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The Log • April 25 - May 8, 2014 • 9
2020 Committee’s merger proposal turned away by Port of Long Beach
Long Beach. The report, which calls the ports the busiest in the Western Hemisphere, said the duo “should be competing with ports in other regions, not with each other” and that they should “enter into a Joint Powers Agreement to manage future strategy and direction as well as capital planning and rate-setting.” The group references collaborative efforts with ports in New York and New Jersey
and Tacoma and Seattle. According to Drummond, both
partnerships were encased in entirely different situations, citing a change in containers which compelled New York to receive rail and highway support from New Jersey. “I don’t care where you stand on the battlefield, you think what you see is what is going on and sometimes you don’t know what is going on in the rest
of the battlefield,” Drummond said. “That’s how I see this. They got infor- mation from a few people that had a skewed approach and they don’t get it. I still want an opportunity to speak.” Phillip Sanfield, a spokesperson and
a director of media relations for the Port of Los Angeles, said no represen- tative from the commission has con- tacted him and the Port has no affilia- See MERGER page 10
A proposed merger in the Los Angeles 2020 Commission’s report titled “A Time for Action” sug- gested a joint venture between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach would enhance overall competition. Officials from the Port of Long Beach called the suggestion “a bad idea.”
By John W. Scafetta
LOS ANGELES— An independently pri- vate commissioned group caused a stir earlier this month when they released a report proposing a merger between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach.
The Los Angeles 2020 Commission, a collection tasked with examining the fiscal stability and job growth in Los Angeles, suggested a plan to unify the county’s largest and second largest ports in its report, “A Time for Action.” “Los Angeles and Long Beach should parlay their individual successes into a combined port to enhance their overall competitive position—a one-two punch, if you will,” the report recom- mended. “Why? For starters, the share of the nation’s goods handled by our region has dropped more than 5 per- centage points in the past 10 years…which accounts for more than 60,000 jobs and has in excess of $100 million in revenue. We should fight to bring those jobs and tax revenues back to Los Angeles.” Opposition from the Port of Long
Beach regarding the suggestion has been considerably strong. Doug Drummond, the president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, expressed shock at the proposal. “Simply put, this is a bad idea,”
Drummond said. “The Port of Long Beach is not interested in a merger with our neighbor, the Port of Los Angeles. For more than 100 years, the two neighboring seaports have grown and thrived, side by side, run by sepa- rate port authorities.” Representatives from the commis- sion, which is comprised of roughly a dozen business and civic leaders, did not return interview requests. “From the Long Beach perspective,
there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to propose something like this,” said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of
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