[Bboa-members] Finance Sub committee meeting

[erwan illien]

Thank you Chairman Bob for your info. You may be
retired but the title stays. Yeah we have a lot to do
but I blieve with the leadership of Tom and his wife
we can eventually make things happen for the better.
Stay in touch. Erwan Illien


--- Bob Griffiths <bgriffiths at ifn.net> wrote:

> All,  A little history, analysis, and comment.
> 
> The Marina berthers pay for the non-beneficial crap
> you describe and then 
> some because over time these have been snuck in
> place with little or no 
> resistance and can still be gotten away with.
> 
> Years back, 20 or more is as far back as I can
> remember going to W.C. and 
> City Council meetings, the Marina budget carried
> millions (with an m) in the 
> reserve fund.  The reserve has been chopped away by
> keeping berth fees low, 
> fixing lease rates (by the City) low, cunningly
> provided services to the 
> Parks Dept., paying for frivolous events, and
> allowing the 
> Radison/Marriot/Double Tree to create a Bed Tax,
> estimated to be about 500 K 
> per year, which goes to the City rather than the
> Marina,  multiply that by 
> twenty years and there goes your reserve fund alone.
> 
> The Marina was basically created with Cal Boating
> and Waterways low 
> interest/long payback loan advances.  All this
> C.B.W. loan money comes with 
> a lot of strings, the strongest is that the "Marina
> is an Enterprise Zone", 
> the basic concept of which is that all funds
> generated within the Enterprise 
> Zone must stay there.  Somehow there's secret one
> way swinging door here. 
> Possibly some of you with legal/municipal budgetary
> experience/expertise 
> could figure this out, and eliminate or reverse such
> corrupt practices and 
> lock the door.  Brad Smith and the Marina staff have
> no way of correcting 
> these flagrant corrupt violations of Enterprise Zone
> guidelines, they are 
> just doing their jobs as dictated by the City
> Council aka Uptown.  Should 
> C.B.W. know of this?  Are they just ignorant or
> looking the other way just 
> as long as their loan payments are current?
> 
> The Waterfront Commission members must be Berkeley
> residents, so do you 
> think the are in anyway beholden to the boaters. 
> Historically when 
> municipal marinas with committees/commissions like
> Berkeley's W.C. are 
> composed of boaters rather than "now you see it now
> you don't politician 
> aspirants", privatization soon follows.
> 
> As a point of history, when Cruger Hanson decided to
> replace A, B, C, D, and 
> E in the latter '80s, because they were wood and
> would blow away in the next 
> big storm, it took a lot. Three (3) private studies
> at about 200K a pop from 
> Marina funds, piling and dock surveys by a Berkley
> Berthers diver and a 
> Marina Staff diver (The Berthers diver found nothing
> wrong and the Staff 
> diver condemned all, but later admitted he hadn't
> gone in the water). 
> Countless Berkeley Berthers Association members
> going to the City Council 
> meetings, making their presence known, and speaking
> up..  A, B, C, D, and E 
> are still in place.  After two false starts the
> cross wind, almost empty F 
> and G docks were replaced and reoriented with WOOD,
> up and down wind slips 
> which are about 95 percent full, AS WAS RECOMMENDED
> by the Berkeley 
> Berthers.  This took FIFTEEN YEARS.  The average
> commissioner's tenure is 
> about FIVE?
> 
> A dozen or so of the planned northernmost (F side)
> slips were never built, 
> as requested by the Hornblower group to allow
> turning room for their large 
> boats, which is never needed or been used.   Twelve
> 30 ft. boats at 5.00 per 
> ft./mo. comes to $18000 per year (lost revenue). 
> It's not hard to see who 
> has the biggest voice uptown.
> 
> Changing things involving a lot of money, require a
> lot of TIME and WORK. 
> Some have to be willing to do this.  Having a
> organization with a constant 
> presence at City Council meetings when items of 
> Marina importance are on 
> the agenda is imperative, or things will still be
> the sameo sameo, until the 
> occupancy report indicates otherwise.  Bob, formerly
> of the Berkeley 
> Berthers Association.
> 
>  If you didn't know, the possessor slip tax goes to
> Alameda County, go 
> figure. B 
> 
> 
> 


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