An interview with...

Richard Aschieris
Director, Port of Stockton

 

Can you give us a quick historic profile of the port?

Yeah, the port actually got developed in late 1920 when the federal government created the Stockton ship channel out of the San Joaquin River. The port actually opened up nearly 70 years ago today. On February 2nd 1933 the first ship came in -- the "SS Daisy Gray" -- and it was carrying 750,000 board feet of lumber from the Pacific Northwest. That was the first cargo and it was a major event for the city of Stockton and they had church bells ring and factory whistles when this came in, and a giant crowd of people came in to watch the off-loading of the ship. And it was the culmination of what the city of Stockton and the county of San Joaquin and the Stockton Chamber of Commerce all had gotten together and worked diligently to create -- the port of Stockton -- because they knew that with it, it would bring, over time, thousands and thousands of family-wage jobs to this area.

Do you know why they chose this site?

Well, certainly geography has a lot to do with it. The San Joaquin River pretty much originated from the San Francisco Bay, and it ended up in Stockton. It was originally 152-153 years ago when the 49ers all came by boat, would come out to Stockton and leave from there and go up into the foothills and look for gold. So even though the port has been organized for 70 years we actually have a maritime history in this area that goes back 150 years. What happened was that in the 1920s the dredging project dredged the depth out a little bit more than what was there, but it also straightened out the meanderings of the San Joaquin River a little bit, not entirely, to create more efficient movement for ships.

What kind of goods come in and out of the port today and how has that changed over the years?

Right, primarily ag and we remain that today. One of our main imports that we bring in are various forms of fertilizer, and the Port of Stockton today provides fertilizer to more than 85% of the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley which is one of the breadbaskets of the world. So we have that. On the export side we have -- like what you see behind me: we are exporting California rice. In this case it's going to Japan. And just this past year, California bagged rice became our number one export. And we're very proud of that.

Tell us a little bit about the complex we're in now: Rough and Ready Island…

We've been calling it our West complex to differentiate from the original part of the port, which is now the East Complex. Two and half years ago we received 1,400 acres of property from the U.S. Navy. That has propelled this port to be one of the largest inland ports on the West Coast of the United States. The only port that handles more volume and more tonnage than what we do is the Port of Portland on the Columbia River. So this facility has allowed us to become a major, major port on the West Coast. And what we've inherited…what you see behind me is part of a mile long dock. We've got 42 miles of railroad track, 5 million square feet of warehouse space, and more than 500 acres of open land for us to develop in the future. And it has allowed us to create at this point more than 500 family-wage jobs, with more to come.

Can you give me some figure on the amount of tonnage that comes through here?

Our total overall tonnage certainly fluctuates with business conditions but we're now well over seven million and it could actually be a little higher this year. We're still collecting data for calendar year 2002, but like I mentioned Portland before -- they're about 11-million tons so that gives you an idea of where we are. But we're a pretty busy place. There are actually 2,000 people that work in and around the Port of Stockton, directly and then there's another 2,000 jobs for people who work because the port itself exists and our tenants are busy. So that's actually a total of 4,000 jobs -- what I like to call "family wage" jobs, because these are pretty good jobs that ports generate. And the important point is that we are working to create as many family-wage jobs as possible because generally in this greater area, the unemployment rate is a little bit higher than the state or national averages. In fact, the last I heard it was close to 11%. So our mission is to create as many jobs as we can to help in this area.

How has shipping technology affected your development?

Oh, quite a bit. That's a very good question. You know, in the 1950s most cargo was handled like the cargo you see moving behind me. But what happened was that in the 1960's came along containerization, and that changed the entire system of how most freight is handled. And a lot of ports ceased to exist when that happened because there were fewer container ports, so more containers went to fewer ports. There was a business decision that the port made here in the 1960s that, rather than try to create a container port here, the emphasis was made on bulk. In other words, anything that didn't fit in containers were the kind of cargoes that this port made the decision they were going to try to target and attract to this area.

Has it worked out?

I think it has. As I mentioned before, we now find ourselves one of the major inland ports on the West Coast.

How has technological development affected the workforce at the port? Has it made a difference in the amount of workforce you have?

Yeah, it has and we've had, through the years, fluctuations. But now, with the acquisition of Rough and Ready Island, and putting it to commercial use, it has allowed us to provide more jobs and more stable jobs. So we're pretty thrilled with this acquisition.

Being an inland port, what challenges does that present for you in terms of commerce.

Certainly inland ports, generally speaking…you're not a coastal port so you have to work a little harder to attract the business here. I've worked at coastal ports and the marketing effort is a little different at a large coastal port than it would be at a small port. You have to hustle. It's very competitive. And we just try to compete. Like the rice you see behind us. That is always subject to competition. That, season in and season out, could end up going to a different place, so it's competitive. There are other ports that would love to handle the same thing, so we try to stress, certainly our facilities, our location -- not only related to the ship channel, but I-5 and all of the freeway systems that we have: 99, 580 going into the Bay. We have both railroads that come here. And with the acquisition of Rough and Ready, that's allowed us to offer even more facilities to customers. And what you find generally is that the coastal ports are emphasizing containers more and more. And what happens to the companies if their cargo doesn't fit into a container? They're getting pushed out by these coastal ports, so we're reaching out to all those companies who are losing their position at a coastal port and saying, "Come out and take a look at the Port of Stockton." Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, depending on what their needs are. But we're very eager to show them our facilities.

How have things changed in terms of security since 9/11?

Actually, that's a real good question and fortunately for the Port of Stockton, we sit in pretty good comparison. And because of the kind of cargoes that we handle, our security before 9/11 had to be at a pretty high state. We actually have a sworn police force with K-9 units that are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have a system of security cameras that keep an eye on our more sensitive areas. We have sponsored security seminars with our tenants to keep everybody's security in mind. We've worked closely with the Coast Guard certainly since 9/11, and they've made some suggestions about our changes and we've certainly complied and we continue to work, I think, very well with the Coast Guard. We enjoy our relationship with them; they're a great professional group that has an incredible responsibility now after 9/11.

How do you see the ports' role in the growth of the Central Valley?

The role of the port in the Central Valley is really to create the jobs. The port is a wonderful example of a public entity because we're a government agency working with the private sector to create jobs. Really, I can't think of an example that might be better than that public private partnership that results in the family wage jobs than a port. And at the Port of Stockton, because of the unemployment challenges that the region has, we see that as our role -- to create as many family wage jobs as we can out here.

How has the economic slump affected the port?

Well, there has been an effect overall for the port. You know, ships of course can be more immediately sensitive to the economy. I mean, ships can be cancelled or diverted at a moment's notice. So we are sensitive to that. We do have a rather significant real estate operation and we have leases that last a long time, so that does allow us to weather the storm somewhat. We used to be, once upon a time, a lot more vulnerable and our budget would literally go from ship to ship. That was a few years ago. But now, the advent and acquisition of Rough and Ready Island gives us the ability to plan and gives us a more steady stream of income than what we've had in the past.

Looking 20 years down the road, how do you think the port will change? What do you think it will look like?

Well, that's why I'm personally excited to be here, because I see great change. I think that you'll see, as time goes by, we'll be using our property that we have here more efficiently. You'll see continuing conversion from military applications of Rough and Ready Island to commercial applications. So I see that going on. You'll see more pressure put on companies that handle bulk and break bulk commodities in the coastal ports looking for new homes -- because quite frankly those coastal ports can earn more money off the container trade than what they would off the others. We welcome those companies that are engaged in non-container business. I see more of that happening.

We have more than 500 acres of undeveloped property right here on Rough and Ready and that will be an exciting development, further expanding a lot of our commercial/industrial activities. Actually, right next door to Rough and Ready Island is an island called Roberts Island of which the port owns nearly 1,000 acres. So what I'm anticipating is that at some point when Rough and Ready gets more developed, we might look on to Roberts Island and some of port-owned property that is immediately adjacent to the Port of Stockton now, as opportunities to create more jobs.

Do you see any time in the future when you might consider handling containerization?

Well, I think that bulk and break bulk cargoes will always be king here. However, you could see some of the individual companies that we do business with handle containers. So you could see some container traffic but it would be small, particularly compared to the great ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and Oakland and Seattle/Tacoma. We'll never be one of those ports; that's not our role. But right now some of our tenants currently work in containers and shipping them, and you could see some in the future -- but our emphasis is those bulk and break bulk cargoes. And we see ourselves as having a significant role to play in that in the movement of goods. Because if those goods aren't going through the big coastal container ports, where are they going to go? How are they going to get there? They're going to get there, we believe to great extent, particularly in this part of the West Coast, through the Port of Stockton.