Port of L.A.'s Keller misses out on an Oakland job he denied wanting.

For months it's been the worst-kept secret at the Port of Los Angeles.

Larry Keller, the port's executive director, wits interviewing for the same job at the smaller Port of Oakland.

Though he denied being a candidate, both to colleagues and the press, the West Coast port community is too small for such knowledge not to get around. Twice, Keller was spotted by Oakland port staff arriving for interviews while on vacation from his L.A. job.

Last week, after the Oakland port named its maritime division director, Jerry Bridges, to the job, staffers forwarded internal e-mails naming Keller as one of three finalists to their counterparts in Los Angeles.

Last week, Keller declined comment through port spokeswoman Theresa Adams Lopez.

Commission President Nicholas Tonsich did not return calls.

In late April, Keller had issued a denial through another port spokeswoman, Sheila Gonzalez, when asked about the job hunt. "When we did pose the question to him, he said, 'No,'" Gonzalez said at the time.

Oakland is the third largest container operation on the West Coast, after Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The previous director, Tay Yoshitani. announced this spring that he would leave the post this summer, after 2 1/2 years on the job.

The position includes oversight of the nation's fourth largest port, along with Oakland International Airport, 19 miles of waterfront property that includes commercial development and parks all of which generated $217.6 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2003.

The operation has a staff of 650 people.

Keller is amoral it number of port officials who have testified before county and federal grand juries probing the manner by which city contracts are awarded. The city's three revenue-generating departments, the port, the airport and water and power departments, figure prominently in the inquiries.

City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has been calling for Keller's ouster since last summer, when City Controller Laura Chick released an audit criticizing the port's secretive decision-making process.