O.C. board considering harbor fees

The city of Newport Beach and people who dock boats in its harbor

benefit from harbor patrol services, so they may be asked to help pay

for them.

The Orange County Supervisors asked Tuesday for information on an

array of new funding sources for the county Sheriff’s Department

Harbor Patrol. Ideas include asking cities to chip in for services

they now get at no cost, charging boaters a fee with their

registration, and taking the money from the county’s general fund

rather than its harbors, beaches and parks department.

The Harbor Patrol, headquartered in Newport Beach, uses 40

deputies to patrol harbors in Dana Point, Huntington Beach and

Newport Beach. Deputies provide fire protection, law enforcement and

rescue services to those harbors and to the county’s 42 miles of

coastline.

Newport Beach and the other two cities don’t pay anything for

Harbor Patrol services now. But officials in Newport, at least, could

balk if the county wants to bill them for Harbor Patrol operations.

Harbor Patrol services are likely to cost the county close to $10

million this year. Those expenses are expected to grow 27% by the

2008-09 fiscal year and another 30% by 2013, when they could reach

$16.4 million, a report to the supervisors said.

But not all the boats in Newport Harbor are owned by city

residents, so asking the city to pay may not be appropriate, Newport

Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said.

“We might not even want the sheriff to provide that service. We

might want to provide it ourselves, so I think there are a lot of

issues we would need to look at before our City Council would take a

position on what the supervisors were looking at,” he said.

At present the city has no real input on the focus or level of

enforcement the harbor patrol provides, Bludau said.

“Not having any say-so over the situation certainly is not

conducive to us wanting to pay for that service,” he said.

For the supervisors, looking for new funding for the harbor patrol

is a way to stop the erosion of the harbors, beaches and parks

department funds. Because the department’s costs in a number of areas

have grown, officials have had to put off maintenance projects such

as repairing public facilities at county parks.

“It’s really draining the county’s budget,” said Orange County

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who suggested looking at a fee for boaters.

He stressed that supervisors are just considering the

possibilities at this point. They’re expected to hear about funding

options in the next two months.

“Maybe the city is a partner, but at what level? It’s just

something I want staff to go and research and tell us what some of

the options might be,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department also will be looking at ways to cut

costs, Wilson said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].