CONTROLLER TAKES AIM AT HARBOR LEADERSHIP CHICK CITES 'DISDAIN' TOWARD POLICY CHANGE.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Harbor commissioners have shown an ``open disdain'' in their resistance to revising shipping lease policies, although port staff members have implemented some reforms, City Controller Laura Chick said Thursday.

Chick's comments came as she released a follow-up audit to one completed in 2003, which found that terms of shipping leases tended to be long-term, confidential, overly flexible in application of rules and too dependent upon personal relationships.

She noted that harbor staff members have responded to some of the issues identified in the 2003 audit, but said the lack of action on shipping leases eclipsed any gains.

``The Harbor Commission has basically thumbed their nose, not only at the city's elected leadership; they also disregarded the people of Los Angeles,'' Chick said. ``The larger question to be answered is why did the commission refuse to implement this needed policy? Who is benefiting by not having these rules in place?''

Chick said the new audit is intended as a ``road map,'' for Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, whom she backed in last month's election, as he makes decisions regarding the port. The port commissioners are appointed by the mayor.

Harbor Commission President Nicholas Tonsich accused Chick of taking ``the low road,'' and of pursuing a ``personal political agenda.''

``The Harbor Department staff has been working with the Controller's Office on the leasing policy in an exchange of drafts,'' Tonsich said in a statement. ``The final draft policy, which Laura now evidently approves, has not yet been brought to the Board of Harbor Commissioners for approval. The board will be happy to consider the policy at its next meeting.''

Harbor Department spokeswoman Theresa Adams Lopez said port officials were generally pleased with the audit because it recognized progress in making reforms.

She added the port has been operating ``in principle'' under the draft leasing policy for the past year.

But Chick said it was ``stunning'' that the draft policy still hadn't gone to the commissioners, and the audit noted the Blue Ribbon Commission and a directive from Mayor James Hahn were released in February.

``For more than two years the Board of Harbor Commissioners has refused to adopt a sound overall policy for awarding shipping leases,'' she said in a letter to outgoing Mayor James Hahn and other elected city officials. ``The port staff drafted a policy over a year ago, which still sits in the commission's in-box collecting dust.''

The commissioners didn't respond to several offers by auditors with the firm Sjoberg Evashenk of Sacramento to respond to the audit's findings, her staff said.

Chick said she's not recommending the leasing policy be adopted before Villaraigosa takes office next Friday, but rather to highlight problems and areas where there's been resistance to change.

In addition to a new leasing policy, Chick said the port needs written standards for doing financial analyses, and consistent scoring criteria for evaluating bids.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com