Cordero takes helm of Long Beach Harbor Commission: new president will focus on growth and Clean Trucks Program.

THE Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners played a game of musical chairs this past week, and Mario Cordero came out the winner.

Cordero, who has sat on the board since 2003, was elected president and began serving his one-year term July 2, while the rest of the five-member board shifted titles. The local attorney with Safeco Corp., a Seattle-based insurance company, will assume the role as the board, along with its Los Angeles counterpart, prepares to vote on a controversial program aimed at reducing emissions from the diesel trucks serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.

"We need to get that program finalized and we need to do that ASAP," he said. "The trucks are a major contributor to the environmental problems."

Commissioner Mike Walter became the board's new vice president and Commissioner Doris Topsy-Elvord was elected to the position of secretary. The board's outgoing president, James Hankla, will assume the role of assistant secretary. John Hancock, who was originally appointed to the board in 1995 and is the longest-serving member, is getting set to leave the board later this summer.

Board members are typically appointed to six-year terms.

Cordero will now preside over the board's weekly meetings and make committee appointments.

At last week's meeting, he said be will push to improve the ports' infrastructure as the enormous growth expected in coming years could choke the port complex and hamper its productivity.

"We could be maxed out here in another five years," he said in an interview after the meeting. "We need to become more efficient."

But the issue likely to consume much of his time and attention during his tenure will be the Clean Trucks Program portion of the ports' jointly-sponsored Clean Air Action Plan.

"It is the main issue," he said.

Cordero will get a bit longer to prepare for the vote than originally expected, after the ports last month extended by 60 days the evaluation period before the plan will be put to a vote.

The program will require that all trucks be retrofitted or replaced with cleaner-burning models. It has been championed by environmentalists but criticized by industry groups who say the increased costs associated with it will upend the port trucking industry and force perhaps 1,000 trucking companies out of business.

Indeed, with hints of possible lawsuits from both the California Trucking Association and the American Trucking Association, it seems likely the issue will not be settled for some time.

Despite the difficulty of this particular piece, the overall clean air plan has been groundbreaking. The ports are the first in the nation to adopt such a wide-ranging and exacting program aimed at reducing its environmental impact.

Staff reporter Richard Clough can be reached at [phone], ext. 251, or at [e-mail].