Commission President
Port of Long Beach, California

James C. Hankla is serving his second term as President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, elected to the one-year post that began July 2008 by his colleagues on the five-member body that governs the Port of Long Beach.  He was elected to his first term in July 2006.   

Mr. Hankla joined the Board of Harbor Commissioners in July 2003 following his appointment to a six-year term by then-Mayor Beverly O’Neill and confirmation by the Long Beach City Council.  He has also been the Harbor Commission’s representative to the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) Governing Board.

As President, he presides over the Commission’s weekly Board meetings, makes committee appointments and acts as chief spokesperson for the Port of Long Beach, delivering the Port’s Green Port Policy message world wide.

 Mr. Hankla has championed the Port of Long Beach’s pioneering Green Port Policy, an environmental protection ethic that is a model for seaports around the world. When President in 2006, he led the Port’s development of a wide-ranging Clean Air Action Plan, which was adopted jointly with the Port of Los Angeles.  He received a prestigious 2006 Greening Award for his significant environmental leadership as a Harbor Commissioner.

Now consulting on public/private partnership projects as a principal of JCH/Fulcrum LLC, Mr. Hankla is celebrating his fifty-second year in public service, the past three decades as a top-level local public official who builds consensus around making a community better.  With the core of his many career achievements in economic development and redevelopment, in April 2009, he was honored with the California Redevelopment Association's prestigious Lifetime Achievement in Redevelopment Award, which recognizes individuals for especially meritorious service, contributions to, or achievements in the field of redevelopment in California over the course of a career.   

Before his appointment to the Harbor Commission, he served as the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority's Chief Executive Officer for five years, from August 1998 until July 2003, overseeing all financial and administrative matters and ensuring that the $2.4 billion project opened on time and on budget.  The Alameda Corridor is a 20-mile rail expressway between the two San Pedro Bay ports and the transcontinental rail yards near downtown Los Angeles.  For his efforts, Governing Magazine named him a 2002 Public Official of the Year.

Prior to joining ACTA, Mr. Hankla distinguished himself as City Manager of Long Beach for 12 years.  He began his career of public service in 1957 with the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, while attending California State University, Long Beach.  After graduating, he began working with the City of Long Beach in 1960 as a Budget Analyst and later a Legislative Analyst.  In 1974, Mr. Hankla was named Executive Assistant to the City Manager, and in 1976 he became Director of Community Development and Executive Director of the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency.  His work restructuring the City’s financing program for downtown redevelopment in the wake of California’s Proposition 13 earned the City the prestigious Winston Crouch Award from the American Society of Public Administration.

Mr. Hankla entered the private sector briefly in 1980 as the Executive Director of the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Corporation, directing industrial and commercial real estate marketing and financing.  In 1982, he returned to California as General Manager for Campeau Corporation’s Northern California Housing Division, where he managed four real estate projects and handled public agency negotiations for the firm.

Later in 1982 he returned to public service with Los Angeles County, where he combined  the County's disparate economic development, community development, housing and redevelopment functions into a single agency, the Los Angeles Community Development Commission, and was the Commission's first Executive Director. The CDC continues to this day, serving the largest county government in the country. 

Two years later, he was appointed Chief Administrative Officer for the County of Los Angeles.  He returned to Long Beach in 1987 as City Manager where he continued the transformation of the community with the successful redevelopment of its core downtown and oceanfront areas.  He served as City Manager for 12 years, establishing a long record of distinguished achievement.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Mr. Hankla has a master’s degree in political science from California State University, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, Long Beach.  He has been a guest lecturer at many colleges and universities including Harvard, the University of Southern California, California State University, Long Beach, and the University of California, Davis.  He has been recognized for excellence in the field of economic development by the National Council for Urban Economic Development and is a recipient of the Ed DeLuca Memorial Award from that organization for which he served as President from 1982 to 1984.

Mr. Hankla has served on numerous governing boards, advisory boards and civic organizations, including the International City Theatre, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, the Los Angeles/Long Beach World Trade Center Association, Memorial Health Services, and the Olson Urban Housing Company.  He is Past President of the Long Beach Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, and in 1994 was named a Distinguished Eagle Scout by that organization.

He has received many professional honors including being named Long Beach Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year for 2001, Government Executive of the Year by Executive Magazine in 1987, and the Clarence Dykstra Award for Excellence in Public Administration from the American Society for Public Administration in 1988.  In 1990, he received the International City Management Association’s Award for Program Excellence for Large Cities for innovation in personnel and human resources management.  In 1998, the American Society for Public Administration honored him with the prestigious Earl Warren Award for his Contribution to Good Government, and he was honored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the Commanders Medal of Public Service.  He also received the March of Dimes Humanitarian Award in 2001 and the Amistad Award from the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center recognizing his many contributions to Rancho that improved health care services for patients.  He has been named a distinguished alumnus by California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach City College and California State University, Los Angeles.

The Port of Long Beach is one of the world’s premier seaports, a trail blazer in goods movement and environmental stewardship.  Each year, trade valued at more than $140 billion moves through the Port of Long Beach, supporting more than 316,000 Southern California jobs.  And with a Green Port Policy guiding all efforts, the Port is a catalyst for innovative programs to protect the environment. 

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