By Greg Moran / inewsource / February 26, 2024
Assemblymember David Alvarez has proposed legislation that would bring sweeping changes to governance of the powerful Port of San Diego, including instituting term limits and residency requirements for the city’s commissioners.
The legislation, filed Feb. 15, comes after a tumultuous year for the Port District staff and its seven-member governing board of commissioners.
Two top executives left for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed, one commissioner got an unprecedented censure, and another abruptly resigned. That’s meant potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexpected spending on private law firms that officials have largely left unexplained, according to records that inewsource obtained.
The port was also the subject of a critical June report by the San Diego County Grand Jury that criticized the agency’s governance structure and transparency, and made eight separate recommendations for change.
Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, is sworn into office during a June 16, 2022, ceremony. (Courtesy of Assemblymember David Alvarez’s office)
In a formal response, port officials rejected seven of those recommendations, saying they are “not warranted” or “not reasonable.” One other recommendation regarding the posting of port agendas is already being done, the response said.
Yet, one of the grand jury’s recommendations — a term limit for commissioners — made it into Alvarez’s bill.
The port controls activity on tidelands in five cities: San Diego, Coronado, National City, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista. While each city appoints a representative — San Diego as the largest city appoints three — the port operates as an independent special district established under state law, and its decisions are not subject to ratification by elected officials or residents of the member cities.
Among the changes that Alvarez is proposing:
- Requiring at least one of the three commissioners appointed by San Diego to live in one of the city neighborhoods affected by port activity: Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Shelltown, Sherman Heights or Southcrest.
- Limiting commissioners to three, four-year terms, and rotating the roles of commission chair, vice chair and secretary annually.
- Adopting a code of ethics for commissioners, and establishing an independent ethics board to hear ethics complaints.
- Establishing a two-year cooling off period banning commissioners from lobbying, contracting or working for the port after they leave. In an interview Alvarez said extending that ban to senior administrators is also a possibility.
- Setting up two funds to address longstanding concerns of residents in the area. The Community Impact Fund would take 1% of nontax gross revenues for projects to address the impacts of maritime industrial projects. The Future Public Access Fund would take 1% of revenue from port tenant leases to create open space projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
As a San Diego city council member from 2010 to 2018 representing the city’s portside neighborhoods, Alvarez said the events of the past year called for reform over how the port — established by state law in 1962 — conducts its business.
“I think it’s time, 60-plus years since its inception, to reform it into a way that is more accountable,” he said. “And that means (to) our high expectations of what a public agency should be doing.”
‘Unintended consequences’
The Port District pushed back hard on Alvarez’s legislation. In a statement, spokesperson Brianne Mundy Page said the port opposed the bill because of “the unintended consequences and many negative impacts it would have on the people and businesses of our region.”
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