SAN PEDRO — Capt. Jay Mastick of the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division was recently promoted to the position of area captain. The date of his promotion is effective July 4.
Mastick joined the department in 1995 and has fulfilled assignments in multiple areas of Los Angeles. In the fall of 2005 Mastick returned to Harbor Area as a field supervisor and complaint investigator. In 2006, Mastick transferred to Internal Affairs Group and served as an investigator. In 2009, Mastick was assigned to the department advocate’s office, representing the department in internal disciplinary hearings. In 2012, Mastick transferred to Pacific Area and served as a patrol watch commander at LAX and a plainclothes supervisor in the Crime Task Force, a joint operation between the LAPD and the Los Angeles Airport Police.
In 2014, Mastick was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to Wilshire Area as a patrol watch commander. In 2016, Mastick returned to Internal Affairs Group and served as the officer-in-charge of Criminal Investigations Division, Central Section. In 2019, Mastick was promoted to the rank of captain and assigned to Harbor Area as the patrol commanding officer and oversees the daily operation of Harbor patrol sworn and civilian personnel.
Mastick was born and raised in Torrance, where he attended West High School. He lives with his wife and children, a son and a daughter in Orange County. The Captain said he is overwhelmed with gratitude and he is very pleased to be working here. He added he is looking forward to spending the next several years here at Harbor Division.
The Port of Long Beach and the Utah Inland Port Authority have agreed to collaborate in the development of cleaner, more cost-effective and innovative strategies aimed at moving goods quickly, safely and efficiently between Long Beach and Utah.
The four-year, nonbinding pact is aimed at improving import and export cargo flows between the nation’s second-busiest seaport and Utah’s logistics network.
Under the agreement, the Port of Long Beach and Utah will collaborate on business opportunities and share information as they undertake major projects expected to improve the speed and efficiency of cargo shipments between Southern California and Utah. The Port of Long Beach plans to invest $1 billion in rail improvements over the next 10 years to ease the flow of cargo moving through its complex. In turn, the Utah Inland Port Authority will strengthen its ability to transfer imports and exports to more efficient modes of transportation for further supply chain distribution.
Additionally, the Port of Long Beach and the Utah Inland Port Authority will collaborate and share data on efforts to improve air quality and energy efficiency by deploying alternative-fuel vehicles and other clean-air technologies.
The agreement also calls for joint marketing to shared trade industry partners, studying how to resolve existing supply chain issues, and expanding export opportunities for Utah and surrounding states.
POLA Adopts $1.7 Billion Fiscal Year 2021/22 Budget
SAN PEDRO — The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved a $1.7 billion Fiscal Year 2021-22 annual budget for the Port of Los Angeles. The approval comes on the heels of record cargo volumes during fiscal year 2020-21.
The approved budget forecasts cargo volumes for fiscal year 2021-22 of 9.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, a 6.7% or 0.7 million TEU decrease over the previous year’s forecast. Accompanying operating revenues are projected to come in at $533.3 million, a decrease of $11.7 million or 2.2 % over fiscal year 2020-21.
Fiscal year 2021-22 proposed operating expenses are $300.1 million, which represent a 5.3% increase compared to fiscal year 2020-21. Major drivers of this year’s 5.3% increase in operating expenses include programs put into place in 2021 to improve the efficiency and fluidity of cargo through the port. These include the full-year funding of the port’s truck turn-time and dual-transaction incentive programs and expected increases in the number of shipping lines qualifying for the port’s ocean common carrier incentive program, among others.
The fiscal year 2021-22 budget includes a capital improvement budget of $188.7 million — an increase of 42.5% over the previous year.
Signature capital improvement projects include $46.6 million for Wilmington Waterfront projects; $32.3 million for repairs and upgrades at liquid bulk terminals in compliance with Marine Oil Terminals Maintenance Standards; $15.1 million for improvements and repairs to Harbor Department facilities and computer software system upgrades; $13.6 million for the Alameda Corridor Southern Terminus Gap Closure project; $13.0 million for Everport Container Terminal Improvements; $9.2 million for the San Pedro Waterfront projects; and $7.4 million for various environmental programs.
Senate Bill 796, initiating the return of Bruce’s Beach to the Bruce family, passed unanimously in a 37-0 vote June 2. The bill passed through two Senate subcommittees with unanimous support in May and subsequently gained full bipartisan support on the Senate floor.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn launched the legislative effort in April. SB 796, which was introduced by state Sen. Steven Bradford and co-authored by Sen. Ben Allen and Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi and Autumn Burke.
The Board of Supervisors in April unanimously voted in favor of initiating the process of returning the land, which is being used as LA County lifeguard administrative offices. The Senate bill will now go to the state Assembly.
For the first time in more than 40 years, Long Beach has regained full control of the Queen Mary. Mayor Robert Garcia said this move is a huge step forward and an incredible opportunity to focus on preservation.
The current lessee has surrendered their lease and the city now owns the ship and controls its future. The city’s top priority will be the historic preservation of this Long Beach icon.
On June 8, the city council will consider the immediate authorization of infrastructure funds to begin testing and design work for the most critical repairs recommended in recent inspections, including bulkhead repairs, lifeboat removal, and the installation of an emergency generator, temporary bilge pumps, and water intrusion warning systems.
The Queen Mary has been a Long Beach landmark on the Long Beach shoreline since it first arrived in 1967, and has greeted over 50 million visitors from around the world. Mayor Garcia said Long Beach is committed to doing all it can to ensure the ship’s preservation.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (5/1/21) — After Angela Davis spoke to the rally at the end of San Francisco’s May Day march, Trent Willis, president of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, went back to the microphone. ” I’m going to ask the union for a resolution,” he announced, “to make our sister Angela Davis an honorary member, as we did with Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson.” The crowd cheered – some older longshore workers in their white caps began shouting out, “Free Angela!” – the chant that swept the world during her 1972 trial.
Willis recalled the union’s long history of honoring Black radical leaders, even as a conservative and racist establishment was hounding them. Robeson was denied his passport and demonized for refusing to knuckle under to McCarthyism’s witch-hunts at the height of the Cold War. Dr. King spoke to the union in 1967 in the last year of his life, calling for radical social change and an end to the Vietnam War. The New York Times condemned him for it, but King told longshore workers in the Local 10 hall, “We’ve learned from labor the meaning of power.”
As Angela Davis walked up Market Street, flanked by the Local 10 drill team, the union’s officers and a thousand other union and worker activists, she honored the ILWU’s political independence. She called it one of the most radical unions in the country. “Local 10 is a majority African-American union, and it’s been committed to the support of workers in South Africa, Chile and now Palestine,” she explained in an interview with The Dispatcher. She recalled the years when then-Governor Ronald Reagan had her fired from her teaching job, and tried to send her to prison. “When I was on trial,” she remembered, “the ILWU came to my support too.”
Part of Local 10’s radicalism has been its celebration of May Day. “Back in 2005,” Willis told marchers, “we decided we had to pay attention to May Day and what it means. Back in Chicago, when May Day began, they were working people to death. People died so that we can have the 8-hour day. Today if you look at the port, you’ll see that no cranes are moving. “
Willis referred to the origin of the holiday that honors the strike in 1886 over the 8-hour demand, and the execution of the Haymarket martyrs that followed – immigrant labor activists framed by the bosses of the era to try to stop the workers’ movement. One consequence of McCarthyism was the suppression of May Day. For decades it was celebrated in every country except this one, where it was called the communist holiday.
Redbaiting May Day was never accepted in the ILWU, however. The union’s longshore and warehouse workers often led marches and demonstrations, and found ways to celebrate it. In 1950, at the height of McCarthyite hysteria, while the government was trying to deport Harry Bridges, Pacific coast maritime workers, including longshore workers from Locals 10, 13 and 2, sent May Day greetings to union brothers and sisters worldwide. Quoted in The Dispatcher, they said fascism could be defeated “only through militant action, greater maritime unity and world solidarity.”
In 1960 the ILWU sent members to the German Democratic Republic (east Germany) to celebrate May Day, and in 1975 Harry Bridges was a guest of the Sea and River Workers Union at May Day in Moscow. The ILWU in Vancouver has a long tradition of participating in May Day events, and in 1981 the ILWU international convention, taking place on the holiday, stood in silence to honor the Haymarket martyrs.
That tradition of solidarity continued in 2008 when Local 10 members marched in the Port of Oakland and stopped work to oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “May Day, with its special overtones of struggle and militancy, was intentionally selected,” according to ILWU historian Harvey Schwartz. The union had earlier been host to Iraqi unionists asking for support, and sent Local 10’s past-President Clarence Thomas to Baghdad to develop relations with them.
What made the 2021 May Day march exceptional, however, was the commitment of other unions and worker organizations. This year contingents of union workers marched behind banners, and their numbers stretched for blocks down Market Street. Other contingents came from the Chinese Progressive Association and the California Domestic Workers Alliance. Chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America showed up in red t-shirts.
Marching in organized union contingents was a nod to the 1934 waterfront and general strike, when thousands of union members paraded silently up Market Street to honor Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry, murdered by police. Police murders were on the minds of this year’s marchers, as it took place just days after a Minneapolis jury found policeman Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd.
“This is more than just another May Day,” Willis said. “This year has been filled with racial tension and police shootings. Even after that verdict, police shot another young Black man. Our slogan is An Injury to One is an Injury to All, and we have certainly suffered a lot of injuries.”
Willis called on unions and workers to act: “Racism has been in the way of the labor movement since it started. Corporate bosses need it to keep me from talking to an Asian man or a Mexican woman, or to you.” Marchers carried banners and Davis and Willis both called for freeing Black prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.
Many ILWU members came to march from locals throughout Northern California. One, Blake Dahlstrom, was a leader of the successful organizing drive by ILWU Local 6 at the Anchor Steam Beer brewery. Today she serves as a union steward, and member of the its executive board. The fight for the 8-hour day isn’t just in the past, she warned. “Many workers have to work a lot more than eight hours at two and more jobs to survive. In San Francisco one job should be enough, but we know it isn’t, and that’s a big reason we’re marching today,” she said.
The marchers without exception called on Congress to pass the PRO Act, a labor law reform bill that would penalize corporations for violating the right of workers to organize unions. AFL-CIO Vice President Tefere Gebre told marchers at the rally that current labor law does not protect workers from retaliation, or punish employers who retaliate. “With the PRO Act, there will be consequences,” he promised.
Gebre, an Ethiopian immigrant, congratulated marchers for being willing to take action despite the pandemic, while being careful to maintain social distance and wear masks. “COVID-19 has exposed the structural and systemic racism in this country,” he charged. Another speaker at the rally, Eddie Zheng, told of his years in state prison, where the prisoners themselves provide the unpaid labor that keeps the institutions going. “The labor movement needs to stop this,” he urged.
Along with other speakers, Angela Davis also called for passing the PRO Act: “We need to protect the right to organize.” Like Dr. King, she and Zheng connected the fight for prison reform with the demands of unions and workers for a more just society. “We have to stand up with our sisters and brothers behind prison walls, and abolish the prison industrial complex,” she urged. “I look forward to a world where the police are no longer necessary, and for that world we need housing, schools, jobs and free health care for all.”
Supervisors Vote to Expand LA County Mental Health Crisis Response Teams
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors June 8, passed a proposal by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Kathryn Barger to expand the county’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team (PMRT) program.
LA County’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams are teams of unarmed mental health professionals who respond directly to a person experiencing a mental health crisis. Currently, 25 Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams operate across the county during normal business hours between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 12 teams operate between the hours of 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. and on weekends. The average response time is often 2 hours and the teams are not available to respond between the hours of 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. – limiting their ability to be a viable alternative to law enforcement.
“Mental health crises aren’t a nine-to-five problem and our solution can’t be either,” said Supervisor Hahn, who authored the motion. “Too often, armed law enforcement or ambulances become the de facto response to people experiencing mental health crises. If we want our Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams to be a viable and effective alternative to calling the police, they need to be available 24/7 and there need to be enough teams to respond to every crisis quickly.”
The motion today authored by Supervisor Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Barger does two important things to expand the county’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team network.
First, it asks the county to develop a plan to expand Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams to be available 24/7 before 2022.
Second, it asks the county for a plan to use new federal funding available through the American Rescue Plan to expand and improve the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team network to respond to crises across the county more quickly.
The effort to expand these teams comes just one year before the first nationwide mental health crisis hotline, 9-8-8, launches in Summer 2022. Dialing 9-8-8 will be an alternative to 9-1-1 and will connect people with the Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams when necessary.
A plan to expand the Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams to 24/7 is due back to the board in 60 days.
LA County Publishes First-Ever Online Jail Decarceration Dashboard
LOS ANGELES — On May 18, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to establish the Jail Population Review Council, chaired by the Office of Diversion and Reentry, with the goal of maintaining the reduced jail population beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
For years, the Los Angeles County jail facilities have been severely overcrowded. When the pandemic hit, LA County justice partners collaborated to quickly and safely decrease the jail population within weeks. Recognizing that overcrowded jail facilities contribute to unhealthy and unsafe conditions for everyone involved, Supervisor Janice Hahn and then-Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas authored a motion in September 2020.
The County of Los Angeles, in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice, has published an online decarceration dashboard which provides a visual breakdown and analysis of the county’s jail population on a daily basis. The goal of this dashboard is to help policymakers, advocates and academics better understand the makeup and changes in the population of people in LA County jails in order to craft public policy to safely reduce the jail population.
Hahn, who authored the motion to publish the online dashboard said that we can’t create effective policy to address our overcrowded jails if we don’t understand our jail population.The “Care First L.A.: Tracking Jail Decarceration” dashboard, can be accessed at www.vera.org/care-first-la-tracking-jail-decarceration. It will be updated daily using data collected by the Sheriff’s Department and breaks down everything from racial disparities, to case status, to the prevalence of mental illness among the jail population.
SAN PEDRO – June 7, 2021 – The Port of Los Angeles and its partners June 7, launched the beginning of a pollution-free goods movement with the debut of five new hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles or FCEV and the grand opening of two hydrogen fueling stations. Under the $82.5 million Shore-to-Store (S2S) project, more than a dozen public and private sector partners have teamed up for a 12-month demonstration of the zero-emissions Class 8 trucks and will expand the project to include five more hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty trucks, two battery-electric yard tractors, and two battery-electric forklifts.
The large-scale, multiyear demonstration is designed to advance the Port’s Clean Air Action Plan goals and help California achieve statewide climate change, air quality improvement and sustainability targets for reducing greenhouse gases and toxic air emissions. The project is designed to assess the operational and technical feasibility of the vehicles in a heavy-duty setting, as well as to expand infrastructure to support hydrogen throughout the region.
The Port’s technology development partners are Toyota Motor North America, which designed and built the powertrain’s fuel cell electric power supply system; Kenworth Truck Co., which designed and built the Class 8 trucks with Toyota’s fuel cell electric system; and Shell Oil Products US (Shell), which designed, built and will operate the project’s two new high-capacity hydrogen fueling stations in Wilmington and Ontario.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is supporting the project with a matching grant of $41.4 million. Project partners are contributing the remaining $41.4 million in financial and in-kind support.
Partners operating the trucks are Toyota Logistics Services (TLS), UPS, and trucking companies Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI) and Southern Counties Express (SCE).
Air Liquide is also participating as a fuel supplier. The Port of Hueneme will partner on drayage runs and serve as the site for testing the zero-emissions yard tractors.
Other public sector partners are the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), serving as a project advisor; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which will collect and analyze project data; and the Coalition for a Safe Environment, representing the community. Many communities that are home to ports and related trucking and warehouse operations are low-income areas disproportionately impacted by air pollution from vessels, rail, trucking and off-road cargo handling equipment.
The vehicles’ duty cycles will consist of local pickup and delivery and drayage near the Port and short regional haul applications in the Inland Empire. Partners will study the technical feasibility of hydrogen-fueled tractors and battery-electric cargo handling equipment operating under the rigorous demands of the Southern California market. They will also measure the reduction of nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other pollutants.
SACRAMENTO — Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) in collaboration with over forty environmental justice advocates and community members, fought over the last few months on a significant bill, Senate Bill (SB) 342. Unfortunately, on June 3, the bill was sent to the inactive file for this legislative year and made into a two year bill due to pressures from Big Oil.
The bill would have added two environmental justice representatives to the South Coast Air Quality Management District—people who live, work in pollution burdened communities and who are trusted by the Environmental community.
SB 342 is a bill that the California legislature is no stranger to, having voted for similar bills in years past, for example in 2007 in the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, again in 2015 with the California Air Resources Board and in 2019 with the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez said representation matters. Consequently, SB 342 would have allowed community voices to the table that historically have not been heard after decades of injustices.
Public Health will host a Virtual Town Hall on Reopening at 6 p.m. June 10. Join the town hall to get the latest updates on the June 15 reopening of Los Angeles County. The town hall will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @lapublichealth. For more information and to submit a question, visit: tinyurl.com/AskReopeningTownHall.
As California reopens and physical distancing requirements and capacity limits for customers are lifted on June 15, protecting L.A County workers will be a top priority especially those communities that were hardest hit during the worst of the pandemic. Last week, the Cal/OSHA standards board recommended relaxing physical distancing and masking requirements for fully vaccinated workers, and other adjustments to align with the June 15 reopening. If the COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards are approved by the Office of Administrative Law, the standards are expected to go into effect no later than June 15.
The most powerful step to take to prevent COVID-19 infection, is getting vaccinated. As of June 4, more than 9,619,204 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to people across Los Angeles County. Of these, 5,501,512 were first doses and 4,117,512 were second doses. More than 4.5 million or 54% L.A. County residents 16 and over are fully vaccinated. Sixty-five percent have received one dose of the vaccine.
Public Health continues to support additional mobile vaccination teams that take vaccines into neighborhoods to reach people who may have limited ability or time to get to one of the established vaccination sites. The number of mobile vaccination sites scheduled this week increased to 237 sites which are concentrated in higher-need, harder hit areas.
This week, there are 765 sites offering vaccinations including pharmacies, clinics, community sites, and hospitals. Many of these vaccination sites are concentrated in areas that have been hard hit by the pandemic. You can obtain vaccines at County-run sites, LA City run sites, almost all mobile sites and many of the community sites without an appointment. Many sites are open on weekends and have evening hours.
The County is transitioning from the four larger capacity vaccination sites to community sites accessible by public transit.
Anyone 12 and older living or working in L.A. County can get vaccinated. To find a vaccination site near you, to make an appointment at vaccination sites, and much more, visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). If you don’t have internet access, can’t use a computer, or you’re over 65, you can call 1-833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment, connecting to free transportation to and from a vaccination site, or scheduling a home-visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.
