Residents asked to email their suggestions to city manager
Following a lengthy discussion about cruise ship visits to the Island the Avalon City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 1, asked the public to email their “solution-based” comments to City Manager Denise Radde.
The specific suggestion came from Council Member Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy.
She asked for the public’s thoughts on the number of days the cruise ships would come in and the number of passengers on the ships.
When Mayor Anni Marshall asked who people would send their comments, Cassidy smiled, pointed and said, “City manager.”
Denise Radde, the city manager, smiled.
About half of the Tuesday’s council meeting was devoted to a discussing how a cruise line’s request to visit Avalon is approved, as well as the impact of cruise ship visits on Avalon’s quality of life and economy.
According to Radde’s staff report to the council, after a cruise line contacts the harbor master. He then determines if the harbor can accommodate a particular request, and may reach out to the city manager or anyone who might provide input. The final decision rests with the harbor master.
Radde told the council that the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau does not make the determination that a ship will pay a call on Avalon.
Current Harbor Master J.J. Poindexter described himself as part of a team as he described the process. Poindexter said that the wharfage fees for cruise ship passengers from January to September brought in $722,590 in revenue.
Poindexter said Avalon shouldn’t be handling two ships at a time. “Our infrastructure can’t handle that,” he said.
According Poindexter, the Harbor Department has information about a cruise ship visit about two or three years in advance.
Mayor Anni Marshall asked if the city had a contract with the cruise lines.
City Manager Radde said no.
She explained that if a new ship comes to Avalon, the city informs the line of the wharfage fee and the ship provides the city with its manifest. Poindexter said the city presents the cruise line with an invoice.
“It’s like any other business,” he said.
Radde said she didn’t think anyone in the community wanted cruise ships to come in seven days a week or even five days a week.
Radde said she remembered when everything in Avalon closed after Labor Day. She pointed out that a lot of people on the Island rely on the cruise ships so they don’t have to leave during the winter months.
Marshall said there needed to be reassurance to the community that it is not the city’s intent to have cruise ships visit seven days a week.
David Creigh, the city’s liaison to the cruise ship industry, said that there has been a general consensus that Avalon can’t handle more than one cruise ship a day and that preferably the ships did not come on weekends except in shoulder months, October to the end of March.
Some residents called for the council or the voters to make the decision. Paula Patterson argued that the city had “given away” money to the cruise ship industry. Patterson argued that overnight visitors spend more money than cruise ship passengers.
“Not having an additional influx of income is not really the solution,” Cassidy said.
According to Patterson, the revenue from cruise ship visits did not compensate Avalon for the visiting passengers’ impact on the city’s infrastructure. Carl Johnson of Catalina Connection said he thought the council should make the decision.
Johnson said the cruise ships should offer more.
Jack Tucey said having more cruise ships was a plus. “We always sweat November, December, January, February,” he said. “Let’s deal with those shoulder months; make them work,” he said.
“Without growth, without people, we’re going to go backwards,” he said.
Marshall said she would like to look at formulating a policy as the city goes forward.
Resident Jani Hall said her “sense of place” is challenged every Monday and Tuesday. Citing a Chamber of Commerce online survey, she said 70% of residents agree with her that cruise ships have a negative impact.
Chamber President and CEO Jim Luttjohann later confirmed the figure, saying that early results showed 70% out of 451 residents had an issue with cruise ships. He said the survey was still ongoing because the Chamber was short of the gaol of 1,000 responses that the Chamber felt would make the results scientifically valid.
Hall asked for a better deal between Avalon and the cruise lines. “Let the voters of Avalon decide the future of our city by changing the city code, which regulates additional cruise ships,” she said.
Resident Leslie Warner said she appreciated that the council was looking toward the future. She asked the council to consider a limit on cruise ships. She also mentioned a “tourist levy” that a mainland hotel charged in addition to the transient occupancy tax.
Marshall said talking to the cruise lines would be a good idea.
Marshall said she didn’t know if the city needed another advisory committee. She chuckled as she spoke.
“No, no,” Cassidy said.
It was then that Cassidy brought up the idea of getting comments from the public.
Cassidy said she didn’t see how it was possible to go to the community every time Avalon gets a call from a cruise line.
“Send your ideas in,” she said.
Cassidy said she didn’t know why a ballot measure would be needed. She pointed out that a council resolution would give direction to city staff.
City Attorney Campbell read from the Municipal Code, which says the duty of the harbor master is to carry out the orders of the council.
On Wednesday, Oct. 2, the Catalina Island Chamber issued an email requesting financial support for the Chamber’s Cruise Committee.
City Manager Radde’s email, posted on the city website, is dradde@cityofavalon.com.
