Sharon Weissman, Vice President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners. Photos courtesy of the Port of Long Beach
Harbor Commissioner Steven Neal has been elected president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, the five-member panel that oversees the Port of Long Beach.
During the same meeting, the board also elected Sharon L. Weissman to serve as Vice President and Bobby Olvera Jr. as Secretary. Each July, commissioners select a president and two board officers to serve one-year terms.
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners sets policy for the port and directs the port’s executive director, who leads about 550 employees in developing and promoting the Port of Long Beach.
Neal, a longtime community leader, was appointed to a six-year term on the Harbor Commission by Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia in 2019. He previously served as a member of the Long Beach City Council from 2010 to 2014. He is the senior pastor for LIFE Gospel Ministries and is a co-founder of the Economic Policy Impact Center, a nonprofit that works to advance economic opportunity for working families.
Additionally, he is also the executive director of the Long Beach Collective Association, an organization committed to safe and legal cannabis access; and has served on the boards of Long Beach Transit and the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, an employment agency.
“I’d like to thank my fellow commissioners for the faith they have placed in me,” Neal said in a statement regarding his election as harbor board president. “Over the last year, the Port of Long Beach has surmounted an unprecedented pandemic to keep moving the products desperately needed by homebound Americans. I look forward to working with my colleagues, staff, and Executive Director Mario Cordero to ensure this port remains a top commercial gateway for decades to come.”
Weissman, whose six-year term on the board began in July 2020, was a senior advisor to Garcia from July 2014 until her retirement in June 2020.
She also was the mayor’s Transportation Deputy from 2017 until her retirement; and advised the mayor on transportation issues, including state and federal transportation policy, regional transportation planning, goods movement, rail lines, freeway improvements and sustainability. Her duties also included assisting constituents with transportation-related issues.