Ports and Harbor Commission - Regular Meeting

Are calling the meeting to order at 05:03, and all commissioners are present except for commissioner West who is absent excused. Alright. First up is approval of minutes from the November 4 meeting. Do we have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve. And I'll second that

We know game. Okay. The motion for the November 4 meeting is made by Enday and seconded by Commissioner Steed. Any discussion? All in favor of the November 4 minutes as presented say aye. Aye.

Anyone opposed? Motion carries.

All right. Motion carries. Next up is the November 18 minutes. Is there a motion to approve?

I make a motion to approve the November 18 minutes.

All

right. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Thank you. Commissioner Day made the motion and Commissioner Kelly made the second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposition? Motion carries with full approval. Any public business from the floor? Anyone?

Anyone? Okay. No public business. Moving on to new business. So first up is, the approval of a recommendation to city council to authorize lease with Crowley Fuels, for 6,230 square foot portion of USS 495 Thailand, which is where the North Fuel Dock is located. Does anyone have, I guess first we need a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve the lease as it is written.

For the Northfield.

Correct? The Northfield.

Alright. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

Alright. So it has been moved and seconded, and now we have questions or concerns or anything like that. So my my understanding is tomorrow, planning and zoning is going to look at this in case assuming that we both have approval. Am I correct, Jeremy? It then goes to council. Yep. So they're bringing it to us, and PNC will look at it tomorrow, and then it will get to an agenda. That's kind of the the big process. So our feedback goes to PNC and and

Your your feedback will go to council separately. Okay. Let council specifically ask about feedback. Or you wanna come and give it independent.

Are there are there concerns from the harbor side?

No. Not any of the no just the normal, like, operating hours and stuff. So Yep.

Other than that, it's pretty much just what's been happening for them.

The change is and correct me if I'm wrong, that there is a 4¢ per gallon surcharge that's now being added on.

Negotiated that into the the complaint for years has been there. $2,000 a year is not sufficient for that location, and

that Well, would it be better just to raise their lease rate versus

a surcharge? That's where it's coming into their lease. It's negotiated into the lease. Okay.

So does that mean they'll pass that

on to the customer?

Of course. Absolutely.

And that's that's my

They just control they control the profit no matter what they do.

But wouldn't they pass them on if it was just an increase in the lease price as well? Right. I mean, either way, they

just pass it on consumer.

That's a way for them to ebb and flow a little bit. Like, if they have a less fuel, more fuel, it kind of

Yeah. At least it's not out of their pocket. Not a $100,000. You know? Yeah.

I I found out, like, the pilot association, we used a 106,000 a little more than a 106,000 gallons of gold in 2024, and that works out to $4,200. Mhmm.

Well, I think once you add commercial fish, you're probably I mean, you'll you'll have one of those rigs come in and take on 30 gallons of Oh, I bet you 30,000 at a time.

I I just wing it, but I bet you we pay for between three hundred fifty and five hundred thousand gallons last year would be I I I don't think I'm way

up. Right.

I mean, I I the three the five might be with three. I mean

It's them giving us their total. How gram again is that?

What's the total gallons they went through?

Don't recall what that was. 800 total thousand. But is that that

I don't know. I I can't remember. I think it was eight. But we figured after the math, it

was about $4 or $40.

Is that So it's a million gallon.

Jeremy, was that for both? For both.

Cheap to me for the for the lease, really. The money, it it really seems like

Why is the lease so inexpensive? This is

what was negotiated and never like, they just kept re my understanding is every time the lease came up, they just rinse, wash, repeat, rinse, wash, repeat.

We we changed, know, with the with the the. You know, we did the twenty year. We hadn't changed it in twenty years. Yeah. It is if everything else is increasing in cost,

it seems silly that we would keep

the same lease year after year. But I I realized it's for, like, a forty year

period. So

Yeah. That was one of my questions. Are there any exemptions for this? Bruce, do you happen to know that patient? Sorry. That was

My understanding is none. I would I would would rather

go on because it's not You know I mean? I I think it should be a gallon thing because then I know I can tell you right now. Let's take, for example, lower base got down tenders 2026.

It's red. Yeah. The little button at the bottom. Sorry.

Is that mine? Yeah. Know, I can tell you with the prediction for 2026, the gallon, those will probably be way down. You know what I mean? So so then then we're taking the sports fishermen and the locals, and they're still figuring it out. It's $10 a month now, so it's we're gonna get that money back. I I like the gallon thing. I I really I see. I I really do. I think we're we're more fair to the user group. You know what mean? And that way the users that are using it in that twelve month period actually burden the cost, you know, rather than, oh, well, the fishermen aren't here now. They're not gonna buy. The fishermen aren't going away. Don't get me wrong, but we all know it's an evidential deal.

So, you know, they're gonna wanna get the cost back. I I really like the gallon. It's not that much money one way or the other. You know what I mean? So you can't go from 3,000 a year to 60,000 a year. Right? That's not gonna flow. Right? So it's better for us to do the the cent thing, and then that way, the the the user group is burning the 4¢.

So if you're back to the question at hand, is there a is there an exemption for anybody written into that?

Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't catch the question to start with, but but, no, the lease doesn't have any exceptions on there.

Over the 4¢? Right. I guess my my only thing is you you have two user groups in the harbor right now that had just taken on a per person head fee that is now getting passed to their customer, and now they're going to take on a per gallon fee, which is going I mean, it's you're you're affecting the end product to our customers, and it is it is something that needs to be noted and council needs to be aware of. Is you've got your your passenger vessels and your SportFish fleet are now paying a per person head fee across the dock. And now on top of that, they will have a fuel increase as well.

And I think that's worth noting to counsel that those guys are are getting hit from both those angles for different fees for different purposes. So

So is it our purpose to just generate more income?

Apparently so.

So far, you're not generating any income. Even with this, it's it does help diversify the income a little bit because right now, the harbor is in trouble. And without a correction, there will be no money to replace the floats in twenty years. In fact, in five years, you will be taking money out of the general fund.

But this 4¢ won't be going to anything to run the harbor. It goes to community economic development general fund. No. Lease. So even though it's Yeah. It's referred to in the lease, we had passed it through our rates and fees. Yeah. And so my understanding is through the lease, they will still be paying the fuel operations fee that would come to us, but any title and lease fees would go back to the general fund.

The title and lease fees, but the throughput fee will go to the.

Yeah. It's the way it was originally set up.

I didn't look at the last revision of the lease after coming back at lease, but that was the way I understood it. Is that money would anything left over going into capital improvements.

And I guess at some point, if we're gonna just add fees left to right backwards in 500 different places, just your your slip use. Yeah. It it make it something uniform. So you and that's, I guess, my other challenge with this is that we're gonna start doing a fee here and a fee here on our hardware users, make it so it's something predictable and we know it's the same from one year's premise.

Well, I totally agree with you, and I see where you're coming from. But part of me segues to we're subsidized to a fuel company that makes so much money is pathetic. So so that that really isn't I know it runs down to your tank and my tank, it's over based tank, but it's really just a cost of business for them as far as I'm concerned where they're making a lot of money for not much rent. I mean, you know,

I got a couple

of buildings the city owns that if I could get for $12 a month, I can run a hell of a business. I I think they their venue is meant to cheap too. Here's what

really think.

I I

think you gotta kinda not look at it as I get the head fee and the it's just not good business. It's not directed at you or me or Silver Bay. It's just not good business. I mean, that that's cheap to have a place for a few

I don't disagree that it's cheap.

So And I that's a rough one, though.

I I do think, not unrelated to this topic, that this is gonna be our job. I think that Sherry's not here right now, but we were gonna come in and talk about the specifics of how to raise fees to meet the demand of, you know, our expenses and to make sure that we have enough money that we're putting a little bit of money away each year for because all these floats are gonna come due within a ten year period. And so that's one of the challenges we're gonna have is is I I hear you. I understand what you're saying. I agree.

Well, agree the wholeheartedly. It's it's a knife edge. I agree wholeheartedly, but it's like I really think they're getting it too cheap.

A lot of people do.

You know, they're just they're just getting it too cheap.

The other way to do it is

I I just as the user that pays more per foot for than anyone else in the harbor and the user that is now paying a head fee in the harbor, we're now going to, as probably the third largest user of diesel fuel in the harbor, pay a new fee. And that's, I think, something we need to realize that you're you're hitting in multiple places multiple times. And I'm not necessarily opposed to what's being proposed here.

Right.

But when you look at the big picture, that's where you're getting hit on that same place.

Oh, yeah. No. No. I I I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. But, you know, but the crappy thing is is they're just getting a cheap place to make a lot

of money.

And I guess my my other question is the way it looked like it's calculated is when this new comes in, they're calculating off of so when they pay their $20.25, they're calculating off of their 24 usage, but they will have not collected that money yet, which also is just a mental thing for me as a business owner to if you ask me to advance pay our user fees that we didn't have a chance to collect the year before, that would be problematic to me. And so you're you're having them pay off of.

Anyway, that's So that's that's what we're asking. We're asking them

For for their '25 lease, we're asking them to take their calculations from '24 and add that into their lease before they start collecting during

this next year. Liability reinsurance. It's gonna have your projected gross.

Right. But

I don't know. Why do

you make them pay quarterly?

I I don't know. That was

Anyway, that's just I

mean, other business. Came from

because that's another that's another waste of money now. Oh, they paid too much. Now we gotta back.

It may have been Crowley's request.

Well, I think that yeah. And I think the intention I mean, once they have this year under their belt with the extra 4¢ on it, then they have that calculation. They're paying into '26. So '25 is fee. You pay 26, but this year's anyway, it's

just Once they do it one time, then

Yeah. It wouldn't be interesting. I

don't know. And Crowley may not have an issue with it. I'm just looking at it as those are the things that I had picked out. And I've talked a lot as the chair. So does anyone else have something to add? Sorry.

The valid points, I I totally agree with you. But

And and we're gonna, like, start up that committee, specifically to look at the budget and to look at other opportunities to make up that gap. So we wanted to have we we started to have this conversation last year, and we didn't really gain a whole lot of of leeway. We're still operating out of our reserves.

But it's there's just so many things like that in the world. Like Yeah. We salmon fisherman. I'm tired of paying for coals.

Yeah. I don't deserve

anything. Love you. And so conversation. So I Okay.

That's like me sending a couple of bills your way every summer, Colleen. Which one would you like? I'll bring a hat over. Hi. And you could draw.

Oh, hey. I have had that conversation many times. But now back onto the the issue in front of us. So we have had discussion. Any more discussion? Alright. So all in favor of the motion on the floor, which is to approve the Tide Line lease for the North Field Act? I'm gonna abbreviate that. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Alright.

And that's his current state with the 4¢.

Yes. You're the same?

No. I'm sorry. I I never

No problem. I just want As the chair. As I'm recording, just

wanna know. So next up, I'm getting to that agenda statement as we go through here so that I read it. Sorry. Is to approve recommendation of city council to authorize the lease for Crowley Fuels for, 8,400 square foot portion of US or USS 495 tied lines known as the South Fuel Act. Is there a motion to approve?

I'll make that motion to approve the recommendation.

I'll second it.

Ed will second. So Commissioner Steeve, Commissioner Day, is there any discussion?

Other than that Can we talk about this 4¢?

Always good for

the Approve one and

we'll shoot

you the other way. Down.

So well, so you should've just you should've see, my mind would've just done the calculations. Okay. I take a 100,000 people in a year, so screw this 50¢ more ahead. I'm done.

Right. But we've already priced $20.27. So I I can't make changes. I'm just saying. You can't you can't edit that when you go forward. So, anyway, what do we any no discussion? All in favor?

Aye.

Anyone opposed? All right. Next up is I'm getting there again through the pages. This is the revision. Thank you for being here. Yeah. Thanks, Bruce.

Thank you. Thank you.

Oops. I went too far. Where is is there actually there it is. So the next step is an approval for a recommendation to city council to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to request federal funding for waterfront infrastructure permit and design of new capital infrastructures identified in the Valdes comprehensive water plan in the Sea Otter Park area. Is there a motion to approve?

Trying to come up with more money, we're designing more shit. You're not wrong. I love it. God, I love it.

I wrote that. I was I think this was not something that I I was planning on bringing forward.

Let's I'll make

a motion. Approve it. Sorry. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

Alright. Jeremy, yes. Discussion. Would you like to discuss?

Yeah. Introduce. So we're we're going to DC next, month, and the city manager would like to lobby on behalf of getting some permitting money and seek out partnerships with the federal government, to entertain using the Seattle property to maybe house some of their icebreakers or coast guard cutters or anything that, they might have an an a need for. He originally wanted me to go to Silver Bay because Silver Bay at one time was interested in having offloading facilities on that side, and I think at some point, they still will be. But I assume that they were a little cash, low right now. I'm not looking to

Well, we operate like you guys do. We're we're buying Ocean Beauty and a bunch of shit here too. And and I Yeah. Every time I look at the CFO, I'm like, well, so are we alright? She's like, I'll make it work, Eddie.

Yeah. And so I you know, at one point, we probably I just I felt bad with for asking. You know, eventually, we'll probably come back to the table. They haven't come and asked me in the last few

years. Yeah.

Fishing seasons we've had. Yeah. It's probably poor timing on the the fisherman side of things. But if he's gonna ask for money, I wanna counsel to be aware that we are asking for money and starting down the road of another project. I don't really have a long term plan for that, but he wants to look for some federal partners to call that home. Maybe

Wasn't in the Waterfront master plan, wasn't this sea otter? Wasn't that designated for

Large boat haul out storage and fish processing, anything that, you know, the uplands.

One of the proposals was seawall on that side. Right. So, like, the lattice. Yep.

Those are concept. Those, you know, those are

I'm just curious. Like, an icebreaker would be tied up there somehow or hauled out?

Home ported here maybe. Okay. Right now, the cutter's going away, and we've been promised that another one will be coming in

at some point. I had not heard that.

And so we've been lobbying DC for this, and so we've been with the CoStar every year. They don't have an announcement yet for the cutter that's coming, but we are waiting. We do have an announcement that delivery is leaving. Yeah. I heard I heard that they're making plans.

Not hear that one back.

The other one is coming in, like, with, like, the last two months before I left before Christmas, I heard that was coming.

Okay. So I don't know

what's going on with the federal government right now. But at some point, we think they're gonna announce an another cutter being moved here in home ported.

Just a small one? Probably. Be my guess. Yeah. I mean, to give anything of any size here, then you gotta have services.

Yeah. They don't have they cannot get the fast response cutter that everybody lobbied so hard to get, and we didn't lobby enough. And in

the over 65 feet is considered a cutter. Oh,

Those things those things are over 65. No. I

don't. It might be a patrol boat. I'm not sure what we're getting. Right. People that are involved in that said that there's something an other asset coming to replace

it. So So the 4,000,000 you're gonna go ask for is just for Design. Design permitting. Damn. I got a peach in the pen.

Well, to be I I can I can get you a napkin drawing from any engineers for fun? Thousand.

I know. I know. I know.

Know. If you're not supportive of it, I understand. I I This is not being pushed from staff.

I would like to see something happen with that property.

Yeah. We've asked council for four years to start the permitting process and design, but now it's bad timing for the fishing.

If if it involves something that could haul out with me, it all goes down that we should have been able to haul out bigger boats a long time. Fourteen years ago when Silver Bay came here, somebody should have realized, holy crap. Some more tenders and what kind of boats do you guys have? Oh, all the all the guys that started this company have limit sanders? Oh, wow. So will they fit in this lift? No. I mean, all my friends in the fishing business, their biggest their greatest thing about Baldi's, we love coming here and get stuff done. They're biggest bitches, but they can't haul anything but a robot. And I've had so many people that would love love to bring it to.

But now I'll tell you right now, all these plans you come up with everything, the fishing thing you might as well just throw as a shadow because this industry, as we know, is gonna hugely change. I I can tell you right now, I am 99% sure that we are really close to Silver Bay and tried to be in the only two powers. I'm really close to telling you that nobody's gonna come in here and build a $100,000,000 plant on this land. So repairs and maintenance, you guys can build me a warehouse and lease it to me for $50 a month, and I'll repair boats in it if that's or I'll pay the 4,000 a year in 4¢ a gallon on the paint. But but, you know, there's something that that industry is gonna change as we know.

I've been in it for fifty three years. It is going to change. There's no way around it immensely. So, I mean, you know, that's you know, to think you wanna go after that is is needs to not be in any plans at all.

But Well sure would be nice

to be able to haul a boat. It'd be nice if Colleen could get hauled out here. If a tender could come early and get hauled out or you know?

Yeah. No. And But that part

of it, I've been a proponent of forever. I think that happened. Think we all have it. Yeah. I'm just it just blows me away all the money we spent. We can't live there.

Yeah. Well and we're having that discussion with travel list due to be replaced this year. So With Lake Lake. Yeah. For that location, we don't have any you can't go bigger than that location.

Right. Over there.

Right. How many years do you have that office?

Out of ten. But we'll use a smaller one and a bigger one in the same location. You just need to build a inside and

an outside. You could make c outer a larger one and keep the smaller one where it's at. I mean, that

Okay. Probably just push them all in the same location. Okay. I'll try to do two two two similar operations in the same.

I have no problem personally if we we the approval of this does not mean we are, a, gonna get the money.

Right. Right. Right. Yeah. I have no problem.

I'm not sure that that's actually going to happen in DC right now. But if we want to sit and ask, then

I mean, what what what does it mean that the authorization for the city manager to request for funds? That just means that we spend money for him to go and

Similar to what he did.

He they're going to be there anyway. So city council has a set of legislative objectives they do every year, and that's really what he can talk to. This is adding to that to be able to say

these No. We're not buying a ticket just for this. No.

No. And it actually I'm surprised. I'm going to well, I was a critic. But it it we got 800,000 for day care. We got we're asking for 8,000,000 for the 911 system. And then, like, we got housing, a lot of housing. The postcard's committed to do some housing here. Quite a bit of

It just helps. This

I was just skeptical at first, but

now I realize if

you go back there and ask for money, they hit the market and you get it.

Yeah. Squeaky wheel gets greased. The worst

thing can do is say no, and it's not like we're spending a bunch of money that

We're already there. For just those that

are already there.

And it's a design that's not gonna an extra build.

Yeah. No. No. This just gets the shelf ready and I already made the motion. Allows us to go after that.

So any other discussion? Jamie Fence? Yeah. Quieten? Okay. All in favor of the moving the resolution forward to council, say aye. Aye. You want opposed? Alright. Final item before we get kicked out of here in fifteen minutes is?

I'm ask you to postpone this until Sherry can join. She's not here.

Okay. So to postpone? Yeah. So we are wanting to postpone the discussion item. It's just one discussion item or just

have it show back up? It's table to the table and bring it down.

We're not voting on it. It's just a discussion item. So we're just not gonna have the discussion. Yeah. And it just shows up on the agenda next time. Yeah. Because we're not making it taking any action on it. Perfect. So alright. We're just gonna not worry about that item. So that means I think we just commissioned business from the floor. Anyone? Amy, Vince, Alan, Ed, anything to bring forward? Nobody wants to go

to the ice. Feel free.

Alright. And any reports, Jeremy?

I did not prepare a report for you guys just because I knew we were gonna be short on time, but I will have a lengthy one for you next time.

I don't have much either. Just a heads up for you guys at the tour dock. The splashing is back on this year. It is March 1. So just FYI, I think it's eleven, but I'll have to double check that. It should be on the frosty paper agenda or calendar. But just heads up, we will be And if there's ice, it'll just be a slide. Just kidding. So but, yeah, right now Slide in. The Cutter Liberty is scheduled to have a ceremony, the April 29.

The, we just did a site visit with the gentleman that I've been in contact with Nicholas, just over at the South Harbor. They're gonna do it on the East End, probably tie up at the drive down float just for nicer photo ops and stuff. I just told them to keep us surprised if anything changes. And so I will Jeremy, I'll keep you, city manager, Jerry in the loop and what their plan is. Because I don't really have a time frame. Just either the cutter will move over on the twenty eighth. They'll do the ceremony on the twenty ninth, and then tear stuff down and move back over on the thirtieth. So

I'll talk to you guys after the meeting. Anything

else? Alright. And we are officially, I think, adjourned at 05:31.