"I guess I could say I've heard that kind of stuff for 30 years," said Mark Sites, a dredging contractor who worked on the city harbor commission's mooring subcommittee. "There's always somebody wanting to do something about those moorings."
The subcommittee just wrapped up a two-year study of where moorings are today compared with where they were placed in 1941, and it is now looking at administration of moorings — namely how the permits change hands and what they cost.
Newport's coast and harbor are state-owned tidelands that the city manages. Fees are charged for moorings, docks and other uses of submerged lands, and the money goes into a fund to improve tidelands.
Although it's illegal to sell moorings, in Newport, mooring permit holders will commonly sell a boat and transfer the mooring it's on to the buyer. This inflates the price of the boat, and sellers will even advertise the size of the mooring first, listing the boat almost as an afterthought.
As a result, a permit is rarely relinquished to the next person on the waiting list. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol, about 2,000 people are on the waiting list for city moorings in Newport Beach, with some requests dating to 1969.
"It essentially hasn't moved" in years, said Chris Miller, supervisor of the city's harbor resources department.
The Grand Jury report called for better public access to the moorings and tighter regulations to make sure the tidelands get any money they're entitled to. But the report doesn't suggest specific changes, and the city isn't required to follow what the report says.
