A tale of two ports: Long Beach strategy contrasts with L.A.'s.

The waters are choppy at the Port of Los Angeles in the midst of investigations into the operation's contracting practices.

At the Port of Long Beach, there's barely a tipple.

That's no coincidence, according to maritime executives, port officials and business and community leaders who are familiar with both facilities.

While both ports are quasi-government agencies run under the dominion of their respective cities, it's generally believed that in L.A. elected officials have greater influence on day-to-day operations. By contrast, the Long Beach port tends to have greater independence.

"We are able to cut out some of the bureaucracy that seems to beset certain other agencies," said Richard Steinke, executive director of the Long Beach port. "We are able to process documents quickly and react promptly to our customers' requests or work that needs to be done."

One reason for the different cultures is the Long Beach city charter.

Prospective commissioners are recommended by the mayor and ratified by the city council--just like in Los Angeles. But once named to the board, Long Beach harbor commissioners cannot be removed without the council's approval.

"The commissioners are autonomous once they are appointed," said Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill. "Their positions are pretty stable."

In L.A., the mayor can remove his commissioners with the stroke of a pen--influence that is at the heart of the ongoing probes. In addition, actions taken by L.A.'s harbor board can be appealed to the City Council, while decisions made in Long Beach are final. "They have an entirely different structure and government chatter than we do," O'Neill said.

Stable board

The result is more stability on the Long Beach board. Officials there believe the system allows for commissioners to take advantage of their institutional knowledge of port operations.

"It takes away the looking over your shoulder to see how the politics is working," said John Kashiwabara, now 82, who resigned from the board last year, six months into his second term. "You can make a decision based on what you think is the correct decision for the port. Contrast that with the Port of Los Angeles, it has to go through City Hall for final approval."

In Long Beach, Commission President John Hancock and Vice President John Calhoun are both in their second terms. In L.A., all five harbor commissioners were appointed in August 2001, just after Mayor James Hahn took office.

John Wentworth, a Richard Riordan appointee to the L.A. Harbor Commission who was ousted soon alter Hahn came into office, said he never got a chance to pursue his goal of opening lines of communication between the port and the surrounding communities.

"It was a really cruel thing to do and I was sorry not to be able to continue," he said. "But the mayor wanted his own people in there. Now, the motives are seriously being called into question."

Several Port of Los Angeles staff members said Hahn's office has had a strong hand in port operations, often sending directives to Executive Director Larry Keller via Commission President Nicholas Tonsich or Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, before Edwards resigned under pressure in March.

"You can talk to any division heads or senior managers and they say the same thing. We don't know who is the boss," said a port staff member.

Still, L.A.'s port outscores Long Beach in several departments--starting with the volume of container traffic.

When the Maersk Sealand steamship line moved from Long Beach to L.A. in August 2002, it took what was then a quarter of Long Beach's container traffic.

Through the first four months of 2004, Long Beach had moved 1.6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), up 11.8 percent from the like year-ago period, while L.A. moved 2.3 million TEUs, up 5.2 percent.

Al Fierstine, director of business development for the L.A. port, attributed the marketing success to its facilities. "We have the best on-dock rail system in the United States to accommodate transcontinental cargo," he said.

Los Angeles is also further along than Long Beach in establishing environmental programs, although the progress is mainly credited to lawsuits brought by' environmental groups.

Last month, L.A. opened the nation's first "green terminal" at the China Shipping Container Lines facility. Long Beach won't even have a cold-ironing operation, where ships at dock turn off their diesel engines and plug into electrical power, until next year at the earliest.

In Long Beach, there is no language mandating environmental improvements written into existing tenant leases, though Long Beach is well ahead of its sister port in retrofitting yard equipment with pollution control devices.

"When it comes to environmental protection, both of them are running neck and neck and have a long way to go," said Julie Masters. senior project attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "They are the biggest source of pollution in our basin."

Operational differences

Structurally, the two ports operate quite differently.

Following last summer's release of a critical audit by City Controller Laura Chick, the L.A. port has begun sending out requests for proposals when new space becomes available.

Up until then, there has been no set process for evaluating contracts. RFPs were not published and there was often infighting among staffers, commissioners and representatives of the mayor's office when leases came up.

At Long Beach, the practice has long been to send out RFPs for port projects. Most are for consultants and professional services, with lease advertisements for available land space used only when port officials believe they could attract a major player in the maritime industry.

The port's leasing guidelines mandate that every tenant pay a minimum annual rent regardless of how much cargo they move. (After that minimum is achieved, cargo fees are often dropped a bit.)

"The port's protection on achieving a particular return on an asset is to have a guaranteed minimum rent," said Kathryn McDermott, the port's properties director.

Negotiations move up and down the corporate ladder, with mid-level executives initiating discussions and department heads signing off on an agreement. (The larger the tenant, the more the higher-ups are involved.)

All negotiations culminate in a written report presented to the board that details terms and conditions contained in the leases and a synopsis on why the deal benefits the port.

"We keep our commissioners apprised along the way and we may ask them for instructions if we are negotiating and feel it might deviate from the direction we originally took," said McDermott. "Letting our board know what we are doing, I get their feedback and I generally understand what the board wants to see. It's an example of good open communication."

While the two ports remain competitive in attracting tenants, the post-Sept. 11 culture and increased pressure from community groups to be more environmentally friendly have forced them to work more closely together for programs to address these problems.

"They work together but they are competitive and that's good for business," said O'Neill. "Homeland security has brought them closer together. It has brought a greater awareness of cooperation and coordination."