CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - July 10th, 2024
Attendees: Joe and Melissa Garrigan, Harry Liquornik, Gary Burke, Jason Woods, Chris Voss, Michael Harrington, Riley Borchardt (CFSB intern), Angela Rodriguez, Nathan Aldredge, Mary Nishimoto, Mike Nelson, Ray Kennedy, Jeff Hepp, Mike Kenny
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments
2024 Updated Budget Review - 15 min
Vote to release $15K of General Funds for staff costs in short term
Cable 2020 unspent funds $6655
CFSB Merchandise Update - 5 Minutes
Harbor Harbor Festival - 15 min
Pre-cooking lobster/crab or hybrid idea
Platform Holly Decommissioning, Mary Nishimoto - 30 Minutes
Harbor Commission: Slip Policy and CUDA Dock - 15 min
Setting a meeting
Ocean Collective - 5 Minutes
UCSB Summit Ideas - 5 min
Ocean Rainforest Meeting with CEO Recap - 5 Minutes
Offshore Wind Update - 5 Minutes
VCCFA meeting Sunday 6/2 Mrs. Olson’s Restaurant Recap - 5 Minutes
Jason Woods’ comments
Other:
ACR210
Lori French sign on letter
Pacific Marine Expo 11/20-11/22
Trap cleanup Thursday 7/25
Chris starts the meeting at 4:01PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
*Housekeeping, time limits, 3 minute maximum policy on individual comments
2024 Updated Budget Review - 15 min: Kim sent an email to the board last week with a link to the new budget that Kim and Michael Harrington prepared and she will give a recap of this and then we can discuss and vote on it.
We just ran out of grant funds for the first time in nearly a decade
Ava and Kim have been donating time due to the lack of grant funds that normally would cover our costs
We did not get the Saltonstall Kennedy Grant from NOAA but did not find out until May; We made it to the highest runner up round, but we’ve created a secondary budget that will help us get through without dipping too much into reserves (the general fund) until we get more grant funding
A lot of Ava’s staff time and other operational costs for the Saturday Market has been covered by other CFSB grants in the past (~$10,000 prior to 2024)
Ray emphasizes that Ava gets paid separately by CLTFA; This is true, Ava is paid $25/hr and makes approximately $500 from them every 2-3 months, so it’s not a substantial amount to impact her income in a profound way at this point
It’s important to note that a lot of the basic work we do is really hard to get grants to cover cause most grants are project-specific; Most grants don’t want to cover advocacy/general operational costs
To clarify, Ava and Kim get paid by the hour, there’s no benefits, and we have to create our own itemized invoices on a monthly basis (time to create this is not paid)
When we receive donations or grants, we take 10% for “admin costs” which is standard for non-profits; It covers CPA costs, insurance, utilities you might pay, some staff time, etc.; It’s more of an administration fund.
Gear storage now is going up a tad because our rent went up 25% but the rent increase wasn’t passed on fully to the subleases, it was a 12% increase given, but that might be a difficult thing to subsidize so it might have to increase (we will add this to the agenda at a future meeting)
We used to make money from the harbor festival but don’t anymore, last year we made $175 due to labor costs; Post-covid it’s very difficult to find volunteers, let alone good volunteers that are capable of doing the difficult jobs of harbor festival
UCSB will give us $25k to host a one-day summit
We will need to increase membership costs (we haven’t done this in 9 years) from $70 likely to $100
Gary asks Kim, when you write a grant, can you take your hours out of that grant so it doesn’t come out of CFSB? Kim says most grants don’t allow that but you can strategize and walk a line and it doesn’t always work but on the whole you either charge the time to a different grant you already have or try to write it in
Chris emphasizes that Kim and Ava do a lot that’s not logged; If anyone calls them or stops them and takes their time to discuss anything work-related in an unexpected way, they don’t log that time.
Chris emphasizes that grants are really tricky and it takes a long time just to prospect for mission appropriated funding.
Mike Kenny asks if grants are really that time-consuming/difficult? Chris and Ava say YES it can be very labor intensive.
The CSB funds and once we get reimbursed from Seasketch will help
Vote to release $15K of General Funds for staff costs in short term
Chris pursued approval from board members individually
Kim emphasizes the goal would be to replenish what we take with future grants’ admin funds
Ray makes a motion to approve the new budget as proposed. Jeff seconds, unanimous approval (6-0-0 vote stands Garrett absent)
Cable 2020 unspent funds $6655
These funds are intended for safety gear and it’s a drag for Michael to carry it over every year, but given how little it’s been used, maybe right now let’s use it for staff costs that we’re in the hole on and we could continue to get more money for safety grants in the future
Chris makes a motion to ask the Cable Committee for permission to shift those funds to general funds (Jeff and Gary said it’s OK), Ray seconds the motion, unanimous approval (6-0-0 vote stands)
CFSB Merchandise Update - 5 Minutes
At May’s board meeting, it was decided that Ava would do more research and circle back, but the product decisions were primarily focused on hats, t-shirts, and long-sleeves
Ava went forward with the company Doug Bush from the Ab Farm referred, High Desert Print, as they came in with the lowest cost and fastest turnaround while maintaining a quality product (turnaround time is roughly 2 weeks but could be expedited if needed).
See PDF for mockups
T-shirts we could charge $20, make a $10 profit
Long-sleeves we could charge $30 and make a $12 profit
If the demand is there, Ava could place a custom order for hoodies for folks who want them
Their minimum is 24 pieces in an order per design - Below is the price per garment at that smaller quantity. Also, if the design is the same across each garment we can mix and match items (doesn’t have to be all hoodies) to meet the 24 quantity
At 24 QTY
Hoodies: $23.74 ea - At this smaller wholesale purchase, we could charge $40 (standard cost when compared to other orgs like Heal the Ocean or Channelkeeper) per hoodie and make a $17 profit
We could also do a run of hoodies with the light gray color and blue printed CFSB logo, in addition or instead of the black hoodie with the light gray logo (see long-sleeve mockup in PDF for gray/blue color option)
T-shirts: $13.82 ea
Long Sleeves: $21.49 ea
Hats: $14.04 ea
Mike Kenny says we should order a lot more and thinks other t-shirt shops would want these which is a good point
Chris makes a motion to make this initial purchase as described and we contemplate modifying based on how the first batch goes (Chris thinks we should order more but we’ll start with 100 of each), Ray seconds the motion, unanimous approval (6-0-0 vote stands)
Harbor Harbor Festival - 15 min
Pre-cooking lobster/crab or hybrid idea
The majority of complaints are around wait time and lost product. Last year was a vast improvement from the year before, but there are still opportunities for improvement.
We discussed doing a hybrid model with half pre-cooked products and then also having the boiling station so customers who don’t care about selecting their own lobster could grab and go, but that might be too complicated to have both operations going simultaneously.
Another idea is to just do the full switch to 100% pre-cooked.
Last year we only made $175
Melissa was really helpful last year recruiting folks from SBCC, hopefully those folks will want to come back
Vendors need to provide more support for recruiting staff
Sam will not be there this year
Chris tells the group that he and Ava met with Nathan, Angela, and Jeannette last month to discuss Harbor Festival and we discussed the idea of a potential hybrid model but now that Sam isn’t going to be there, it makes more sense to maybe just do one option either to fully switch to pre-cooked or leave as is
Melissa says it might open Pandora’s Box if we pre-purchase lobster only from Joe, others might get upset
Melissa emphasizes making the chop shop bigger
Without Sam that’s one less vendor to contribute to staff costs
Mike Kenny asks how much Joe and Melissa charges, she said they charge retail
Mike says something doesn’t add up and he doesn’t understand how we don’t make a profit; Ava says she can send him all the accounting if he wants
Chris says the complete breakdown was in the chop shop last year, the boiling station went totally fine
We have to emphasize that people won’t get a hot lobster because some people complained that their lobster was cold
Melissa says the size of the festival has increased so much it might be best to tell customers ahead of time that once we sell out, we’re out, see you next year, and just set the right expectation
If we choose to use the same model we need to just make sure that it’s improved in the chop shop
Any infrastructure that needs to be created has to go through the Waterfront Dept
Angela says they are supportive of whatever we choose
Ava asks Angela if they can increase the size of the chop shop because there’s some underutilized space in their area and she says she will look into it and get back to us
Need more bread and lemons and knives
Ava will need to buy gloves again (~$200)
The final decision that’s made is that we will use the same model as previous years with the boiling station and optimize the areas that need to be streamlined with better infrastructure and staff support
Riley suggests we ask SBCC if they can offer credit for participation from their students as their staff
This is a great idea and Ava will look into it
Riley also suggests asking local businesses for sponsorship for the festival to maybe get donations for things like gloves, etc. and we could advertise their business on a banner maybe
Ava will also send an email trying to set expectations before harbor festival
Platform Holly Decommissioning, Mary Nishimoto - 30 Minutes
Mary thanks everyone who has participated in the survey thus far
Gary asks when the decision will be made on what they will do - Mary says winter/spring time the economic impact report will come out which gets the clock going for public comment so we’re looking at 2 years at the earliest that this will be done
Jeff asks how long it might take once the process starts - Mary says it probably would take months but she does not know
Mary says some fishermen are in favor of partial removal, some are in favor of full removal
Right now they’re using that transit from the Goleta pier for personnel and that will increase once the project gets started
There may be a lot of project activity in Port Hueneme. Project vessels will take a direct route toward Platform Gilda and use the JO/FLO corridor between Gilda and Port Hueneme. If they go to LA ports, they will likely cross through the channel more directly from Holly to the shipping lanes
Mary wants to inform the California State Lands Commission about how important our harbor is and the areas that will be affected by the decommissioning project. Project Area includes much of the fishable area in block 654 inshore of Platform Holly because potentially the platform, pipelines and power cable, and 2 seep tents will be fully removed.
She shows a table that shows that SB harbor is the busiest port from here to Hueneme
Santa Barbara port area(s) has the most landings in the state (there are fishermen and boats from other places that land their products here); Jeff says they all come over here to help us catch our fish.
Jason says Ventura harbor is a powerhouse for squid landings and Channel Islands is also a powerhouse for urchin landings and wonders why they’re not included in the table? Mary clarifies that those ports are included in the “Santa Barbara” column, then later shows a table confirming what Jason pointed out
Mike Nelson emphasizes that the SB Channel is the most productive area in the state and Mary confirms this is true
Mary says SB has the highest diversity of species landed
The top species are squid landed in Ventura followed by spiny lobster in SB followed by squid in Hueneme, and lobster in Oxnard
Some very high value blocks for the lobster fishery will be impacted by Holly’s decommissioning.
Seine doesn’t really affect any of the blocks and neither does harpoon
March 15th - June 15th are the dates that Jeff suggests due to the seasonal closures during that time and Mary says he is not the only one who has mentioned these exact dates
Holly decommissioning will take place first before the 3 platforms off Pt Conception
Chris asks how Mary’s engagement is funded and she says project is funded by the CSLC
When there’s no more oil being produced and platforms are decommissioned her job will end but Mary says she will be ready to retire by then
Mary says if anyone knows anyone who wants to be interviewed, please send them her way (her email is [email protected])
Harbor Commission: Slip Policy and CUDA Dock - 15 min
Mike Nelson recalled CFSB’s request (5/23) that the Commercial Fisheries Workgroup recommend to the Harbor Commission and the Waterfront Department that an analysis be performed which addressed the need for a greater allocation of designated commercial fishing / aquaculture slips and improvements to the visiting vessel slip program.
He informed the Board that the Dept. presented their analysis at the June Commission meeting, concluding that a greater allocation was unlikely, recognizing that all slips were occupied, numerous policies would require revision, existing slip allocations or assignments must be disrupted, plus there were no plans to build new slips. Despite this conclusion, the Harbor Commission voted to send the issue back to the Workgroup to further explore ways to expand the percentage of commercial fishing slips in the harbor and specifically examine the portability of slips, visiting slip allocations and landing requirements.
Mike asked that the Board appoint representatives to continue its collaboration with the Workgroup to develop new approaches to increasing designated commercial fishing slips
Mike also stated that the Workgroup had been informed by the Dept that the license/lease agreement for the C.U.D.A. dock would expire in August; and, the Dept. further advised that the 9 fishermen who occupied the dock were not required to demonstrate that they were commercial fishermen or meet any landing requirements.
Ray said that it was his opinion that the department's analysis was a 37-page document that simply said that they don’t want to change their existing policy and added that he hoped they would demonstrate a bit more flexibility and less resistance to constructive change.
Mike noted that there have never been more than 45 designated commercial slips during the past 50 years, that the only increase or decrease that occurred was the number of recreational slips occupied by commercial fishermen. (100)
Chris speculated that whatever was decided would go to the City Council; and, at this point, the Harbor Commission had been supportive and believed the Council recognized that commercial fishing and the seafood industry were important components of the city’s economic diversity and food security.
Ray acknowledged that any review of the $15,000 landing requirement would be controversial.
Chris pointed out that there have been substantial increases (i.e. charging for electricity, parking, slip fees, etc.) and that many acknowledged the harbor district to be well managed and financially sound. So, any economic analysis that is performed must include any economic loss to the harbor district from any of the changes proposed. Mike Kenny also recommended including the economic benefit that the commercial fishing industry brings to this harbor and county.
There was support to work with the Workgroup to further consider or conceptually explore allowing a commercial fisherman occupying a recreational slip to elect or exercise an option to allow that fishermen to transition to a designated commercial fishing slip and receive its benefits, provided certain requirements and restrictions were satisfied.
There was general consensus that CFSB recommended the license/lease renewal for the CUDA. Dock be approved in its present form. Mike Nelson recommended that Billy Hooten or someone knowledgeable about the Dock’s operation be present to answer any questions the Commission might have.
It was understood that any recommendations developed by the Workgroup, the Dept. and CFSB representatives would first be presented to the CFSB Board before submission and presentation to the full Harbor Commission.
Ocean Collective - 5 Minutes
We had design firms look at the Loma Alta site and it was very positive; Once they start their work, if they find it is feasible to build there, we will need to nail down how many boat spaces how many gear storage spaces, how much we can charge for them, etc. so we will need everyone’s help on that and the community will have to weigh in on how much demand there is and how much people are willing to pay (can reference Ava’s infrastructure survey from 2021/2022 as well)
We will look to federal sources for funding
The NOAA SK Grant is the main funder we are hoping to secure for the furtherance of this project
Jeff asks about the timing of the Garden St Yard - Chris says the timing is unsure and there’s a lot of nuances with a long term plan for that space.
Mike Kenny says the original idea of collaborating with SBCC is something he’s on board with but he doesn’t necessarily agree with the initiative of collective boat/trap storage because he thinks that’s going to take all the space and he says it’s easy to find space; This isn’t necessarily true though and based on our infrastructure survey, there is absolutely a demand for storage
We’ve been talking with the deans a lot and we have to do a labor market analysis but it’s really hard to quantify and present what kind of fishing jobs there are and might be in the future so we’ve been working with Peter Rupert who’s an economist that can help us nail down all opportunities within the blue economy including fishing but also peripheral blue economy jobs
Carp High is interested in collaborating and wants someone to speak in their classrooms this fall about careers in fishing but we’re not optimistic about engaging with this because we don’t have a lot of funding; The interest from the community is there but if we don’t have funding it’s hard to move forward; If anyone is interested please reach out to us about this
UCSB Summit Ideas - 5 min
They want to make sure coastal fisheries and climate resilience was covered by their funding so they reached out to us to offer $25,000 to do something to help them cover that topic so we worked with UCSB leaders and they came up with our overarching goals; a 1-day meeting of fishing community reps and UCSB research reps and they want us to help them understand the challenges and opportunities to the blue economy experiencing climate change and how can we identify new collaborations where the research community is much more closely aligned in helping serve the fishing community; We don’t know how much we can accomplish in a 1-day meeting but we need the funding (we could use this partially for staff costs). You can see the planning document here.
They’re hoping for 50-60 fishermen which Kim expressed to them that this will be really hard to do
Kim is asking the group for initial thoughts and ideas of how to make it actually useful for fishermen
One idea she had was to host a meeting of reps from other commercial fishing associations from up and down the coast and have it be a forum for our collective issues we’re facing
There is no date set yet but we need to get this right so people show up; It can be any time from now until the beginning of November, but we probably want to shoot for before October because of lobster season
Chris says there are research projects we’ve heard about that could make for a decent exchange between our interests and the researchers interest; They’re interested in evaluating the economic and environmental impact of offshore wind in regard to long-term fishing impact and climate change
Kim says incorporating UCSB engineering labs into problem-solving is potentially a good idea.
Mike Kenny suggests sending an email out to the fleet to try to solicit ideas
We will do this but Chris emphasizes that the goal of discussing this here now is to try to get the wheels turning
Kim says we can do a simple survey on dates and topics of interest
They want all day, not just a few hours but fishermen would of course be paid for their participation
We will have to write a report on take-home messages, we can’t just take the money and run
Mike asks how it’s funded? Kim says UCSB has state money as it pertains to their climate fighting initiative; If we do this, we would get to budget and allocate funds within that $25,000 however we choose (some on fishermen’s time, food, staff, etc.)
Kim says this is a good example of grant-funded work where we still have to use at least most of it for this specific cause, and if there is anything leftover we could make a vote to donate to CFSB
Kim sees this as an opportunity to change minds and win over hearts from a widely perceived adversarial community (the research community); Chris agrees and sees it as a way for us to build relationships with people that could be allies
Ocean Rainforest Meeting with CEO Recap - 5 Minutes - Ran out of time
Offshore Wind Update - 5 Minutes - Ran out of time
Chris says he’s still on the 7c working group as a commercial fisheries representative
Mike Kenny says we should consult with the east coast more; Chris says that we have been but it’s not entirely apples to apples because their offshore turbines are not floating, so the impacts are different.
Ray emphasizes that offshore wind may have a horrible effect because of electromagnetic currents and wave frequencies that may impact marine species.
Shelley Fleming Wigglesworth is someone Mike Kenny tells Chris to reach out to
Ray asks how many allies can we count on/how many commercial fishing associations exist up and down the state? Jeff Hepp and Chris say “A lot” and list a few of those but the point is that there’s plenty and we are well connected with almost all if not all of them
VCCFA meeting Sunday 6/2 Mrs. Olson’s Restaurant Recap - 5 Minutes
Jason Woods’ comments
Jason thanks those who showed up to the meeting and especially Dave Colker and Deryl their treasurer for resurrecting a dead organization into a vibrant and growing organization
Jason is planning a get together with no agenda for our two organizations so we can have a real fellowship meeting; Maybe the second week of August, Jason will send Ava the details to be distributed to CFSB members
Other:
ACR210
Assemblyman Bennett is still pursuing legislation that will harm us, even though we were successful in getting AB 2220 withdrawn
Lori French sign on letter
In Morro Bay, they want to pass an initiative that opposes the battery facility at the old power plant, they want to demo those and put a battery facility there but there’s concern in the broader community about what that means; Ray says battery plants are so dangerous and bad for the environment
Chris asks if we want to sign on to their letter of opposition
Jason makes a motion to sign, Jeff seconds, unanimous approval (4-0-0 vote stands)
Pacific Marine Expo 11/20-11/22 - Ran out of time
Ava, Chris, Mike, Jeff, and Harry are planning on going (this is not a trip sponsored by CFSB and never has been); Reach out to Ava if you want to coordinate details
Trap cleanup Thursday 7/25 - Ran out of time
Contact Ava/Ray if you’re interested in helping out
Miscellaneous:
Jason asks to raise membership dues by 25% for 2025 or just make it $100 and maybe get a shirt with that
Chris makes a motion to raise dues to $100 annually, Ray seconds, unanimous approval (4-0-0 vote stands) and we will discuss the t-shirt membership inclusion later
VCCFA dues are $75 and they get a free t-shirt
Chris ends the meeting at 6:41PM