San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
HARBOR USERS UNHAPPY WITH POLICE OVERSIGHT
Six options proposed in Oceanside to increase lifeguard, patrol and rescue services
Oceanside Harbor users are asking the city to reorganize its marine public safety program to improve the harbor’s lifeguarding, patrol and rescue services.
Police Department officers have shouldered public safety at the harbor for years, but some boaters say the police spend increasing amounts of their time patrolling in town instead of on the waterfront.
Also, sometimes new police officers assigned to the harbor have little ocean experience and are not trained or ready for the rapid response needed to save a vessel on fire in the harbor or in danger of sinking on the open sea.
“Some change is going to have to come,” said Les George, a retired Vista firefighter who’s rented a slip at the Oceanside Harbor for 40 years and had a charter business there for 26 years.
“The police are giving up,” George said. “They don’t patrol the harbor, the boats are just sitting there ... their budget has increased exponentially, and the service has just gone the other way.”
Oceanside has the only harbor between San Diego and Newport Beach, which leaves Oceanside rescue boats responsible for up to 38 miles of coastline and more than 1,100 square miles of ocean. A majority of boaters in that area are either homeported in Oceanside or launched from the city harbor.
Police Chief Fred Armijo said Wednesday that while there has been some attrition among harbor police in recent years, the harbor is well protected. Most of the harbor officers have been assigned there for years because they enjoy the unique nature of the maritime work.
“It’s a great job for the staff that we have working there, a one-of-a-kind job,” Armijo said by telephone. “We have some folks that I’m sure joined our department specifically for that opportunity.”
The current Police Department-based model of providing harbor public safety services was established in 2009. Before that, marine public safety services were provided by what was the Harbor Police Department, a separate entity under the then Department of Harbor and Beaches that was dismantled in 2009.
Since then, the Oceanside Police Department has provided public safe-
ty services to what is now the city’s Harbor Division, much like the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department provides law enforcement to cities such as Vista and Encinitas. The current annual cost to the Harbor Division is $2.4 million.
The costs of harbor public safety services are paid with revenue from slip renter fees, property leases and other sources at virtually no cost to Oceanside taxpayers. The city’s Harbor District is an independent agency with the Oceanside City Council acting as its board of directors.
Still, Armijo said he might be open to reorganization, and that it may have been a mistake for the Police Department to take on the some of the additional roles it accepted at the harbor as part of the 2009 changeover.
“We already have in our city professionals that do those jobs as their living,” he said. “I am generally in favor of any plan that would take police officers away from performing the types of duties that we have other professionals doing as part of their daily routine.”
Harbor users say they have been paying more for less ever since the Police Department took over in 2009.
“I have nothing against the Police Department,” said Don Rodgers, a slip renter and former volunteer with the Harbor Police.
“They took people out of the harbor to do other duties,” Rodgers said. “There was a degradation of service. That was sort of a growing issue.”
Geographically, the harbor is just a small part of Oceanside, with relatively little crime. As a result, police officers assigned to the harbor are often called to cover crimes downtown or even the San Luis Rey Valley, which slows their response to incidents at the harbor or the marina.
“That’s a real detriment,” Rodgers said. “On the water, everything is measured in seconds or minutes.”
The police chief said that when officers are sent outside the harbor, it’s usually to someplace nearby downtown or along the beach.
Also, the harbor police have a dive team that could be assigned to an incident such as a car into the lagoon. And the overlap goes both ways.
“Routinely, we have beat officers responding to the harbor, as well,” Armijo said. “There is a balancing act that takes place that I think works out in favor of the harbor.”
Many boaters were unhappy in 2019 when the city brought in a private boat towing service, Towboat U.S., to the harbor to supplement the Police Department’s boat tows. Until then, the city police boats would respond to most emergencies, usually at no charge to the owner, and pull the vessel back into the harbor.
The private tow company helps fill the need left by the departure of the Coast Guard cutter Point Hobart, which was stationed in the Oceanside Harbor from 1970 until the station closed in 1999. Since then, the nearest Coast Guard response comes from San Diego, and the Oceanside harbor police have shouldered a larger share of local rescues.
“We are technically responsible for up to a mile offshore,” Armijo said. “But that’s a gray area and a source of frustration. Many times I believe the Coast Guard would be more appropriate, but we have the ability to get their more quickly.”
Under the current plan, the Police Department’s harbor supervisor changes every few years, which harbor users say is another problem. The incoming supervisor may have no boating background, which can be a handicap in an area where seafaring skills are essential.
So far, six options have been proposed by a working group of representatives from city departments including police, lifeguards, firefighters and harbor operations.
Harbor Division Manager Ted Schiafone, like Armijo, said he was open to change but that he was not ready to commit to one of the options proposed reorganization plans.
“A few of the proposals only cover a small portion of the necessary services that have been identified,” Schiafone said by email Wednesday.
“Others are complete, but total costs have not yet been finalized,” he said. “I think it’s very important the slip renters, commercial real estate lessees, commercial fishing, sport fishing and other stakeholders ask their questions and provide their input into this process.
“Once that is done, I’m confident we will have a highly qualified and dedicated Public Safety Patrol in place at an acceptable cost to the harbor.”
An evaluation of the city’s current marine public safety services and the proposed options for reorganization will be presented at Monday’s meeting of the Oceanside Harbor and Beaches Advisory Committee. City staffers will use comments and suggestions made at the meeting to further refine the proposals, one of which could be presented to the City Council for approval.
One proposal is to have the Fire Department and lifeguards take over public safety at the harbor, including water rescues, recoveries and emergency services, waterrelated fire response and suppression, emergency tows, harbor boat patrols and patrols of the docks, walkways and public areas. The estimated cost is $2.2 million to $2.3 million.
Other proposals include one from the Police Department to increase dispatching and on-shore patrols to all day, seven days a week, but without water-based responsibilities. A third is to return to the system that existed before 2009, with a separate harbor police department.
A fourth proposal is to partially privatize services, with water-based patrols assigned to Towboat U.S., the company that now offers towing services at the harbor. Towboat U.S. would respond to boating emergencies, work with city lifeguards and patrol docks and public areas.
Another idea is to have the Harbor Division manager and the Police Department negotiate a “rightsized” coverage that could be adjusted as needs fluctuate.
Last on the city staff report is a proposal supported by many harbor users to transfer marine public safety duties to an expanded and reorganized Lifeguard Division. This idea would reportedly save $400,000 annually over current costs, while enhancing public safety and providing new professional opportunities for the lifeguard staff.
Oceanside Harbor has been assigned essentially the same size police staff since the harbor was created more than 50 years ago. In that time, the number of boat slips has tripled to more than 900, a six-lane launch ramp has been added, and the city and its harbor have seen substantial business and tourism growth.
philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com