Council votes on mooring response

Newport Beach is poised to respond to a grand jury report critical of how the city manages its moorings, and the response to most of the issues is, essentially, they're already working on it — and don't expect substantive changes until November.

The Orange County Grand Jury in May issued a report questioning the fact that moorings may be illegally bought and sold by boat owners, that a waiting list for moorings has hardly moved in 30 years, and that the city's charges for a mooring permit are below fair market rates. The city has about 1,200 moorings that are leased largely to private boat owners and yacht clubs.

The Newport Beach City Council will vote tonight on whether to send the suggested response, which partially disagreed with most of the report's findings and said any updates to policies and mooring permit fees will be part of a plan up for council approval by November.

One of the grand jury's complaints was that the city's off-shore moorings have drifted from alignments that were set in 1941. But the city pointed out that its harbor commission, after working on the issue for nearly three years, determined the current mooring alignments allow boaters to safely navigate the harbor.

"Way before the grand jury, that was in process," harbor Commissioner Ralph Rodheim said.

The report also claimed some policies are selectively enforced by the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol, which administers and patrols moorings for the city. For example, derelict boats aren't allowed, but abandoned moorings are.

Rodheim said the city came up with a plan to temporarily rent moorings that are vacant, which encourages boat owners to get rid of dilapidated boats without worrying they'll lose their mooring.

Perhaps the most sensitive topic in the report, and for the city, is money. The grand jury recommended the city have the moorings regularly appraised to make sure the fees are at fair market rates. That appraisal is already underway, but any rate hikes may meet with resistance.

A draft of changes to fees and policies, which hasn't yet been approved by the City Council, proposed new fees to ensure the city gets a cut whether a mooring permit is transferred between a boat buyer and seller or the city itself reassigns a mooring.

City officials have realized for years that they were charging less than market rates for moorings, but harbor Commissioner John Corrough said it's not as simple as just boosting the rates.

"You can't just arbitrarily raise them without some sort of [factual] support," he said. "Everyone can say, 'Oh yes, you've got to raise it.' Raising rates is always found to be lying somewhere between what the marketplace is doing and what political acceptance is if you're a public agency."