Residents, Officials React To Marina District Proposal

With the marina in a crisis that everyone agrees must be dealt with immediately, an idea has emerged to take the facility away from City Hall and into the hands of a special district that would operate independently. That district could then seek a bond measure to fund marina improvements and development.

The proposal won favor from at least one Patch user this week, but met with some skepticism from Mayor Rob Schroder and councilman Mark Ross, who form the council’s Marina Subcommittee.

John Fuller, the Park, Recreation, Marina and Cultural commissioner who floated the idea earlier this month, declined to speak with Patch about it.

But marina user Patrick McNamara said he thought the idea of a separate marina district was excellent.

“It affords the marina, and its adjoining assets in the waterfront area as a whole, fiscal and managerial independence from city hall,” McNamara said. “Funds raised by bonds--and revenue raised by operations and events--would be sacrosanct, for the exclusive use by and for the district. That's important in this era of governments large and small robbing Peter to pay Paul. It will also afford the elected district board members to focus on the waterfront only, with little if any political distractions, social issues and all the baggage that seems to hang over the city & county.”

When asked if he felt a marina bond not tied to City Hall would receive the necessary two-thirds voter approval, McNamara said he felt it would “if the measure was written well, unambiguous as to its goals, use of the funds, and the disciplined approach to meeting those goals were clearly defined. I believe the district would be given a chance. People are not stupid. They will support good government. I believe they hunger for it. A new, independent district has an opportunity to demonstrate that. It will also give those harsh critics of the city's past management of the marina to step up to the plate and get involved; to put up or shut up.”

Ross said that he didn’t believe that a special district bond measure aimed solely at the marina would do well.

“We looked at a special district for the marina several years ago,” he said. “Where do the funds for special districts come from? Either taxes or user fees. Taxing the entire city just for the marina is a possibility,” he said, “but it may not be popular. Based on just user fees, there are not enough generated to a create a district that would be bondable.”

Ross noted that all marina revenues now go into a marina enterprise fund, so “it already is a kind of special district.”

“Has the city mismanaged the marina?” asked Mayor Rob Schroder. “Absolutely, starting 50 years ago. Since I’ve been on the council, we’ve tried real hard to pull this thing out of the muck. The debt we have today became a liability to the city 40 years ago. Where did the money go? Who knows? That’s why we went to the state Department of Boating and Waterways with hat in hand. They said ‘these are the terms of any new loan: get a private company to run the day to day operations, put all the revenues into a dedicated enterprise fund, improve marina and pay off debt. We’ve been doing that since 1996.”

Schroder said a special district would face the same difficulty winning voter approval for a bond measure than the city. He noted that Measure O, a bond measure from 2004, failed in part because it included support for the marina.

“We talked about including marina in Measure O,” he said. “One reason it failed is because not everybody wanted their money to go to the marina. Not everybody has a boat.”

The City Council Marina Subcommittee will meet on Thursday with staff member Mitch Austin to discuss short-term alternatives to keep the marina from going under.

One idea, he said, is to use $2 million in park funds and a donation from the Shell Refinery to dredge the entrance of the marina and as many berths in A Dock as possible, to increase the number of users. Siltation has made much of the marina unusable at low tide. 

"Right now, we're open to just about any ideas," Schroder said. "The marina is a major asset." 

The Marina Subcommittee will meet Thursday, Jan. 26, at 3 p.m. in the City Manager's Office, 525 Henrietta St.