Who should be in charge of Oceanside Harbor? Rash of baseball bat attacks reignites years-old debate (original) (raw)

More changes may be in store for the Oceanside Harbor, where last year boat patrols and public safety responsibilities were switched from the city’s Police Department to the Fire Department’s lifeguard division.

The agency that oversees the creation of new cities and special districts is renewing a years-old review that could lead to the harbor district’s independence from the Oceanside City Council, which now serves as its board of directors.

Public safety has long been a concern of the harbor’s commercial tenants and boat slip renters, and a series of attacks Saturday evening may have intensified the focus on that issue.

Four people were hospitalized after apparently random attacks by two people wearing bandanas and wielding baseball bats. City Manager Jonathan Borrego said Monday the crime is being investigated and called it “something my office is not going to tolerate.”

“We need a long-term solution to make sure things don’t get out of control down there,” Borrego said.

Borrego spoke at a meeting of the city’s Harbor and Beaches Advisory Committee, which has asked for greater security measures to protect boaters, slip-renters and visitors.

The harbor has more than 900 boat slips, 10 percent of them occupied by tenants who live aboard their vessel.

San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, initiated a “municipal service review” of the harbor district back in 2020 to better align its responsibility for public safety, then paused it because of the pandemic, said Michaela Peters, a local government analyst with the agency.

The review was renewed last year and recently entered a public comment period that ends Sept. 19.

One possibility examined in the review is that the harbor district transition from city oversight to an independent agency through a new formal agreement with the city, Peters told the harbor committee.

The harbor district was formed in 1960 as an independent agency. It transitioned to a dependent agency in 1995, and since then the City Council has been serving as its board of directors.

The district had its own police department until public safety duties were contracted out to the Oceanside Police Department in 2009.

In 2022, the City Council approved another harbor reorganization that switched public safety duties to the city’s Fire Department. That change took effect last year.

But public safety issues weren’t the only complaints lodged Monday.

Harbor users also want better control of the district’s finances, harbor committee members said. Many feel the revenue from harbor activities such as property leases and slip rentals is unfairly spent outside the harbor in other areas of the city.

“We are not getting the services we are paying for,” said committee member Carolyn Krammer.

Chair Liz Rhea asked the LAFCO reps whether, as an independent district, the harbor would have its own accountant, instead of being a line in the city budget.

“We are up against a huge deficit to repair the harbor,” she said, referring to the replacements needed for aging docks and other facilities. “We are talking $28 million plus.”

Boat slip fees rose significantly this year — up about 75monthlyforthesmallestslipstomorethan75 monthly for the smallest slips to more than 75monthlyforthesmallestslipstomorethan300 a month for the largest. Harbor users want the added revenue to be spent on repairs, Rhea said.

Questions about finances or other aspects of the proposed changes can be submitted to the LAFCO website at www.sdlafco.org.

One of the reasons for LAFCO’s review of the district — a matter of “house-cleaning,” one official said — is that public safety is one of the district’s responsibilities. That responsibility has been handled by the city since 2009, but the arrangement was never formalized.

“To clarify service expectations and mitigate potential liabilities, (the harbor district) should formally request divestiture,” states the agency’s draft review of the district.

Any decision to separate the harbor district could require a public election by city voters, the review says.

The final draft of the review is scheduled to go to the LAFCO board Oct. 7 for approval.

Originally Published: August 20, 2024 at 5:39 p.m.