Los Angeles Port Chief Knatz to Retire; Led Clean Truck Plan Implementation

This story appears in the Oct. 14 print edition of Transport Topics.

Geraldine Knatz, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles who oversaw implementation of the Clean Truck Program, announced she will retire next month.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has selected Gary Lee Moore to replace Knatz on an interim basis.

The change sets off a scramble for port management talent in Southern California as both L.A. and the Port of Long Beach — North America’s two largest container ports — will be looking for top leadership at the same time.

Knatz said she was “proud of the many accomplishments that our team made at the Port of Los Angeles during my tenure.”

Garcetti said his agenda for the port “is focused on maximizing its economic impact and minimizing the environmental impact to build stronger neighborhoods in the harbor area and across Los Angeles.”

Trucking executives said Knatz will be remembered for the Clean Truck Program. The program’s two components led to a purge of older drayage trucks from work at the port and an attempt to ban owner-operators from driving trucks there. While the environmental regulation stands, the bid to change the port employment model led to a U.S. Supreme Court case decided in favor of American Trucking Associations in June.

Knatz, 62, has been a fixture of the Southern California maritime world. She joined the industry in 1977 and became managing director at Long Beach before returning to L.A. for the port’s top job in January 2006, after being appointed by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Moore, who has been Los Angeles city engineer, will be replaced at that job on an interim basis by his chief deputy. Knatz will remain with the port into January to help with the transition.

“Clearly, the creation of the Clean Truck Program — based on curtailing the use of trucks that were otherwise legal in

the United States — was enormously impactful,” said Curtis Whalen, executive director of ATA’s Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference.

“It went too far, too fast and set the stage for other ports to follow her lead, but because of the lawsuit, virtually no other port followed her,” Whalen said.

“We didn’t object to the clean trucks part, but the employee rule was a major issue,” said Robert Curry, president of trucking firm California Cartage Co.

In 2007, Los Angeles and Long Beach started the program, which called for all port drivers to be carrier employees rather than owner-operators. That classification would have overturned the common business model of using owner-operators for drayage work.

The Los Angeles Times said Garcetti, mayor since July 1, has been reviewing the city’s top civil servants, deciding who should stay or go.

In June, Chris Lytle departed as executive director in Long Beach to take charge of the Port of Oakland. Al Moro replaced Lytle on an acting basis in Long Beach.

ATA’s Whalen said the Southern California ports probably will be recruiting from the same pool of candidates. The lack of permanent leadership at both ports simultaneously leaves a lot of uncertainty, Whalen said, as to how the largest container complex outside Asia will develop.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, the Port of Los Angeles has a budget of $1.07 billion, with $226.7 million to be spent on operations and $451.9 million to be spent on capital investment.

The remaining $392.5 million covers reserves and debt repayment.

In 2012, L.A. handled 8.1 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, the standard measure for container volume. That was an improvement over 7.9 million in 2011.

For the first eight months of this year, container volume is running 5.64% behind the 2012 pace.

The busiest year at L.A. during Knatz’s tenure was 2006, her first year, when the port handled 8.5 million TEUs. When the recession was at its worst, in 2009, volume fell to 6.7 million TEUs.