Your guide to L.A. City Charter Amendment PRT: Greater public insight into airport, harbor departments

Charter Amendment PRT would affect the city’s departments of airports, harbor and water and power, which operate as self-funding businesses that report to three different boards.

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Oct. 1, 2026

The amendment would change the composition of Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners, which oversee Van Nuys and Los Angeles International airports. It would require that two of the seven board members live in Van Nuys and three live around LAX — a footprint that the amendment does not define.

The Port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest in the nation, serves as a landlord to operators at its terminals. The amendment would require the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners to annually allocate a portion of the harbor’s operating income to investments in waterfront public access projects. It also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce by requiring any leaseholder extending a lease or lease applicant to disclose overview on its employment.

The amendment also offers greater flexibility for how the airport and water and power departments lease space to long-term investments.

Supporters include Councilmembers Tim McOsker, Imelda Padilla and Traci Park, community activists near the Port of Los Angeles in Wilmington and San Pedro and near Van Nuys Airport, and neighborhood council members near LAX in Westchester.

There was initial pushback among some terminal leaseholders at the Port of Los Angeles.

Following a series of scandals that shook public trust in local government, Los Angeles City Council launched a massive charter reform to boost accountability across city departments. Charter PRT emerged from that reform.

McOsker, who co-sponsored the amendment, said it would offer greater public access and participation into government processes. He believes it is important that those overseeing LAX and Van Nuys understand how neighboring communities are affected by airport decisions.

“The folks that live and work and drive around and experience the impacts of the airport operations should have some say in the future of airport operations,” McOsker said. “They know the best of what the impacts are on the tens of thousands of folks that live around each of those facilities.”

McOsker stressed that the port is on public land and another space that residents should have greater insight into by offering transparency into how leaseholder agreements affect the local economy.