James C. Hankla '60
James C. Hankla, concluding 52 years of public service retired from the Board of Harbor Commissioners June 30, 2009 serving two terms as president. 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. During his term of office he was also the Harbor Commission’s representative to the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) Governing Board.
As President, he presided over the Commission’s weekly Board meetings, made committee appointments and acted as chief spokesperson for the Port of Long Beach, delivering the Port’s Green Port Policy message worldwide.
Mr. Hankla has long 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 thereby setting new standards for environmental stewardship by the world’s ports.
Mr. Hankla now serves as a Sr. Vice President, Governmental Relations with PsomasFMG LLC, developing turnkey solar solutions for public agencies and commercial enterprises and consults on public/private partnership projects as Principal of JCH/Fulcrum LLC.
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, ready for revenue service in April of 2002. 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. Prior to joining ACTA, Mr. Hankla served 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 in 1960, he began working with the City of Long Beach 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 in 1980 as the Executive Vice-President of the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Corporation, directing industrial and commercial real estate marketing and project financing for seven public agencies in southeastern Tidewater Va. 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 once again responded to the call to public service from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 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 urban 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.
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Mr. Hankla has a Master of Science degree in Government from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts 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 named a distinguished alumnus by California State University, Long Beach, California State University Los Angeles and Long Beach City College.
Mr. Hankla has served his community on numerous governing boards, advisory boards and civic organizations, including, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, The Rancho Los Alamitos National Historic Site Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Los Angeles/Long Beach World Trade Center Association, the Memorial Health Services Corporate Board, and the Olson Urban Housing Company. He is past chair and a founder of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. He is also 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 also holds the Silver Beaver and Silver Antelope awards from the BSA and was Area President for Southern California and Arizona.
He has received many professional honors including being named Government Executive of the Year by Executive Magazine in 1987, and the Clarence Dykstra Awardee 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. He has been recognized for excellence in the field of economic development by the National Council for Urban Economic Development (now IEDC) and is a recipient of the Ed DeLuca Memorial Award from that organization which he served as Chairman from 1982 to 1984. In 1998, the American Society for Public Administration honored him with the prestigious Earl Warren Award for his contributions to good government. That same year, he was honored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the Commander’s Medal for Public Service. In 2001 he received the March of Dimes Humanitarian Award 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. Also in 2001, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. In 2002 He was a Governing Magazine selection as Public Official of the Year for his work on the Alameda Corridor. His service as a Harbor Commissioner to improve the environment was recognized in 2007 with the CalStart Charles R. Imbrecht Blue Sky Award and in 2008 by Southern California Gas Company’s Greening Award. In April 2009, he was honored with the California Redevelopment Association's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual’s career achievements in redevelopment in California over the course of a career.
