Elder Bill Intended to Force Port to Fix Wilmington Streets

After months of wrangling, the final chapter is being written in a legislative effort to force the Los Angeles Harbor Department to pay for Wilmington roads clogged and crumbling under the weight of trucks that do business in the port.

Under a bill that is before Gov. George Deukmejian, a prohibition against spending Los Angeles port revenues on non-port projects would be lifted.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-Long Beach), is intended to get the port to pay for building, repairing and maintaining streets around the port in Wilmington. But port officials see those costs as the first of many non-port expenses that could be paid for out of Los Angeles Harbor’s vast revenues. The port has a $454-million budget this year, including a $244-million unappropriated balance.

Elder said Friday that he would like to use the bill as leverage in reaching a last-minute accord with port officials. Elder wants to force the port to move faster in spending tens of millions of dollars for street improvements that have been promised for years. In exchange, he would ask the governor to veto the bill.

“I am still trying to give (port officials) a chance,” Elder said late Friday. “But we want more than conversation.”

Elder’s comments came at the end of weeks of confusion over the bill’s status and its usefulness as a lever to prod the port into fixing Wilmington’s roads.

The confusion arose in part from Elder’s silence about his behind-the-scenes negotiations with port officials in the last month. He said the talks were aimed at reaching a compromise that would make the bill unnecessary and commit the port to sharing its resources with Wilmington.

But as the talks continued--and the bill cleared the Legislature on Aug. 30--Wilmington activists and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said they still weren’t sure where Elder’s efforts would lead.

That uncertainty, expressed as late as Friday, led them to question Elder’s strategy and say it might be better if the bill became law.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Gertrude Schwab, one of a handful of Wilmington activists who met with Elder just after the bill’s passage.

Specifically, the concern of Schwab and others was that the port, in a written report to Elder on projects already planned or under way, had not promised anything new as a consequence of his bill.

The long-planned projects included the $26-million realignment of B Street, the future construction of the truck-and-rail Consolidated Transportation Corridor along Alameda Avenue, and other street widening and landscaping work.

“There’s nothing new here,” Schwab complained Friday afternoon.

But late Friday, Elder broke his silence about the bill, explaining in an interview that he would give the port another week to develop a new proposal for improving Wilmington’s roads. If that proposal is acceptable, he said, he will urge the governor to veto the legislation.

As written, the bill would authorize the port to use its revenues from the tidelands granted to the city of Los Angeles in 1929. For years, the port has maintained that state law forbids it to use those revenues on anything that lacks specific connection to waterways.

In many regards, the bill is similar to one Elder introduced earlier this year but withdrew after calls from Mayor Tom Bradley and port Executive Director Ezunial Burts. Both said the Wilmington road improvement issue could be resolved without state legislation.

When that did not happen, Elder introduced the measure now awaiting the governor’s signature.

To date, port officials have declined comment on the bill, hoping again to convince Elder that the department is doing all it can to improve Wilmington’s roads.

Councilwoman Flores said Friday that she remains unsure where the negotiations will lead. But ultimately, she said, the port will have to commit more money to Wilmington than it has in the past.

“The key is getting the port to take a serious look at the area and acknowledge it has a responsibility to the community,” Flores said.

Added Elder: “The port is a spectacular success, and the fact of the matter is that San Pedro and Wilmington have had to bear the brunt of the port’s growth. And the most pressing need is in Wilmington, where a substantial amount of work has been deferred for too many years.

“We are talking tens of millions of dollars here,” he said. “I’m not saying the port has to write a check for this tomorrow. But I want to see dramatic improvements in the next 12 to 24 months.”

By the end of this week, Elder said, he will decide whether the port’s response is sufficient for him to formally ask the governor to veto the bill.

“I would prefer that we have an agreement rather than the bill,” he said.