On an 8-0 vote, the Long Beach, California City Council on
Dec. 3 confirmed Lori Ann Farrell as the newest member of the Long Beach Board
of Harbor Commissioners. She takes the place of recently resigned commissioner
Nick Sramek.
“I’m truly humbled by the opportunity,” Farrell said upon voted
to the board.
Her confirmation now means there’s one open seat on the
five-member panel, which oversees the Port of Long Beach. The lone vacancy is
that of the seat formerly held by Thomas Fields, who was removed by the Council
by a 6-3 vote on Nov. 19.
Fields, a Long Beach advertising executive and former city
planning commissioner, was appointed to a six-year term on the Board by Mayor
Bob Foster in December 2009, but it was Foster who, after a series of
disagreements, recommended his removal last month.
Farrell has been the director of finance for the City of
Huntington Beach since December 2010. Before that, she spent three years as
Long Beach’s Chief Financial Officer, and was the city’s Controller from
2006-2008.
She previously worked for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney as a
financial advisor, and also in financial roles for the city and state of New
York.
Sramek, the man she replaces on the Harbor Board, spent
nearly six-and-a-half years on the panel before resigning Nov. 21, citing
fatigue.
The search is still on for someone to fill the remaining 18
months of Fields’ term; the mayor has said he hopes to nominate a candidate by
the end of the year.
