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Dana Point Harbor Slip Fees - 2010

 Most Expensive Municipal Slips in the Nation

  (please click on graphs to see larger image)

We surveyed 35 municipal marinas across the County and found that Dana Point Harbor charges more for a 30' slip (East Basin) than anywhere else in the United States; and the difference is not trivial:  Boaters in Dana Point Harbor pay almost double the national average for a 30' slip in a municipal marina. Compared to the California average we pay an additional $208 a month.  On an annual basis that comes out to almost $2500 more per 30' slip.  While on a nationwide basis we pay a whopping $234 above the national average.

 

Why do we pay so much more than anyone else?  What are the possible explanations?  One could be that OC DPH needs the money to "Revitalize the Harbor".   Are we really the only harbor in the nation that needs to be revitalized or needs to build new slips?  Is it only our worn out slips that need to be replaced?  Perhaps we are the only boaters that are being asked to fund the creation of a giant commercial center in their Harbor? 

Could it be that our harbor is more expensive to maintain than others?  I don't think so. Compared to other harbors on our coast our harbor doesn't need to be dredged nearly as often and, thanks to the design, we have very benign conditions in the inner harbor that extend the life of our docks.  So maybe we are not as efficient as we should be?  Maybe we have too many layers of profit, more contractors dividing the pie, or more money being spent on sprucing up the commercial core.  Just as with boats and tides, rising slip fees float all County Budgets. 

Slip Fees are Voluntary?

But wait you guys are not being fair, do you know how much a slip costs in New Port Harbor?  And didn't you see what the 11,000 sqft lot went for in the Headlands?  Of course Dana Point Harbor is going to be 5 Star expensive.   Boaters for Dana Point Harbor believe that unless the citizens of California have authorized the boaters in Dana Point Harbor to be taxed, then the County is required to charge fees that only allow them to recover their costs.  In fact, throughout Orange County agencies that charge fees are required to perform a Cost Recovery Analysis.  When Boaters for Dana Point Harbor put in a public records request for a copy of the Cost Recovery Analysis for our Harbor we were not quite ready for the response we got back from our County Government:

 ... fees for governmental services would require a cost analysis to show the County is not charging more that it costs to provide the service, otherwise the fee could be considered a special tax.  For the slip license fees, the County is charging for the use of a public asset by a private individual, the cost is considered voluntary and not levied for a service. 

Voluntary?  Really?  We have all read the Boat Slip License Agreement and know what happens if we stop paying the slip fees, and it happens quickly.  I suppose our property taxes on our house are voluntary; we don't have to have a house.  Our State Income Tax is similarly voluntary; we don't have to live in the state of California.

22% vs. 32%?

The County seems to be working with a double standard.  The County Board of Supervisors are considering stripping boaters who use Orange County Harbors and the county coast line of many of the important services provided by our Harbor Patrol run by the Sheriff's Department.  In fact they have decided to submit them to their own Performance Auditor in part because the Harbor Patrol costs have gone up 22% in six years. Perhaps the Performance Auditor should be looking at OC Dana Point Harbor because over a similar six year period the cost of our slip fees (30' slip, East Basin) have climbed a staggering 32%!  Unlike the Sheriff's Department, OC Dana Point Harbor cannot blame it all on increased pension costs which the County Board of Supervisors (not the currently sitting board) put in place.

 

 

Hopeful Alignment with DPBA Board?

Boaters for Dana Point Harbor argued for a slip fee reduction last year and while we made significant progress with one Supervisor we were stopped when the County and the DPBA orchestrated this (click here to view) testimony before the County Board of Supervisors.  We were also challenged by the DPBA for not doing a thorough enough analysis and excluding many Southern California Marinas.  We believe the analysis is correct and should exclude the for profit privately run marinas. In fact, in 2007 when the Department of Boating and Waterways held their Commission meeting in Dana Point the then Chairperson told us that, "Municipal Marinas are supposed to be less expensive than for profit marinas, that is why we have them." We understand the DPBA Board's need and desire to support the County and OC DPH in particular, however, we hope that they will join Boaters for Dana Point Harbor to push back the County on this important issue and help us get the slip fees lowered; bringing them into alignment with reasonable costs and our interpretation of the law.

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OC Dana Point Harbor's Proposed Increased Slip Fees

County Board of Supervisors Process, Many years ago the County Board of Supervisors, reacting to boater out rage at a proposed double digit slip fee increase passed an ordinance that has been followed ever since. The process has a four year cycle. For each of the first three years the slip fees will be increased by the CPI (They did not specify which one or for which area) or 4% which ever is LESS. On the fourth year OC Dana Point Harbor will perform a survey of slip fees in harbors throughout Southern California and then adjust fees appropriately. It is important to note that the County Board of Supervisors does not connect cost to provide the services to the fees charged for the services. Most harbors simply look at the rates everyone else has realized their slips fee too and then follow suit.

As Dana Point Harbor is a municipal marina I offer the following chart as an example of how Dana Point Harbor compares to the other Southern California municipal marina’s. You can click on the image of the slide to get a bigger image. I should mention that National City’s Pier 32 Marina was include in the analysis as OC Dana Point Harbor told us that they used them as a model for our Harbor water side design. It should also be pointed out that Santa Barbara earns additional revenue from transfer fees as they allow boaters to essentially sell their slips. Long Beach is probably one of the best comparisons as it actually implemented slip fees based on their actual costs to run the marina and based on the actual square feet of the slip.

Please click on the image to see a larger version of the graph.

The next chart shows how our slip fees compare to other harbors on a per square foot basis. The chart also shows the significant discrepancy between the higher charges charged for smaller slips and the lower charges for the larger slips. Obviously the additional price premium charged for the smaller slips will necessarily force more of the smaller boaters to consider other storage modalities or to exit boating all together.

Please click on the image to see a larger version of the graph.

About the data; for Dana Point we plotted the actual data for all of the slips in the East Basin. For the other marina’s we used the DBW guidelines for the widths as they are all either currently following the DBW guidelines or expect to do so shortly.

Conclusion: Given that the Harbor Department was making over 40% profit and that 79% of the profit was coming from boaters only a few years ago and that we are the most expensive municipal marina it is clear that slip fees should be rolled back at least for the duration of these traumatic financial times. Boaters should be asked to only pay for the fully loaded costs to provided our slips.

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