Civil Grand Jury flags district for concern
MOSS LANDING » The Moss Landing Harbor District is at a crossroads of sink or swim, or at least that's what the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury has found with a report released earlier this month.
Motivated by a series of safety and maintenance complaints, the 12-page review is a follow-up to a Civil Grand Jury investigation into the district conducted in 2002. Two decades later, this year's report argues issues cited years ago — primarily related to financial, safety and transparency concerns — persist today.
“(Monterey County Civil Grand Jury) review in 2002 identified many of the same problems and some of their findings and recommendations from twenty years ago remain unresolved,” the report reads.
The district, however, disagrees. In a written statement to The Herald Thursday, Moss Landing Harbor Master Tommy Razzeca said the district's “initial thought is that there are many inaccuracies and erroneous conclusions in the report and we intend to provide an appropriate response to set the record straight.”
He added that the district is in the process of reviewing the report.
At the helm of the Civil Grand Jury's 2021-22 district review is a question of both capital improvement and maintenance longevity.
These are not new qualms. The Civil Grand Jury notes that in 2002, it recommended that the district “develop and follow a comprehensive financial business plan to serve as an overall plan for running the district.” At the time, the Moss Landing Harbor District responded with an assurance that “efforts would be made to better memorialize the unwritten plan” and that it knew “why it is experiencing a thin financial condition and is moving in a direction they hope will improve that condition,'” this year's re
port summarizes.
Twenty years later, the Civil Grand Jury states the memorialized plan was never documented — a detriment, it finds, to the district's financial stability.
According to the report, two-thirds of the district's more than $3.5 million revenue comes from berth rental, or fees paid to park vessels at Moss Landing Harbor. Over the past two decades, berthing fees have steadily risen from $5.40/ linear foot in 2002 to $8.55/
linear foot in 2021.
As for costs, the district's maintenance budget has fluctuated in recent years from a low of $35,000 in fiscal year 2017 to $90,000 in fiscal year 2020. Last year, it dipped to $75,000. Meanwhile, $2.5 million of district revenue is held in reserve for periodic dredging, where sediment build-up is routinely removed from the harbor to maintain its depth.
The status of district reserves, however, gave the Civil Grand Jury pause. Upon investigation, this year's report says the Civil Grand Jury “was unable to verify (Moss Landing Harbor
District) completed a comprehensive capital asset reserve study to establish capital reserves and replace aging district facilities over time.”
Among Moss Landing equipment flagged for disrepair, the Civil Grand Jury pays particular attention to the harbor pump-out facility, which disposes of vessel sewage. The Civil Grand Jury investigation found the pump-out facility to have failed in years past, causing tenants to locate alternate harbors in which to discharge boat waste. Compounding the issue, the Civil Grand Jury also found that tenants are not notified
when the pump-out facility is out of service or when the service will be restored.
To rectify the problem, the Civil Grand Jury recommends that the district establish a board safety committee. For committee members, it suggests the district include a berth renter, as well as an officer from the nearby Elkhorn Yacht Club. Based in North Harbor, the social club, the Civil Grand Jury argues, is already equipped with staff readily available to observe and identify harbor safety conditions.
Beyond establishing a safety committee, the Grand Civil Jury implores
the district to implement higher level administrative improvements.
Taking a deeper look at the district's Board of Commissioners, the report asserts board meetings are typically informal and poorly communicated to the public. The lack of clarity, it continues, creates possibilities for violations of the Brown Act — and calls board intentions into question.
“Given the large geographic size of the (Moss Landing Harbor District) it is unclear if the Board of Commissioners is focused enough on the best interest of the harbor,” the report
reads. “Currently only one Commissioner has a boat in the Harbor.”
In the end, the jury listed 19 separate findings and more than a dozen “longoverdue changes” to correct the problems outlined in the report. Recommendations include governance training for board members, creation of a formal process for tenants to report complaints, and completion of a comprehensive maintenance and replacement plan for harbor facilities, to name a few.
The Civil Grand Jury asked that the district start implementing recommendations by this fall.