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LBReport.com News Returned From Rio, Councilwoman Reyes Uranga Reports On Port-Paid Trip To Conference w/ Harbor Comm'rs. Topsy-Elvord, Hankla & Cordero (July 20, 2005) -- On July 13, LBReport.com reported that 7th district Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga had failed to attend the July 12 City Council meeting to travel to Rio de Janeiero, with her spouse, on a Port of LB-paid trip with Harbor Commissioners Doris Topsy-Elvord, James Hankla and Mario Cordero (with their spouses) and Port staffers Gus Hein and Carl Kemp (traveling solo) for an event co-sponsored by a group representing the interests of western hemisphere ports. After we posted our report, Councilwoman Reyes Uranga's City Hall office agendized an item for the July 19 City Council meeting by which Councilwoman Reyes Uranga would report on the trip. LBReport.com posts extended portions of the Councilwoman's report as delivered below: Councilwoman Reyes Uranga: I had the opportunity under invitation of Julio Palacio, the Latin American coordinator for the American Association of Port Authorities to attend the Congress or Conference, if you will, of Latin American Ports. This was just this past week. It was extremely informative and not a bad break from being on the Council. The exchange of information and experiences were among professionals on Port way, and waterways. They focused, at least from what I could tell, on safety, environment and of course feeder ports. To give you just a quick example, again this will be short, on what some of the workshops entailed: "Safety and customs: where we are and where we should be." A meeting of the environmental committee which was an eye-opener, some people are ahead of us, some are definitely way below and need to get a lot of work done in their communities. Balance scorecards, so that people are actually measuring their effectiveness without the city and throughout the world in terms of where they stand amongst other ports in the country and in the world. There were, I think, representatives from every continent...The emphasis was on the growing importance of Latin America on world trade, and I think the quote was that by 2010, the trade with the Latin American countries will increase six-fold... My focus, of course, and a lot of the workshops I attended were focused on Mexico and the countries closest to our side and to our Port... ...Some short-sea shipping, which is a new concept to me, where they utilize rivers or other closer ports, which could be important for us here in the City of Long Beach when we're talking about diversion of some of the increased traffic that the Port of Long Beach is seeing. They also talked about LNG facilities and other developments on the port side. We have Ensenada and Manzanillo there. Talked about pipeline projects which I think is important to us not only because of what we're facing here in the City of Long Beach but because of the open borders issue... Just quickly two or three other things. The Port administration and relationships to their host city. Even though we here in the City of Long Beach have some issues with our own port authority, I think that we're clearly above almost everyone else in the world. They have different types of administration. In the port just north of us, Port Hueneme, they have elected port representatives, a representative board, which I think many people in this community wanted to take a look at for our Port... ...In my discussions with Latin American Port administrators, it was clear that Long Beach really is unique amongst all the communities. And really, even though we do have problems still, we have such a great direct relationship with our Commissioners, as opposed to some really hands-off, they called it almost a cultural and social divorce when it comes to the ports that are in their city... ...The dynamics that we're facing here in the City of Long Beach are really being faced throughout the world, and how we handle it, people are looking to see really us as a model in how we develop our relationships with host cities. So in that I'd just like to end by saying and recommending that we become a member of the National [we believe it's International] Association of Cities and Ports. It's an organization set up primarily to establish, encourage and promote the relationship of cities that host and that have ports in their cities, because there are specific concerns that cities have when you have a port in your backyards. And they really help communities and neighborhoods get through this whole process. So that would be one thing, and the second recommendation would be to continue with joint meetings, conferences, visits, legislative lobbying trips and meetings such as the [City Council's] Transportation, Infrastructure and Harbor and Tidelands [Committees] I believe that we're having on August 9 with our Port Commissioners and Port representatives so that we truly can have more of a combined effort when we're trying to look forward to, trying to work towards having a better environment, better local small business community and of course cleaner air and cleaner water. So with that I would just like to finish and have a motion to receive and file the report. Return To Front Page Contact us: mail@LBReport.com

 

 

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(July 20, 2005) -- On July 13, LBReport.com reported that 7th district Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga had failed to attend the July 12 City Council meeting to travel to Rio de Janeiero, with her spouse, on a Port of LB-paid trip with Harbor Commissioners Doris Topsy-Elvord, James Hankla and Mario Cordero (with their spouses) and Port staffers Gus Hein and Carl Kemp (traveling solo) for an event co-sponsored by the trade association representing the interests of American ports.

After we posted our report, Councilwoman Reyes Uranga's City Hall office agendized an item for the July 19 City Council meeting, indicating Councilwoman Reyes Uranga would report on the trip.

LBReport.com posts extended portions of the Councilwoman's report as delivered below.

Councilwoman Reyes Uranga: I had the opportunity under invitation of Julio Palacio, the Latin American coordinator for the American Association of Port Authorities to attend the Congress or Conference, if you will, of Latin American Ports. This was just this past week. It was extremely informative and not a bad break from being on the Council.

The exchange of information and experiences were among professionals on Port way, and waterways. They focused, at least from what I could tell, on safety, environment and of course feeder ports.

To give you just a quick example, again this will be short, on what some of the workshops entailed: "Safety and customs: where we are and where we should be." A meeting of the environmental committee which was an eye-opener, some people are ahead of us, some are definitely way below and need to get a lot of work done in their communities. Balance scorecards, so that people are actually measuring their effectiveness without the city and throughout the world in terms of where they stand amongst other ports in the country and in the world.

There were, I think, representatives from every continent...The emphasis was on the growing importance of Latin America on world trade, and I think the quote was that by 2010, the trade with the Latin American countries will increase six-fold...

My focus, of course, and a lot of the workshops I attended were focused on Mexico and the countries closest to our side and to our Port...

...Some short-sea shipping, which is a new concept to me, where they utilize rivers or other closer ports, which could be important for us here in the City of Long Beach when we're talking about diversion of some of the increased traffic that the Port of Long Beach is seeing.

They also talked about LNG facilities and other developments on the port side. We have Ensenada and Manzanillo there. Talked about pipeline projects which I think is important to us not only because of what we're facing here in the City of Long Beach but because of the open borders issue...

Just quickly two or three other things. The Port administration and relationships to their host city. Even though we here in the City of Long Beach have some issues with our own port authority, I think that we're clearly above almost everyone else in the world. They have different types of administration. In the port just north of us, Port Hueneme, they have elected port representatives, a representative board, which I think many people in this community wanted to take a look at for our Port...

...In my discussions with Latin American Port administrators, it was clear that Long Beach really is unique amongst all the communities. And really, even though we do have problems still, we have such a great direct relationship with our Commissioners, as opposed to some really hands-off, they called it almost a cultural and social divorce when it comes to the ports that are in their city...

...The dynamics that we're facing here in the City of Long Beach are really being faced throughout the world, and how we handle it, people are looking to see really us as a model in how we develop our relationships with host cities.

So in that I'd just like to end by saying and recommending that we become a member of the National Association of Cities in Ports. It's an organization set up primarily to establish, encourage and promote the relationship of cities that host and that have ports in their cities, because there are specific concerns that cities have when you have a port in your backyards. And they really help communities and neighborhoods get through this whole process.

So that would be one thing, and the second recommendation would be to continue with joint meetings, conferences, visits, legislative lobbying trips and meetings such as the [City Council's] Transportation, Infrastructure and Harbor and Tidelands [Committees] I believe that we're having on August 9 with our Port Commissioners and Port representatives so that we truly can have more of a combined effort when we're trying to look forward to, trying to work towards having a better environment, better local small business community and of course cleaner air and cleaner water.

So with that I would just like to finish and have a motion to receive and file the report.