(May 8, 2007) -- About three weeks before telling LB's Mayor, Councilmembers and state lawmakers that the Port of LB/L.A.'s "Clean Air Action Plan" may not deliver its pollution reduction goals as planned, LB Harbor Commission President Jim Hankla offered a considerably more upbeat view on LB's Straight Talk TV program.

Photo source: Straight Talk Productions, Inc.

LBReport.com allows readers to compare some of the points we found noteworthy below. We also link the full telecast and full written document, below.

Straight Talk Executive Producer/Host Art Levine covered a lot of territory in a short period of time with LB's former City Manager, former ACTA CEO, now Harbor Commission President. To view it [caveat: you may need QuickTime plug-in] click here. For audio (MP3 "podcast"), click here. The show's increasingly robust website, www.straighttalktv.com includes many useful archival interviews.

Our perspective follows with a caveat: we're not suggesting that interviewer Levine shares our views (or vice versa)...but he raised important points and got important statements on the record.

In the interview, taped March 30 for April viewing, Harbor Commission President Hankla acknowledged that LB Port and industry reps are meeting -- apparently behind closed oors -- on what could ultimately become an "alternative" to container fee legislation ("port investment" bill SB 974) by State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D., LB-SP-PV).

To date, neither the public nor the press know what those closed-door meetings are devising...and whether it would let the Ports use container fee revenue to expand Port infrastructure without delivering real, enforceable net pollution reductions (instead of rubbery Port-written "goals").

Fueling our concern is the April 20 letter (made public by LBReport.com) in which Harbor Commission President Hankla tells State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D., LB-SP-PV) that LB's Harbor Commission has voted to endorse his now-pending container fee bill (SB 947) only if amended.

[A month earlier, LB City's Council voted 8-0 to endorse the bill without attaching any conditions, essentially giving Sen. Lowenthal a "blank check" to subsequently change the bill while still claiming City Hall's support.]

In contrast to the Council's blank-check style endorsement, LB's Harbor Commission voted to endorse the bill only with amendments...which President Hankla's April 20 letter calls "necessary" to ensure no restriction on Port use of container fee revenue to expand Port infrastructure...even if the Port's Clean Air Action Plan doesn't deliver pollution reductions due to what LB's Harbor Commissioners portray as beyond their control.

But LB's Harbor Commissioners do control Port expansion. Port growth and its capacity to worsen net pollution are within the Harbor Commission's control. LB's incumbent Harbor Commissioners (all appointed by former Mayor Beverly O'Neill) have chosen to pursue Port capacity expansion regardless of its net pollution consequences.

Among the Port's desired expansion projects is rebuilding the Gerald Desmond bridge...which would let even larger mega-container ships enter LB's inner harbor, bringing a quantum increase in containers, requiring more or higher capacity trucks, trains, new facilities (unmentioned but we believe potentially including the proposed WLB SCIG) or other means.

LB's newly strengthened Mayor (after May 1 passage of Prop A) and the Council (which has a line-item veto over the Port's proposed budget annually) haven't discussed the Port's position on SB 947. To our knowledge, they've not sought public disclosure of what Port staff is discussing with industry reps on an "altertative" to the legislation.

If/when they do, we'll report it.