Cheaper oversight, but at what cost?

If the Newport Beach City Council chooses a new company to oversee moorings in the harbor, it would be rocking the boat in more ways than one, sailors and city officials said.

With a proposal offering mooring administration for $180,000 a year, city leaders selected the Newport Beach-based BellPort Group as the prime candidate to take the helm on Newport Harbor’s 1,200 moorings from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The price tag is lower than what the Sheriff’s Department was asking for: $290,000.

The Sheriff’s Department price was more than double its previous contract for $115,000, which hadn’t been modified since the late 1980s, said Lt. Mark Long, harbor master for the Sheriff Department’s Harbor Patrol.

“When you lose $115,000 in revenue, you have to make corresponding cuts,” he said.

With two Harbor Patrol employees dedicated solely to mooring administration, Long said their duties will have to be reassessed should the City Council ultimately sign on with the BellPort Group.

At this point, the BellPort Group’s bid is only being recommended for approval from the Harbor Resources Director Chris Miller.

For at least the last 25 years, the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol has handled the city’s 400 on-shore and 800 off-shore moorings, which are used for permanent residents and temporary visitors stopping in Newport Beach by boat.

At the end of 2008, Newport Beach’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department expired, and sheriff’s officials reviewed the costs of mooring administration and came up with $290,000.

For all of 2008, the city and Harbor Patrol were working on the old $115,000 contract. From the first of this year until the city finds a new mooring administrator — if it does — the Harbor Patrol is being paid on a monthly basis pro-rated on a $290,000 annual cost. That equals more than $24,000 a month.

“The Harbor Patrol provided an excellent service. I was never dissatisfied with the level of service they provided,” Miller said. “There was a dollar-and-cents issue on it as well.... We need to take a closer look at where we’re spending our money and when we’re spending it.”

With the BellPort Group, Miller acknowledged that sailors will no longer have mooring administrators always on call.