Morro Bay Harbor Director, Ted Schiafone, has retired from the City. The City Manager said she is working on a plan for moving forward. File photo
The Morro Bay Harbor Department is without a leader for the first time in over 30 years, after the Harbor Director retired in July.
Estero Bay News readers had contacted the newspaper wondering where Harbor Director Ted Schiafone has been, as they had been unable to contact him for several days?
EBN enquired at the Harbor Office and was told he had rather suddenly resigned, and the City Administration was working out the way forward.
EBN contacted City Manager Yvonne Kimball for an official story on the matter and she confirmed that Schiafone had left the City’s employ. “As of July 19,” Kimball said, “Director Ted Schiafone has officially retired from the City. We wish him well in his future endeavors. Since his departure, I have been the serving as the acting Harbor Director.”
Schiafone was hired to replace the retiring Eric Endersby, who left in December 2022. Harbor Patrol Chief Becka Kelly was put in as an interim director for a couple of months while former City Manager Scott Collins looked for Endersby’s replacement. Prior to Endersby’s tenure, Rock Algert had been the Harbor Director for over 25 years. He too retired from the City.
Schiafone started work here on Feb. 13, 2023, coming here from the same job in the City of Oceanside, Calif.
It was a pretty seamless transition as Schiafone came to Morro Bay with a ton of harbor related experience — over 30 years — and from a harbor much bigger than Morro Bay with an annual budget about three times as large.
“Ted is the right person for the job,” Collins said at the time, “and I look forward to him leading the Harbor Department and joining the City’s executive team.”
His experience was in both the private and public sector of marinas and harbor business management. The City Manager got a taste of all the Harbor Department does, as she stepped into the director’s chair. She described her time by the water in her July, “City Manager’s Report” newsletter:
“In July, I took advantage of the break between council meetings to work at the Harbor Office,” Kimball wrote. “This opportunity allowed me to get to know the employees better and further assess the department’s strengths and needs.
“The last few weeks were well spent. I formed a better understanding of infrastructure work, such as dredging and dock repair; I saw parking challenges on our waterfront; I witnessed harbor employees and the Coast Guard training together; observed mooring inspections; experienced beach rescues; assisted boats check-in and checkouts; met with the boating community members; and walked up down Embarcadero to discuss tidelands leases.”
It was apparently an eye-opening experience. “I was amazed by the breadth of services the Harbor Department provides,” Kimball continued. “The office opens to the public 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, joining the city’s police, fire and other essential service departments to protect the safety and wellbeing of visitors, residents, and businesses on both water and shore.”
She ran down a list of many of the myriad of things the department does. “The department maintains City owned slips, moorings, and docks. The department serves transient visitors [boaters], as well as long-term liveaboards; oversees Tidelands ground leases; provides seasonal lifeguard programs; responds to safety and rescue calls on the water and beach; patrols parking lots; provides First Aid to visitors; coordinates with U.S. Coast Guard; manages small boats and commercial fishing dockage; conducts boater safety training and lifeguard training; coordinates with other City departments in issuing event permits; and assists with special events at the harbor and Embarcadero.”
EBN asked Kimball if she intended to start looking right away for a new director? “We are currently working on a plan to proceed,” Kimball told EBN. “Unfortunately, I can not divulge details at this time, as we need some time to meet with the City Council and City staff first. My goal has always been to ensure efficient and effective management at Harbor and across all City departments.”
Over the years, as budget issues have come and gone, the City Administration has looked at different ways to manage the harbor, discussing at one time or another, disbanding the department and putting the harbor patrol under the police or fire departments, coupled with hiring a property management company to manage the leases. It has also discussed potentially trying to form a “harbor district” that would include adjoining communities — Los Osos, Cayucos and San Luis Obispo — in what would be a property tax assessment that would collect money to support the harbor. Neither of these ideas has ever gone very far.
The closest sea change for the department came in 2022, when a ballot measure — B-22 — to levy a $10 a month parcel tax ($120 a year) on all private property in Morro Bay, failed to get the support of a majority of voters.
The City Manager’s newfound understanding of the harbor department’s duties and needs apparently hit home.
Kimball added, “It is apparent that this Department plays a critical role in our community, contributing significantly to the wellbeing of our residents, businesses and visitors.”
Most folks would agree that the waterfront — The Embarcadero and Bay — are the very heart of this community, and the main attractions for upwards of 1 million visitors a year who come to town, looking to get away from the big cities and of course the searing heat waves in the Valley.
No matter how the City decides to move forward, it’s an exciting and critical time for the harbor, as it continues to try and come up with a way to increase revenues, and could soon become the focus for two humongous projects wending their way through the bureaucratic maze — a 600 megawatt Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project proposed by Vistra Energy for the power plant property; and offshore floating wind farms proposed for a 400-square mile patch of ocean 20-30 miles off San Simeon, for which Morro Bay is expected to play a key role as the site where that 3 gigawatts of energy is expected to come ashore and connect with the power grid.
Just how much of a part the Harbor Department, and in turn the City Council, will play in those projects remains to be seen, as each project has its unique quirks to be ironed out. The Federal Government has already allocated about $1.5 million towards making whatever upgrades and repairs are needed on the North T-pier. Schiafone had been the point person for the City, in contact with the offshore wind companies, and working with them on what they needed to make the harbor usable for at least some of their needs.
The Harbor is far too small to be considered for the biggest onshore, support needs of the wind farms — in essence a deep-water port with large waterside work quays and a large manufacturing, maintenance and storage yard — perhaps as large as 50 acres, according to one study.
And since there are three companies involved in the offshore floating wind project, whatever harbor facilities and/or upgrades are needed could need to be in triplicate.
One study by the State Lands Commission suggested Morro Bay Harbor could need as much as $10-$15 million in upgrades just to be usable for the smallest of the work boats needed for this endeavor.
Port San Luis Harbor District recently started talks with an offshore wind company about turning San Luis Bay into a port for their crew boats and light maintenance needs. Those discussions are just beginning now, though they were met at a recent meeting of the Harbor District Board with a lot of opposition from the community.
The Port San Luis Harbor District is a huge area that includes Avila Beach and Avila Valley, most of the South County and much of San Luis Obispo.
