Villaraigosa’s Port Panel Choices Suggest New Direction

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, signaling plans to bring change to the Port of Los Angeles, is reshaping its board of commissioners with new appointees to be named today to the five-member panel.

The new slate includes a former general manager of the Department of Water and Power, a labor leader, an environmental attorney and two other lawyers, sources said Tuesday.

The appointments come as the port, the nation’s largest, is struggling with significant challenges, including a corruption probe, looming major expenses, security concerns, air pollution problems and major turnover among senior managers.

Two of the appointments -- S. David Freeman, the former head of the DWP, and Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza, an environmental lawyer -- led a longtime critic to predict that the board could “be one of the most environmentally sensitive port boards in the country.”

After she was told about Freeman and Mendoza, Gail Ruderman Feuer, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney, said they had “outstanding environmental track records.”

“This sends a clear signal from the mayor that he plans to hold true to his commitment to protect local communities from harmful pollution that comes from the port,” she said.

Sources familiar with port operations said Villaraigosa also plans to name Douglas Paul Krause, a banking lawyer; Kaylynn L. Kim, a lawyer in private practice; and Joe Radisich, president of the Southern California District Council of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The mayor’s office declined to confirm the appointments. Villaraigosa plans to make the announcement at 10 a.m. this morning at the port’s Cruise Ship Promenade.

Villaraigosa is replacing a commission that included three San Pedro residents, reflecting ex-Mayor James K. Hahn’s promise to increase the community’s representation on the board. Nicholas Tonsich, an attorney, and James Acevedo, a developer, have already resigned. The other commissioners are Elwood Lui, an attorney; Camilla Townsend, a former school principal; and Thomas Warren, a longtime ILWU leader.

Port employees complain privately that they feel buffeted by political pressures and low morale.

The Times reported Tuesday that an ambitious San Pedro waterfront plan launched by Hahn would cost nearly $800 million and that senior managers promoting it withheld unfavorable financial estimates from the commission.

The fast-growing port has also experienced a slowdown in cargo growth in recent months, prompting Villaraigosa to intervene while still mayor-elect and ask the port to shave 11% from its 2005-06 budget.

Villaraigosa faces the challenge of balancing the business needs of the port -- considered an economic engine for the region -- with calls from residents of San Pedro and Wilmington to slash air pollution.

Freeman, the former DWP head, is a nationally recognized energy expert. His experience running water and electric utilities spans five decades.

He left the DWP in January 2001 to serve as an advisor to then-Gov. Gray Davis during the state’s energy crisis.

In August 2002, Freeman was chosen to head a new state agency to help finance power plants. His appointment was controversial, with Republican lawmakers accusing him of gouging energy consumers while he was the DWP head, a charge he denied.

Freeman left the power authority in 2003 for a company that converts gas-powered cars to hydrogen power. He left the company, the Renewable Resources Group, earlier this year, but remains an informal advisor.

During the mayoral campaign, Freeman supported Villaraigosa, sometimes appearing with him at campaign events in his trademark cowboy hat. He accused Hahn of talking about reducing pollution but failing to do much about it.

“We’ve been getting a lot of good music for the environment, but the action has gone to the polluters,” Freeman said at the time, adding, “You can say the same thing about the Port of Los Angeles, where the pollution has gone up.”

Lopez Mendoza, who focuses on environmental justice issues, is the policy director of the Los Angeles office of Environmental Defense, a national nonprofit. She has been active in promoting green space in urban Los Angeles as well as “smart growth.”

Krause is executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for East West Bank Inc. in San Marino, according to the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. The bank, with 45 branches in California and a Beijing office, focuses on the Chinese American market.

An ILWU source who asked not to be named said Radisich is a “local guy” and 22-year veteran of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, who is known as smart and well-traveled.

Kim is a member of Villaraigosa’s transition team and is a member of the Koreatown Youth & Community Center Board of Directors, according to the group’s website.

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Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin and researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.