A former governor of California,
the owner of a major department store, a prominent attorney,
a well-known pharmacist and the proprietor of a busy downtown
tobacco shop. Their names are woven into the fabric of Oakland
history: Dr. George Pardee, H.C. Capwell, Roscoe Jones, Robert
Leet, Ben Pendleton.
In 1927 they were celebrated
on the front page of the Oakland Tribune as "The Men for
the Big Job." To them had been entrusted the unpaid duty of stewarding
the city's waterfront as the first members of the new Oakland
Board of Port Commissioners.
Two years earlier, under
the jurisdiction of a politically divided city council,
the municipal harbor had cost Oakland taxpayers another $400,000
in a string of annual losses. One year after the appointment of
the new independent Board of Port Commissioners, the Port of Oakland
could pay its bills from its own earnings--and would remain self-sustaining
from then on.
The seven Oakland Port
Commissioners, who must be residents of the city, serve
four-year staggered terms without compensation. The Mayor nominates
members and the City Council confirms their appointments.
Port Commissioners exercise
exclusive control over the use of--and income from--properties
within a 16,645-acre swatch of San Francisco Bay and Oakland Estuary
shoreline that stretches from the borders of Emeryville in the
north to San Leandro in the south.
The Port of Oakland area
includes 665 acres of marine terminals, the 2,500-acre
Oakland International Airport, 569 acres of commercial, industrial
and recreational land under lease or available for lease or sale
and 9,700 acres that are presently under water.
As in 1927, members of the Oakland Board of
Port Commissioners are achievers, opinion-shapers, decision-makers.
Successful in their professions and actively involved in the betterment
of their community, they represent its diverse spectrum.
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