at risk of layoff, and avoiding as many of the formal layoffs as possible. McOsker’s motion directs weekly reports on eligible job classifications, legal considerations and workforce benefits. While the mayor’s budget proposed eliminating 1,647 filled positions, the budget committee restored over 1,000, using swaps, transfers and targeted cuts, stabilizing LAs workforce ahead of the new fiscal year.

Port of Los Angeles Adopts Near-Term Clean Truck Spending Plan

LOS ANGELES — Over the next three years, the Port of Los Angeles will continue its investment in clean trucks and supporting infrastructure to help transition the drayage fleet serving the port to zero-emissions or ZE models by 2035. The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the spending plan that will guide how the port allocates its clean truck fund or CTF revenues through June 2028.

Port funding comes from the CTF Rate. The rate was established to help operators afford ZE trucks, which are more expensive than conventional models, and build the charging and fueling depots needed to power them. The revenues come from cargo owners who pay $10 for every loaded twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) hauled through the port by conventional drayage trucks, most of which run on diesel. The rate for larger containers is $20.

Cargo owners who use ZE trucks are permanently exempt from the rate. Owners whose goods are hauled by certain trucks with lower nitrogen oxides emissions have a temporary exemption through Dec. 31, 2027. The Port of Long Beach collects the same rate under its CTF Rate program.

Since April 2022, the Port of Los Angeles has collected about $123 million in CTF revenues to help operators purchase ZE trucks and develop supporting infrastructure. As of March 2025, the port has spent or allocated $93 million for deploying ZE trucks and building charging and fueling depots. The total includes funding for projects subject to final approval by the Harbor Commission and covers:

• Incentive vouchers for up to 350 ZE drayage trucks, with 103 trucks delivered and up to 247 more on order.
• An additional 22 ZE trucks through two licensed motor carriers awarded funding in the Port’s first Request for Proposal or RFP, with 10 trucks in service and 12 trucks ready to be deployed this quarter when in-house charging stations are operational.
• A regional project led by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that put 100 ZE trucks into drayage service at the San Pedro Bay ports.
• A regional infrastructure project funding eight public charging stations that provide 207 chargers for battery-electric trucks across Southern California.
• Another proposed public charging station due to be located in Wilmington and currently under environmental review.

Over the next three years, the port expects to collect about $120 million more in CTF revenues. The actual amount will depend on cargo throughput and the growing number of ZE trucks calling at the port.

Through mid-2028, the Port will continue to prioritize spending CTF revenues on vouchers that make ZE trucks more affordable, charging and fueling infrastructure projects, and future RFPs that put more ZE trucks in port service and add more infrastructure. The port said it will also prioritize investing in promising ZE truck technology and helping to support grant applications by others that accelerate the transition to ZE trucks. Likely grant partners include other government agencies, current [ort tenants, and/or licensed motor carriers registered to call at the port.