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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The City Council Friday moved forward a recommendation to reexamine a leasing policy to ensure job opportunities are not negatively impacted by other entities operating at properties owned by the Port of Los Angeles.
Council members voted 11-0 in favor the request and instructing the city attorney's office to report on amendments that would measure how proposed projects would impact jobs associated with the premises, and fully implement them in the leasing policy.
Council members Paul Krekorian, Curren Price, Heather Hutt and Bob Blumenfield were absent during the vote.
"What we are doing with this matter is calling upon the port to look into their leasing policy," Councilman Tim McOsker said prior to the vote. "The port manages many lands that are important to us for the logistics and the world economy, but also for the local economy.
McOsker, who represents the 15th District, which includes the Harbor Area, said before the Harbor Commission acts on a new lease for a terminal, for example, or extends the terminal or modifies the operation of a terminal, they consider the impact on jobs.
"We are not telling them what to do, but we are asking them to know what they indirectly are doing," McOsker said.
The councilman said he hopes a new policy will help port officials better understand how new operations or leasing agreements might increase or decrease jobs.
He recounted an anecdote from a years back when a company applied to automate their terminal -- and when asked what would happen to jobs located at the site, the operators said they were unsure.
"We just need to know. Tell us what's going to happen to the dignity of the families that live in that area," McOsker said. "It's a simple fix."
The councilman had initiated this request via a motion, which he introduced on Dec. 1, 2023.
According to the councilman, the port has more than 200 leaseholders along with terminal facilities, as well as the industrial and commercial facilities that support its operations.
The port's activities account for one in nine jobs in the region and one in 13 jobs in the city.
"For these reasons, the City Council desire to take this opportunity to revisit the port's leasing policy in order to better assess the current extent to which it could support the regional and local economic environment," the motion reads.