More changes may be on the way for Oceanside Harbor, where boat patrols and public safety responsibilities were moved from the city’s Police Department to the Fire Department’s lifeguard division last year.
The agency that oversees the creation of new cities and special districts is reviving a years-old review that could lead to the port district becoming independent from the Oceanside City Council, which now acts as its governing board.
Public safety has long been a concern for the port’s commercial tenants and boat leaseholders, and a series of attacks Saturday night may have intensified the focus on that issue. Four people were hospitalized after seemingly random attacks by two people wearing bandanas and wielding baseball bats. City Manager Jonathan Borrego said Monday that the crime is being investigated and called it “something my office is not going to tolerate.”
“We need a long-term solution to make sure things don’t get out of hand there,” Borrego said.
Borrego spoke at a meeting of the city’s Harbor and Beaches Advisory Committee, which has called for increased security measures to protect boaters, renters and visitors.
The port has more than 900 boat spaces, 10 percent of which are occupied by tenants who live aboard their vessel.
San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, initiated a “municipal services review” of the port district in 2020 to better align its responsibility for public safety, then paused it because of the pandemic, said Michaela Peters, a local government analyst for the agency.
The review was renewed last year and recently entered a public comment period that ends on September 19.
One possibility examined in the review is for the port district to move from being under city oversight to being an independent agency through a new formal agreement with the city, Peters told the port committee.
The Port District was formed in 1960 as an independent agency. It became a dependent agency in 1995, and the City has served as its governing board since then.
The district had its own police department until public safety duties were outsourced to the Oceanside Police Department in 2009.
In 2022, the City Council approved another reorganization of the port that moved public safety duties to the city’s Fire Department. That change took effect last year.
But public safety concerns were not the only complaints raised on Monday.
Port users also want better control of the district’s finances, port committee members said. Many feel revenue from port activities, such as property leases and rents, is unfairly spent outside the port in other areas of the city. “We’re not getting the services we pay for,” committee member Carolyn Krammer said.
Chairwoman Liz Rhea asked LAFCO representatives if, as an independent district, the port would have its own meter, rather than being a line item in the city budget.
“We are facing a huge shortfall to repair the port,” he said, referring to the replacements needed for aging docks and other facilities. “We are talking about more than $28 million.”
Boat mooring fees have risen significantly this year, from about $75 a month for smaller vessels to more than $300 a month for larger vessels. Port users want the extra revenue to be spent on repairs, Rhea said.
Questions about finances or other aspects of the proposed changes can be submitted to the LAFCO website at www.sdlafco.org.
One reason for LAFCO’s review of the district — a “housekeeping” issue, one official said — is that public safety is one of the district’s responsibilities. The city has taken over that responsibility since 2009, but the agreement was never formalized.
“To clarify service expectations and mitigate potential liabilities, (the port district) should formally request divestment,” the agency’s draft review of the district states.
Any decision to separate the port district could require a public election by city voters, the review says.
The final draft of the review is scheduled to be presented to the LAFCO Board of Directors on October 7 for approval.
Original story
Who should be in charge of Oceanside Harbor? Rash of baseball bat attacks reignites years-old debate
