Harbor Official Plans Trip Despite Controller’s Veto

The president of the Los Angeles Harbor Commission says he will leave this afternoon on an official Harbor Department expedition to Tokyo even though City Controller Rick Tuttle, who reviews city travel, does not intend to authorize payment for his trip.

Commission President Ronald S. Lushing maintains that Tuttle has no authority to bar his participation. Tuttle counters that the estimated $3,000 cost of sending Lushing on the trip is wasteful because the commissioner is an appointee of lame duck Mayor Tom Bradley and is likely to be replaced by the next mayor.

“This is an extravagant use of public funds,” Tuttle said. He added that money from the trip could indirectly be used to help the budget-strapped city; a recently passed state law allows the city to take part of the net revenues of the semi-independent Harbor Department.

The disagreement is likely to become a showdown when Lushing returns to Los Angeles and submits his expense reports to Tuttle. If the controller rejects them, as expected, it would be up to the City Council to decide whether to reimburse Lushing.

The council debated the matter Tuesday but took no action. Afterward, Lushing accused Tuttle and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, a chief critic of the trip, of using an official trade mission to boost their ongoing campaigns for reelection. Lushing said, regardless of what Tuttle says, he intends to board a plane for Tokyo today.

“It is unfortunate that the City Council does not take on real issues, especially considering the budget deficit and other issues facing this city,” Lushing said. “I think it is very important that I go, being the highest member of the delegation, and I intend to go. I have an opinion from the city attorney that the controller cannot tell the employees of an independent city department who can go on a particular trip.”

Lushing and other harbor officials argue that the Tokyo meeting is designed to complete years of negotiations with Japanese business officials for a $180-million coal-exporting facility for the Port of Los Angeles. They say the signing ceremony will include top-level Japanese representatives, who might be offended if the city does not send an equally prominent delegation.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the Harbor area and supported sending Lushing, said the controversy may be sending a negative message to the Japanese investors in the project: “You were important to us when we were trying to get you to sign on the dotted line but now . . . it no longer matters.”

Originally, Harbor officials proposed a 10-nation Asian and Pacific tour that would have ended with 11 officials at the Tokyo signing ceremony. Bradley had been scheduled to attend but he withdrew.

Comparing the 10-nation tour to “the island-hopping campaign of Douglas MacArthur in World War II,” Tuttle vehemently objected to those plans, prompting council members to approve a policy requiring future travel requests to be submitted to the mayor and council for review.