The City of Morro Bay is looking for a new harbor director, and after the City Manager re-examined the job’s duties and responsibilities, they want to re-focus the job towards economic development.
The job is being advertised on the City website and nationally, with an annual salary range from $157,300 to $191,200, plus the full complement of benefits — insurance, retirement, etc., according to the listing.
The first thing that’s noticed with the new position is a name change. Instead of “Harbor Director,” the new job title is “Harbor Vitality Director” with general duties to: “oversee the management of our beautiful waterfront and harbor operations, while spearheading economic development initiatives.”
And, “This role involves overseeing Harbor Department activities and functions such as property and lease management of Embarcadero lease sites, providing administrative oversight of Harbor Patrol and harbor business functions, addressing infrastructure needs, overseeing oceanfront-related federal, state, and local initiatives, and fulfilling other related duties,” the notice said.
Specifically, the new director will, “enhance service delivery, streamline operations, and increase revenue while managing contracts, drafting reports, and conducting financial analyses,” reads the job notice. “Effective communication with diverse stakeholders, including the boating community, commercial fishing community, environmental groups, developers, lessees, City Council members, the advisory committee, employees, and the community is crucial.”
Former Harbor Director Ted Schiafone retired suddenly in July, and City Manager Yvonne Kimball stepped in for a few weeks as an “interim” director, of sorts, as she spent time at the Harbor Office, away from City Hall, to get a better feel for the job and to see if the old job description and duties needed to change. They apparently did.
“Given the diverse functions the Harbor Dept. performs daily,” Kimball said in a Sept. 10 report to the City Council, “the concept of changing the department structure to eliminate the director position was carefully considered.
“However, after thorough evaluation, staff has concluded that maintaining the department’s integrity under the leadership of a single director overseeing all functions remains the most efficient and effective approach.”
Kimball said she spoke with members of the harbor community, city staff and then looking at the City’s needs with the position, she decided the focus needed to change towards “economic development and real estate.”
She said all of the old duties of the harbor director will remain in place — overseeing harbor patrol and waterfront lease sites — but the next director will have more to do.
Kimball said the key changes are an economic vitality focus; strategic real estate management; and, tourism and business attraction.
The new salary is another change, as former directors got paid on a par with the fire and police chiefs, but not anymore.
“The Harbor Vitality Director,” Kimball said, “will be placed in the same salary range as the following director classifications: Community Development Director, Finance Director, and Public Works Director.”
The report said the City would save some $3,500 a year in salary by knocking down the job half a peg. The Harbor Department’s funding (the Harbor Fund) comes from lease payments and dockage and slip rentals, with some grant monies available for specific projects.
The City has long been searching for new revenue sources for the Harbor Department, as the maintenance needs and costs climb annually.
The latest attempt at raising funds for the harbor was Measure B-22, a $10 a month parcel tax that would have raised $680,000 a year, but B-22 failed at the ballot box that November.
During the COVID pandemic, the Harbor Department established several overnight camping spaces, scattered amongst four locations along the Embarcadero. That attempt was met with fierce opposition in town, as a group of citizens organized a petition drive to place a camping ban on the ballot for voters to decide. But the City Council instead decided to end the program and ordered it shut down.
The camping scheme was doing well, for as long as it lasted, but when residents saw people camping overnight in Coleman Park adjacent to the Harborwalk, they rose up in opposition.
The Harbor Department ended up auctioning off the picnic tables and portable walls it had gotten for the program.
The new economic focus by the next director was arrived at after Kimball decided the Harbor Patrol Chief and Harbor Business Manager were able to handle their ends of the operations, and future business development was needed.
Indeed, the Harbor Department has long had a budget problem, as revenues have remained pretty flat-lined with most of the lease sites under long-term contract but there are two major rebuilds in the offing — the old Associated Pacific sites on the south end and the Libertine lease site near the middle of the Embarcadero.
Both are to be mixed uses — restaurant and motel.
But the big gorillas in the corner of the room are the Offshore Wind (OSW) energy farms and the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) being proposed for the old power plant property. The City is joining the County in a study of Morro Bay and Port San Luis to identify what the three OSW firms will need for an operations and maintenance port.
None of the ports along the Central Coast is suitable for the huge deep-water port needed to accommodate the giant work boats needed to set the moorings and install the wind towers in the so-called Morro Bay Call Area, the roughly 400-square mile site, 20-30 miles off San Simeon where they would be located.
But it’s possible either port or both could be upgraded to accommodate the much smaller crew boats and work boats that will also be needed.
It’s also possible that the Harbor Fund could reap some windfall from the OSW projects, as the City controls the outfall canal at the base of Morro Rock. That’s where the old power plant used to discharge its cooling water and a potential place where the power from the OSW turbines might be brought in (they are also reportedly looking at Diablo Canyon). That lease is the harbor’s best chance at gleaning some revenue out of the OSW projects and the Harbor Director is expected to play a large role in those negotiations.
According to the job notice, the first round of interviews of applicants would happen Oct. 14. EBN asked Kimball on the 14th how the recruitment was going?
“This position is highly significant to the community,” Kimball said. “You are correct that today is the first review deadline. But like with our other positions, the posting will remain available on City’s website until the recruitment process is complete.”
“We encourage interested individuals to submit their applications as soon as possible. After today, we will begin to review applications, and schedule interviews. We would like to have someone start as soon as possible.”
Since 1990, there have been just three harbor directors in Morro Bay — Rick Algert, Eric Endersby, and Schiafone, who came here with tons of experience managing harbors and marinas. Algert and Endersby both retired out of the position.