Long Beach port board changes officer rules

Long Beach port board changes officer rules The Port of Long Beach’s governing board has changed how various officers' roles are chose, such as president and vice president.
The board will elect its 2008-2009 officers under the new election system at the board's weekly public meeting on Monday.
   During a commissioner retreat earlier this year, the internal bylaws of the port, which stipulate how the positions are appropriated, were changed to a system calling for a direct vote by the five commissioners as to who each of the officers will be. Individual commissioners will now be able to serve up to two consecutive years as president or vice president if they are so elected each June. A provision in the new bylaws places no limits on the number of times an individual can serve non-consecutive terms as either president or vice president.
   In the past the Board of Harbor Commissioners were nominated and appointed to the yearlong internal roles of president, vice president, secretary and assistant secretary by a rotational system where each commissioner moved up one rank each June. Once a member had served as president, they moved to the bottom of the list as the lone commissioner with no officer position.
   While a seat on the port commission is considered by many in the city as one of the most powerful City Hall-appointed positions, in the past, the different internal officer roles of the commission carried little importance outside of the commission’s public board meetings.
   The commission president’s role was the most notable as the presiding commissioner at the board’s meetings, leader of overseas port delegations and typically the commissioner to sign important documents in the name of the port board. However, in the past several years, the president’s role has grown to include serving as the official spokesman of the port board and as the individual setting the tone, and sometimes the agenda, for the port on certain topics.
   Under city law, Long Beach port commissioners are nominated to single six-year terms by the city mayor and affirmed by the City Council. Commissioners are limited to two full terms, or 12 years, as a harbor commissioner, though they must be renominated and reaffirmed for the second term.
   The rotational system of appointing officers within the board put a newly joined member of the board at the bottom of the officers' list, typically assuring that an individual would need to be a commissioner for at least five years before serving a single year as president. The City Hall terms of the commissioners were staggered to provide that no more than two were ever replaced in a single year, however, in 2003 a series of commissioners not accepting a second term and/or retiring while serving, led to a rapid turnover of four of the five board members within two years. This allowed several commissioners to rotate into the president position at a faster pace, including current 2007-2008 board president Mario Cordero and 2006-2007 president James Hankla, who joined the board in 2003.
   Both Hankla and Cordero could theoretically serve one more year as president or vice president.
   The new system was introduced after an internal report found that the Port of Long Beach was the only major port to use the rotational officer system. In contrast, the president of the commission for the neighboring Port of Los Angeles is typically anointed by the incoming city mayor and serves as commission president during the mayor’s entire administration. It was suggested by Long Beach officials that the new elected board officer system would bring the port more in line with other ports and improve efficiency in commission actions.
   The argument for the previous rotational system has been that it prevented City Hall politicization through, and possible fiefdom-building under, a single individual commissioner. Outside analysts, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, have long praised the port commissions’ separation from the internal politics of Long Beach City Hall. The rotational system also buttressed the spirit of the Long Beach City Charter, the city’s constitution, that while not mentioning individual officer roles within the port board, affirms that the board should act collectively and not individually. ' Keith Higginbotham