Long Beach Harbor Department News

Harbor Commission President Lori Ann Guzmán was re-elected Monday evening to serve a second one-year term leading the board that oversees the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second-busiest seaport. The five-member Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners also selected Lou Anne Bynum as Vice President and Tracy Egoscue as Secretary, continuing in the roles they have served in for the past 12 months. Each July, the Commission selects from its own members the President and the other Board officers for one-year terms. Guzmán, who is the Director of Finance for the City of Huntington Beach, was appointed to the Harbor Commission in 2013 by then-Mayor Bob Foster. The Commission President chairs Board meetings and represents the Port to the public.

The Port of Long Beach’s Security Division has been awarded $3.4 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants to fund ongoing projects that protect the port. The grants will enhance port security systems such as physical security equipment and monitoring and detection systems, including the Virtual Port System, and improve the resiliency of port security systems, the port said. “Protecting workers and the community, as well as ensuring business continuity, are top priorities at the Port of Long Beach,” said Lori Ann Guzmán, President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners. FEMA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security…

Environmental attorney and Long Beach resident Tracy Egoscue joined the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Tuesday as the first Commissioner appointed by newly elected Mayor Robert Garcia. She was approved by the City Council last week for a six-year term. Egoscue heads a Long Beach-based private law practice, and in the past was Executive Officer of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board – Los Angeles Region, and prior to that served as Executive Director of Santa Monica Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy group. She has also practiced environmental litigation as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, and worked on issues encompassing the Air Resources Board, the California Environmental Quality Act and the Federal Clean Water Act.

Thome Ship Management has been awarded a Green Environmental Achievement Award by the Port of Long Beach, California, for high standards in performance during 2013. Yatin Gangla, Chief Operating Officer Bulk Division said, “This award is presented to operators whose vessels call at the Port of Long Beach and who have demonstrated that 90% or more of the vessels have complied with the Voluntary Vessel Speed Reduction Program. In recognition of this achievement, Thome has received…

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved reduced electric rates at the Port of Long Beach for the next 24 years and a program for Southern California Edison to install major electric infrastructure at no cost to the port or its tenants, so that the Port and its tenants can proceed with critical electrification and environmental improvement projects. The new rates and electric infrastructure are the result of an intensive effort by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners…

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners this week appointed Heather A. Tomley as the new Director of Environmental Planning. She will be charged with leading Green Port environmental initiatives. Tomley has been serving as the City of Long Beach Harbor Department’s Acting Director of Environmental Planning since July 2013. She will report to Managing Director of Environmental Affairs and Planning Rick Cameron. Tomley originally joined the Harbor Department as an Environmental Planning Associate in 2005…

High-tech cranes, bigger ships, cleaner skies and more jobs ― that’s the way Al Moro, Acting Executive Director of the City of Long Beach Harbor Department, summed up the Port of Long Beach’s 2013 and the expectations for the year just started, at Thursday morning’s biggest-ever State of the Port address. Harbor Commission President Doug Drummond introduced Moro with his own hopeful outlook for 2014 during the annual event, which this year drew an audience of more than 700 at a downtown Long Beach hotel.