Recent changes to wharfage fees have hit local boaters hard and the City Council will be looking to revise them.
Council Member/Mayor Pro Tem Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy recently proposed changing wharfage fees to rescind a portion of the winter wharfage back to pay for two nights and get five nights free.
“Back to where we were,” Cassidy said.
She made it clear that the a 3 percent fee increase for all harbor related services would not be changed.
Cassidy proposed the changes due to her concerns that the recent changes to the winter rate had negatively impacted the local boating community.
On July 1, 2018, the council changed the winter rate to have boaters pay for four nights and get three nights free.
In December, members of the public told the council of their displeasure during a discussion about wharfage fees for cross channel carriers.
The council on Feb. 19 voted 4-0 to rescind the change to the winter wharfage rate from Oct. 15 to Palm Sunday.
City Manager/City Clerk Denise Radde said the city would have to advertise the proposed change two times before the matter was brought back to council.
Last week, Cassidy said the burden of the increase in fees had been born primarily by local boaters “and that does not feel good to me.”
She said she had heard from probably 75 members of the boating community: some boaters who visit Avalon in the winter; some who don’t come back any more because of the fees; and some who are barely able to make ends meet.
“To me, I feel that the right decision is to go back to the way it was and we need to put our thinking caps back on and we need to find a way to raise additional funds,” Cassidy said.
She also said the city needed to look at the decline in boater visitors to Avalon.
Councilman Oly Olsen proposed an alternative plan to charge an annual wharfage fee, but council took no action on the proposal.
Cassidy and Capt. John King of Afishinados both saw merit in Olsen’s proposal.
Harbor Master J. J. Poindexter pointed out that there might be issues with the state government because the rates have to be the same for everyone.
Olsen agreed that local boaters had been affected, but he also didn’t want boaters from the mainland abandoning their boats in Avalon because they didn’t want to pay the mainland rates.
Mayor Anni Marshall asked if that would be feasible.
According to Harbor Master Poindexter what you do for one boater, you have to do for everyone. However, he did not dismiss the proposal outright. “It’s something to look into,” he said.
Poindexter said he understood the issues with boating fees, but he argued that the state government wouldn’t allow Avalon to charge boaters different rates.
“Whatever we do, we have to do it across the board,” he said.
Cassidy said the majority of comments council members had received from the public were that they didn’t know about the fee increases.
Cassidy recalled the council directing the Harbor Department to notify boaters about the increases. Poindexter did not recall being directed to send letters. Poindexter said it was advertised in the newspaper.
Capt. King said he supported both Cassidy’s proposal and Olsen’s proposal.
King said he didn’t think the intent was to target local boaters, but the “de facto effect” was that local boaters had been targeted.
According to King, there tended be confusion between the shoulder rate and the seasonal rate.
Another man said the way it is now was putting an unfair burden on small boat owners. However, he said the distinction between summer and winter rates needed to be maintained. Later, he said that he chose to anchor his boat outside the harbor because he couldn’t afford the fees.
A local boater named Allison said Avalon boaters were charged more than anyone in California and getting little for the cost.
“We need to get some services and benefits,” she said.
Allison said the city should either provide services or reduce fees.
Addressing the year-round fee proposal, Allison suggested paying for a year and getting the 13th month free.
King said the annual rate was worth considering. He said one problem is that not everyone can come up with the money to pay 12 months up front.
Cassidy returned to Olsen’s year-round fee proposal.
Poindexter said in the summer time you might not be able to get a mooring and speculated that the council might be opening a can of worms with the year-round fee proposal.
Olsen pointed out that he pays a parking fee in Long Beach but his car isn’t parked there every day.
However, Olsen withdrew his year-round fee proposal.
