LA Spending on Port Truck Dispute Exceeds $1 Million

The city of Los Angeles has spent more than $1 million in lobbying and litigation to defend the port’s clean truck concession requirements, according to a Southern California attorney.

The litigation so far involves more than 10,000 pages of legal documents, including 219 filings in federal court in Los Angeles and more than 130 filings with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where the courts have rejected city arguments and said the concession requirements are a violation of federal law, attorney Cameron Roberts said.

Also, the city and port have a contract with the Gephardt Group, a high-profile Washington lobbying firm, to urge Congress to draw new limits on federal oversight of interstate commerce and give ports limited regulatory authority over harbor trucking.

Los Angeles, in litigation filed by the American Trucking Associations, is defending the clean truck plan’s concession agreements with motor carriers, including a requirement that allows only for employee drivers of trucking companies to operate at the port.

That effort is supported by environmental and labor organizations, including the Teamsters union, which is attempting to organize harbor truck drivers nationwide.

The litigation has gone on for more than a year. Quoting one of the 9th Circuit judges, Roberts told the Harbor Transportation Club of Southern California, “This is going to go on for years.”

By contrast, Roberts noted the Port of Long Beach recently settled with the ATA and will replace its concession requirements with a registration agreement.

The trucking organization challenged the concession agreements as a violation of federal preemption authority over interstate commerce. The 9th Circuit upheld the ATA’s assertion as it pertains to requirements not relating to motor carrier safety and port security and remanded the case to the district court.

The district court is scheduled to hear the case on its merits next March, although Roberts said the hearing could be pushed back to a later date.

In light of the unfavorable court rulings, Los Angeles is devoting more effort to amend federal preemption so it will be free to implement the employee-driver mandate. Los Angeles city officials and backers of the effort at other cities would like to attach the change to a new surface transportation spending plan, but a full highway bill is tied up in Congress and likely won’t be considered until late next year at the earliest.

Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bmongelluzzo@joc.com.