Chick Releases Follow Up To Harbor Audit
Citing an "open disdain for good government," City Controller Laura Chick today released her follow-up audit of the Port of Los Angeles and criticized the Board of Harbor Commissioners for failing to implement the major reform of her 2003 audit."My report finds good news in that the Port staff have made many steps toward improvement. The progress that has been made, however, fades quickly when compared with the stunning fact that for more than two years the Board of Harbor Commissioners has refused to adopt a sound overall policy for awarding shipping leases. The Port staff drafted a policy over a year ago, which still sits in the Commission's in-box collecting dust," wrote Chick in a letter to Mayor Jim Hahn, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, and all fifteen members of the Los Angeles City Council.
Chick's June 18, 2003 audit of Port leasing practices found:
* Long-term agreements with shipping lines are based primarily on flexibility of rules, confidentiality and relationships.
* The Port's practices in negotiating, selecting, and analyzing long-term property leases are not openly competitive or standardized, and lack support.
* The Port must write, adopt, and implement a sound leasing policy.
"The Harbor Commission has basically thumbed their nose, not only at the City's elected leadership, they also disregarded the people of Los Angeles. The larger question to be answered is why did the Commission refuse to implement this needed policy? Who is benefitting by not having these rules in place?" said Chick.
Labels: rocky delgadillo
Posted by Anonymous @ 6/23/2005 10:12:00 AM
7 Comments:
Go Chick!
Calling 'em like she's sees them again! Go Laura my dear! This is the audit which shows why Keeny Hahn's liitle boy is a one term Mayor. Jimmy never forced his Commisions to implement change. They ran him, not the other way around. My old friend Mayor Sam would have never let that happen, and I don't think the new Mayor will let it happen either.
The Harbor Commission didn't need to adopt a new leasing policy. The Commission has not awarded a lease in its four years at the helm. I wonder if this has anything to do with volumes down in Los Angeles. Maybe thats the way to reach "no net increase", drive the buisness out of Los Angeles.
I can tell you some other things that need to be looked at. The harbor Dept is yet another rouge division within the city. And WASTING our money. This upsets me very much! First ff, to build that stupid China shipping, they couldnt do it the right way, so the blundered it all up until they had to give $55 MILLION to the tree huggers of america. All because they knowingly failed to follow court orders. Next the harbor police got a ballot measure across that the voters voted on to allow them into the LAPD retirement. Thats great, sure. But they didnt tell the people that it was going to cost the city 5-10 million to get them in. Yes, they reported the costs at 5-10 million dollars. Dont they have a good retirement already? The Jimmy hahn commision agreed to pay it. What a travesty! Hopefully Antonio can see through that and stop the payments. The mismangment has gone too far this time! I spoke in passing with a police Sgt at breakfast the other day when he was telling another patron about the harbor dept hazardous materials team. As a recently, 10 years if thats recent, retired fireman I can tell you it is a waste. i will make sure Antonio knows about this as well. He said that he is training police officers to be Haz-mat technicians and that they are attending a 2 month course. WHAT! Doesnt LAFD still have a Hazmat unit? He continued to brag about the $300K truck th hrbor police are getting and so on. WHAT! What he is saying is that we are paying cops to go to trining for 2 months at $5K per month per policeman to attend training in somthing they will NEVER do. This is the job of the LA fire dept. As a retired fireman i can tell you that they will NEVER be allowed to work side by side in a hazmat roll with ANY fire dept! Let cops be cops, and firemen be firemen. Not saying that they cant do a good job, but it isnt their job! We are not going to ask firemen to write speeding tickets, and cops should not be playing firemen. Antonio, force this issue. STOP THE HARBOR COMMISSION! Do not allow this to continue. We do not need these problems, this liability, and this outrages leap of boundries between two jobs. Help us and we will Help you!
Joe Benson
Fire Capt, retired
How about Nick Tonsich's sour grapes slams at Laura Chick's qualifications (Daily News, Times, Daily Breeze)? What ever qualified Nick to be in charge of an almost $700 million per year industrial operation? He should look at his own qualifications before he begins to ctiticze others.
Maybe this accounts for the spectacular string of management failures at the Port, of which this is only the latest.
Laura Chick’s audits of Port leasing policy are accurate. The fact that she evoked such a heated and emotional response from Tonsich shows she hit a nerve. The Mayor-elect should not allow lame-duck Tonsich to adopt any lease policy.
The current Lease Policy is neither transparent nor fair, to the public or the applicants. Rather, it is an ad-hoc process that leaves applicants subject to the whims and demands of both staff and Commissioners. Applicants feel compelled to wine-and-dine staff and Commissioners, as well as offer travel and gifts, all in an effort to curry favor. Applicants are frequently played off of each other and are forced into playing a game of one-up-manship. At best this has created a climate of profligate gift-giving, and at worst has encouraged open bribery.
Mr. Tonsich has acted as President of the Harbor Commission representing the largest port in the Nation (I'm certain) because he is a graduate of the Prestigious "Whittier School of Law." As anyone knows, from watching late night TV, that has got to be one of the finest universities in the world. Second only to Harvard or Yale ....perhaps. See what doors are open to you when you are educated with such sophistication? Besides that, I think they might even have a mail in degree program. No wonder he has such a pompous attitude.
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