Grass-roots effort builds to fight for local people on LA harbor commission

Supporters of Diane Middleton, dropped from the Los Angeles harbor commission by Mayor Karen Bass in August, are not going down without a fight.

That was clear by the crowd that turned out Monday night, Sept. 10, in a show of support — and anger — inspired by concern over local representation on the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.

“Many people have said we’re going to fight for your reinstatement,” Middleton told the gathering in the San Pedro Municipal Building. “I would respectfully decline, I’ve moved on.”

What the Harbor Area does need, the San Pedro resident and retired attorney said, is a guarantee going forward that the five-member panel in the future will include members from Wilmington, San Pedro — and a voice for port labor.

The informal gathering — called by Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker who represents the area — drew close to 100 people clearly willing to join forces to work toward that goal.

Their strategy:

• Start with a campaign to express their views to the mayor through a “Harbor Voices for the Harbor Commission” movement with letters and emails.
• Then organize support for L.A. City measure HH, sponsored by McOsker, that would provide two dedicated seats — one from Wilmington and another from San Pedro — on the commission, along with a port labor voice.

“We responded to the people who had reached out to us,” McOsker said Tuesday in a follow-up telephone interview about the gathering he organized, adding that the issue has galvanized many in the Harbor Area. “If we wanted to, we could have made it many, many hundreds, that would have been easy to do.”

Middleton’s surprising ouster from the port panel — following the dismissal of two other local commissioners who were also up for reappointment but were replaced by commissioners who are not local — sent shockwaves across the community that has struggled through the decades to solidify local representation on the panel.

Several impassioned speakers participated, many of them saying they were ready to join the grassroots lobbying effort, among them were community and International Longshore and Warehouse Union leaders, a former harbor commissioner and neighborhood council members.

“To have our voice stripped is a disservice to our community,” said ILWU Local 13 President Gary Herrera referring to  Bass’ decision to not retain Middleton and instead nominate a new commissioner from Boyle Heights.

The commission needs “people who live, breathe and know this port well” to serve on the commission, ILWU Pensioners President Greg Mitre said.

Following the decision in August by Bass not to reappoint the San Pedro retired attorney to another term, labor and Harbor Area members are pushing ahead to guarantee local members on the panel that oversees the Port of Los Angeles decisions.

The only local commission member remaining is Lee Williams of San Pedro — who attended Tuesday’s gathering, along with L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

McOsker announced during Monday night’s meeting that Middleton is joining his staff as an unpaid special counsel focusing on port-related issues.

Her first task? Organizing the “Harbor Voices for the Harbor Commission” committee that will help with a campaign to draft letters that stress the importance of having local representation on the Port of Los Angeles harbor commission.

“We want to be charitable, so let’s assume the mayor doesn’t know the history of the ‘hundred-years war,’” a period when port residents battled former non-local commissions over the environment and other port impacts. “She doesn’t know how much we struggled to get three commissioners” on the panel.

The mayor’s nominee, John Pérez, must be confirmed before the city’s deadline of Sept. 27. McOsker said he’ll ask questions of the nominee throughout the committee and full council process yet still to launch.

“I’ll ask about his understanding of automation, his plans for countering the devastation of jobs by automation, protecting the environment and jobs, and about his commitment about investment to our local infrastructure,” McOsker said. “I’ll need to hear those answers.

While Pérez, a former California State Assembly speaker, has union ties with the United Food and Commercial Workers and California Labor Federation but McOsker and others stress the waterfront union plays a unique role and has a past that needs to be understood from a close vantage point.

Middleton, who has long ties with the ILWU, was appointed to the commission in 2019 filling the vacancy left when David Arian, a former ILWU international president, died. He also was a longtime San Pedro resident as is Middleton.

Middleton on Monday night said she’s never received an explanation from the mayor. “I have no idea (why she was let go)” Middleton said.

Bass’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but for an earlier story publicly thanked Middleton for her service on the commission.

McOsker said he also has gotten no explanation from the mayor, who has made no public statement on why the changes were made.

Others who spoke Monday night included:

• Former harbor commissioner Anthony Pirozzi: “When I was let go I went out quietly. When I found out the way Diane was treated — I could say some San Pedro words but I won’t. It was a lack of respect and no class.”
• Ann Carpenter, Braid Theory CEO at AltaSea: “The community really appreciated what you did for us, you didn’t just rubber stamp things, you took the time to understand (issues).”
• Port of Long Beach Commission President Bonnie Lowenthal: “You are a commissioner who is very much a part of us and thank you for everything. The Port of Long Beach loves Diane Middleton.”