CBJ DOCKS & HARBORS BOARD FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES For Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Transcription

1 CBJ DOCKS & HARBORS BOARD FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES For Tuesday, January 18, 2005 I. Call to Order. Mr. Preston called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. II. Roll. The following members were present: Mr. Fisk, Mr. Kueffner, Mr. White, and Mr. Preston. The following member was absent: Mr. Clough. Also in attendance was: Mr. Stone - Port Director. III. Approval of Agenda. MOTION by Mr. Fisk: ASK UNANIMOUS CONSENT TO APPROVE THE AGENDA. The motion passed without objection. IV. Public Participation on Non-Agenda Items. There was none. V. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes. Motion by Mr. Kueffner: ASK UNANIMOUS CONSENT TO APPROVE THE DECEMBER 16, 2004 MEETING MINUTES. The motion passed without objection. Public Hearing. 1. Public Hearing on Proposed Regulations for Small Boat Harbors Fees & Charges. Mr. Stone gave a power point presentation on CBJ Harbors Long Term Financial Plan. The purpose and goal is: 1) To shed light on the operating, maintenance, and replacement costs of the small boat harbors, 2) To set facility replacement goals for the next 20 years, and 3) To develop a plan for adequately financing operations, maintenance and facility replacement. The current budget is adequate to provide services and minimal maintenance, but does not include adequate funding to obtain service life of facilities or to make major repairs and replacement of facilities or include a CIP component. He went through a list of proposed fee changes. Ms. Nonna Shtipelman said she lives in Harris on a 28 foot Tollycraft. She had questions on the liveaboard fee going up from $39 to $94. She questioned what the fees covers now. She generates one small bag of trash every 10 days. They are being asked to subsidize other people using the dumpster. Liveaboards are an asset as they take care of each other s boats. She was curious about what services she could expect to get for the increase. She also questioned the definition of a liveaboard.

2 January 18, 2005 Page 2 Mr. Myron Denson said he lives at Auke Bay in the Bayview Apartments. He does not mind the increases. He just wants a safe place to put his boat. He questioned if you are considered a liveaboard when the vessel is out of the harbor. Mr. Scott Miller said he has written comments already in the packet (see attached). He was speaking on the daily and monthly fees at Statter. He has a 56-foot mast with a tall antenna. He went over the different comparison charts with current versus proposed fees that are in his letter to the Committee. These are huge increases for Statter. Boats in Statter are paying above market rate. It is a fact that boats are planning to leave Statter and come down town. This will create a gridlock downtown and anchoring in coves. It may reduce revenue. The marine economy will suffer such as fuel docks, Western Auto, etc. There is no equity or equality in the Statter proposed rates. The Committee needs to relook at the rates. Mr. Kurt Gucker said he has the vessel Freedom in Aurora Harbor. He moved here in spring 2001 from Ketchikan. He is a liveaboard. He questioned why the Board settled for $7 million from the State if they need $25 million. Mr. Stone said the State used a formula that did not count for replacement cost only depreciation. We did a study when we got the harbors. Mr. Fisk said there was no negotiation. It was take it or not, so we took what cash we could get. The State Harbormasters Association is sending a message to the Legislature regarding the discrepancy. Mr. Gucker said he would like to see a break down of the residence surcharge. You need to lock up the garbage bins. The metal bin is a waste of harbor s time and money since many of the big items comes from homes. You need a shed or fenced off area. There should be a covered shed for the waste oil. Everyone with a stall has garbage and water so you are singling out a group of people to generate fees. What wear and tear is he doing different from the other boaters? You need to put in more 30-amp services, not 20-amp since you are loosing money on 20 amps. Take care of the locals. If you come from outside of the State, charge more for daily moorage. It is tough for an individual to adjust his budget for large rate increases. Have one deluxe harbor and let some of us stay in the other harbor for half rate. Mr. Jim Green said he is a liveaboard at Harris 6-6. He gave kudos to the harbor people for blowing snow yesterday. He recognizes the increases are cost driven, but it is a lot over five years. It will triple his costs. Why jump up to $90 for liveaboards? The services are not being increased a whole lot. He is a light user on utilities. He would like to hear a little more justification. He has not heard much from the commercial fishermen. It is good to fund CIPs out of harbors, but try to use sales tax or property tax. Half of the rate increase is driven by capital costs. He would like to see more facilities on shore. Find a way to lower the cost some.

3 January 18, 2005 Page 3 Mr. Fisk said the rates are orientated towards the basics. Mr. Bob Tkacz lives at Aurora K-34. You should establish commercial boat fees and private boat fees as the commercial boats go in and out every day and put more wear and tear on the facility. Port fees should not be segregated from the Harbor fees. It should be managed as a unit. The raw fish tax was pulled out. It should not be used for an endowment. The liveaboard fee is unfair and unjustified. It should not be raised. We should wait and see if we can get any money from the Legislature. Pass a 50% increase and see what you can get from the State. He would like to see the yearly fee paid on a quarterly basis instead of annually. You should change the hotberth policy if you are changing the fees since you are double dipping now. You should get credit for hotberthing. Mr. Fisk said the harbors were built with Corps money and they have a preferential use policy for commercial vessels, but we have never done that. The proposal for the fish tax money was for it to be used for CIP projects. The same for the tideland lease revenues. Mr. Preston said we have two separate enterprise entities the Docks and Harbors. Mr. Mike Dobson said he has had a boat on C float in Aurora for 18 years. There has been virtually no maintenance done on his float during that time. He would like to see a pay-as-you-go budget on improvements. There were things done on the electrical in Aurora that drove the price up. An example is the fans in the transformers. People on the north end of the harbor were treated as tramps for four months while the power was off. Where did the $5.5 million go for the loading ramp? Mr. Fisk said it was $3.4 million and it is in the works. We are trying to get property. The project is ongoing. Mr. Dobson said buying DeHart s wouldn t ease the pressure on Statter. He questioned the fee for the charter permits. Mr. Stone said we are trying to recover costs at Statter from passengers using the facilities such as solid waste, etc. Mr. Dobson said commercial fishing boats blocks the floats and they generate profit for themselves so they should pay also. Some sport boats are acting as charter boats -- they take someone out fishing and are paid for fuel. At a residence the first 4,000 gallons of water is $ Mr. Stone said the liveaboard fee is based on a single can of solid waste, a flat residential water fee, and a flat sewer fee. Mr. Fisk said there is no direct across the board comparison. There is no property tax on boats. The Board is in favor of liveaboards.

4 January 18, 2005 Page 4 Mr. Dobson asked how the trash containers were charged. Mr. Stone said there is a fee for the rental of the unit and a pickup fee. We are looking at better ways to manage trash. Mr. Dobson said he sees a lot of dumping by non-harbor users. You need to lock them up. He questioned how many vessels are charged liveaboard fees in the summer at Statter Harbor. Mr. Stone said if they are paying a daily moorage rate, they are not charged liveaboard fees. Mr. Dobson said a common sense factor needs to be involved in projects. Mr. Russ Peterson said the problem is that we need money. A solution is to get State intervention by explaining what you will get for the money. Look more along the line of the public trust document. We should all work together to find funding. Go to the State with a plan. The solution to the garbage problem is key cards and a gate. Mr. Fisk said we are actively trying to get money from the State. Mr. Peterson said you need private investments for bonds. He pays $25.00 a month for power from AEL&P for his 62-foot boat. Mr. Jim Bentley said he has been in the boat business in Juneau since He has had five different boats in the last 35 years. The Harbors had a $50.00 a year increase for a few years. This was a ludicrous amount for the goals. He has always supported a rate increase of some magnitude, but this one will hurt. We will be paying extensive rate increases before we see any improvements. It will be a real burden for him to stay in recreational boating. If you had kept the $50.00 per year, you would have been there now. This takes the fun out of boating. Mr. Rick Turner lives in Aurora Harbor. His concern is with the liveaboard fee being based on a single family home. There is no comparison. You need to look at who is living on the boat and how big the boat is. You need to develop a more fair structure. How many actually are living aboard? He uses 20 gallons of water a week and uses a waste paper basket of garbage a week. You need to scrape the single-family deal. The partial funding concept gives no extra amenities for liveaboards. The sudden onset of fees is premature. You have not done an adequate economic analysis of the fee increases. If small boats leave, you will have to charge the other boats more. Mr. Philip Gray requested an exemption of the launch ramp fees for senior citizens. It would not be much of a loss of income and would be good public relations. Mr. Chris McDowell said it is a major mistake to not consider price tolerance. Anyone that can leave will. He can maintain a vessel at Hoonah for a few weeks for what it costs in Statter. There will be a cascade effect. You will need an increase in fees to cover the cost of the people who leave. A liveaboard uses a fraction of the services that a house uses. Adjust how many CIPs you can afford if you lose patrons. January 18, 2005

5 Page 5 Mr. Alex Andrews said his vessel is at Auke Bay. $94.00 for liveaboard is a large increase. Liveaboard are good for harbors and add to the community spirit. You need to enforce the current charges as only a fraction of people who are liveaboards are paying. At the Operations meeting last week they talked about daily moorage only in summer and monthly in winter. They also talked about 10 days moorage and leaving for 24 hours. The daily moorage rate will force people out of Statter. You should not limit the options to the three downtown harbors. Commercial users impact the harbors heavily. There is room to raise the charges there. They are getting away cheap. Mr. Wayne Painter said he is a recreational boater. Juneau is the capital city, yet other harbors have better facilities than we do. You should have compared Juneau with Sitka, Petersburg, and Ketchikan. They all have lower rates. There is a discrepancy with fees at Statter when compared with Aurora, Douglas, and Harris. The local Alaska resident is being pushed out of the area for ones coming from outside that will pay the higher fees. The change of rules at Statter scares him. The old rules were more workable. Mr. Preston said Petersburg and Sitka were funded with federal funds. Mr. Painter said the State, through neglect, let the assets deteriorate. You need to go back to the Legislature. A dollar invested in recreational boating is multiplied seven times. Mr. Cal Giordono said you should have float houses instead of mega yachts. Mr. Alex Mohrmann said he is against the immediate shift to $94 a month for liveaboards. Some people cannot afford housing in this high cost area. The fee should be more graduated. If basic maintenance is an issue that get rid of the trash bins and have people do dump runs. You need better maintenance. Some kind of benefits should come along with the liveaboard fee. Mr. Logan Harvey asked why the problem was not addressed ten years ago if we have reached the shelf life now. You need to show how you will spend the money appropriately. Mr. Jim Betts has a boat repair operating facility. Harbors have a difficult time with parking. There is an inequity with charging for it at Statter, but not downtown. Harbors have made a lot of progress in the last five years. Our boating needs have been biased to the preference of the Cruiseship industry. The enterprise policy should be reviewed by CBJ since the harbors are no longer owned by the State. The City should subsidize the harbors. It is the responsibility of the City and State to look at its charge to maintain small boat harbors. Mr. Fisk said the Assembly reviewed Title 85 last year and did not alter our charter of being selfsupporting. Mr. Preston said we went before the Assembly regarding our Port fees. They are aware of what is going on. January 18, 2005

6 Page 6 Mr. Bruck Bruckman said he lives in Harris. He agreed that cruiseships are getting preferential fees. If the liveaboard fees go up to $94.00, will you pick up the garbage at the boats? Liveaboards use less water. They go to the pool or health club and laundromat. He would like wireless internet. He asked why the electrical fees went up for liveaboards. Mr. Stone explained the electrical fees. He agreed that they are not getting the same service that people on land get. VII. Items for Action. There were none. VIII. Items for Information/Discussion. There were none. IX. Staff & Member Reports. Mr. Kueffner asked Mr. Stone to summarize the Millers memo. X. Committee Administrative Matters. Mr. Preston said the next meeting would be Thursday, February 17th at 5:00 p.m. At that meeting, they will make recommendations to the Board. Mr. Fisk asked that the members give Mr. Stone any suggestions for changes to the rates. Mr. Stone said he would bring information on the costs for liveaboards to the next meeting. XI. Adjournment. MOTION by Mr. Fisk: ASK UNANIMOUS CONSENT TO ADJOURN THE MEETING. The motion passed without objection. The meeting was adjourned at 8:11 p.m.