Port Can’t Navigate Acquisition of Headquarters

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Port Can’t Navigate Acquisition of Headquarters
Trade Center.

Nearly a year after Long Beach harbor commissioners deadlocked on a plan to move port headquarters into a downtown office building, the port isn’t any closer to finding a new home.

In fact, things have recently taken a turn for the worse, with commissioners accusing each other of self-dealing and having ulterior motives – and shipping industry officials sick of it all.

Commission Vice President Thomas Fields said fellow Commissioner Doug Drummond slandered him and Commissioner Nick Sramek during a closed-session meeting last month. Fields said he and Sramek were accused of trying to financially benefit friends by pushing the port to buy Long Beach’s One World Trade Center from owner Legacy Partners Inc. of Foster City.

Though it’s unlikely slander can occur in a closed meeting during the course of official business, the now-public flare-up has brought renewed attention to the long-simmering debate over where the headquarters should be located when it leaves its outdated and seismically unsound building at the port.

Port officials have been looking for a new home for years, but an initial plan to build a new headquarters was scrapped and commissioners never pulled the trigger on purchasing the World Trade Center building, despite having purchased a parking lot behind it last year. They deadlocked 2-2 in October, with Fields and Sramek in favor and Drummond and another commissioner against.

Now shipping industry officials have weighed in. Days after last month’s blow-up, John McLaurin, president of the West Coast shipping trade group Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, wrote on the group’s website that meetings of the Long Beach Harbor Commission “are becoming more divisive, political and controversial,” a trend he said could hurt the port’s competitiveness.

And this month, McLaurin, whose office is in San Francisco, attended a commission meeting and told the board that Drummond should apologize and explain himself.

“The port customers and trade community are owed a full explanation by Commissioner Drummond with regard to his unprofessional conduct,” McLaurin said.

Drummond could not be reached for comment. Port officials said he is out of the country.

Meanwhile, commissioners have yet to settle on a site. The commission has discussed eight potential buildings, and while discussions now seem to be focused again on One World Trade Center and a few others, port attorneys say no buildings have been ruled out.

Slow Business

Thousands have signed up for electronic transponders they’ll need to drive in the new carpool lanes on the Harbor (110) Freeway, but businesses have been slow to get on board.

As of last week, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation said only 124 businesses have signed up for the transponders, less than 2 percent of the roughly 7,200 total customers. All drivers wanting to use the lanes, which run from just south of the Artesia (91) Freeway to Adams Boulevard, will need to pay a toll using transponders starting Nov. 10.

Metro spokeswoman Stephanie Wiggins said business and corporate account holders typically make up as much as one quarter of customers for other toll-road systems. She expects more businesses will sign up soon, as Metro announced the Nov. 10 start date just last week.

Waiting Game

If American Relocation & Logistics is any measure, local companies are holding off on making any moves until after November’s presidential election.

The Santa Fe Springs moving company specializes in relocating businesses – medical offices, manufacturing plants and everything in between. Last week, the 100-employee company finished moving Adams Rite Manufacturing Co. from Pomona to Phoenix.

Craig Fulmer, American Relocation’s corporate manager, said business has been slow this year, and he chalks that trend up to business leaders waiting to see what the political climate will be like next year.

“Everybody’s just kind of sitting tight,” he said. “They’re hunkering down and signing subleases for six months and waiting to see what’s going to happen with the election.”


Farm Fuel

Southern California is home to a handful of small bio-diesel refineries that turn used cooking oil and animal fat into fuel for trucks and generators. Now, an Iowa firm is looking to break into the local market with biodiesel imported from the Midwest.

Renewable Energy Group last month opened a fuel terminal in Rancho Dominguez and sold its first truckload of biodiesel to a local distributor.

Alicia Clancy, spokeswoman for the Ames company, said Renewable Energy wants to establish a big presence in California.

“California is definitely a target market for the biodiesel industry,” she said.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.

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