Port Travel Expenditures

In a recent article (Oct. 29), Port of Los Angeles travel expenditures for the past six fiscal years were criticized as excessive. I’m encouraged that The Times mentioned that we at the port consider meetings with existing and potential tenants essential to our success. It is.

Discussion of travel expenses, as we all know, by themselves is meaningless. We must correlate additional variables to attain statistical legitimacy. Let me add to the information in the article toward a better understanding of the facts.

In the six years in which our travel expenditures increased from $330,000 to $615,000, our total volume grew by almost 20 million tons, our net income went from $58 million to $81 million and our operating budget rose from $51.6 million to $85.4 million. A lot of money. Most important is the impact of the port on the entire Southern California economy and the fact that we are responsible for one out of every 32 jobs in the region.

We handle our business well. Representatives of foreign corporations expect personal visits, and rightfully so, since they are singularly responsible for millions of dollars worth of income to the city. It is hard to quantify the value of each trip. Sometimes a transaction will be completed months or years later. One transaction may mean millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to Los Angeles.

For The Times to compare our travel expenses with Portland, San Francisco or San Diego without comparing cargo tonnage presents a distorted picture. Last year, we handled 70 million tons; Portland handled less than 5 million tons, San Diego less than 1 million. San Francisco, once a cargo leader, is no longer a major international competitor. Some U.S. ports receive tax subsidies in the millions of dollars. The Port of Los Angeles does not take one cent of taxpayers’ money.

The Port of Los Angeles is No. 1 in the United States in container volume and net income. That net income is reinvested in port facilities so that we will remain No. 1 and continue to provide job opportunities in the greater Los Angeles area.

RONALD S. LUSHING, President, Board of Harbor Commissioners