CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - June 13, 2022
Attendees: Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Mike Nelson, Tony Luna, Andy Rasmussen, Paul Teall, Harry Liquornik, Scott Streett, John Colgate, Nick Tharp, Gary Burke, Michael Harrington, Victoria Voss
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Harbor Commission Update - Mike Nelson
Subcommittee reconvened
Discounted slips discussion - min requirements, expanding the number of slips
Discounts on slip transfer fees?
Fishermen for Ukraine CFSB Donation
Fuel Cost/Inflation
AOA Webinar
Maritime Collective
follow up meeting this week (Wednesday 3PM)
Report back Carbajal meeting
Offshore Wind Update
Fish and Game Commission Fishing Communities Policy process
Sea Otter Delisting
Chris Voss opened the meeting on June 13, 2022 at 4:09pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.
Agenda:
Harbor Commission Update - Mike Nelson
The Commercial Fisheries Subcommittee reconvened and elected Mike as Chair.
Fishermen in attendance described slip transfer fees as a major impediment to conveying their commercial boats and businesses.
Discounted slips to be examined for possible improvement by the Commercial Fisheries Subcommittee as an incentive for promoting the local seafood industry.
Discounts on slip transfer fees?
Chairman of the Slip Assignment Policy Sub Committee (Stedman) indicated willingness to review slip transfer fees associated with commercial fishing vessels as a business practice that may be subject to municipal code’s preferential treatment of commercial fishing and aquaculture.
Tony Luna said he attended the Subcommittee meeting and emphasized that there are not enough commercial slips. Tony says it will cost him $1600/month for a recreational guest slip, because there’s no commercial guest slips, plus it’s extremely inconvenient to show fish tickets every week, he suggested that there was ample opportunity for improving this system.
Kim asked if folks liked the Waterfront Dept’s policy of assessing their landings to stay in a commercial fishing slip. Do fishermen think that’s the right way to manage commercial fishing slips? Paul states that the $15,000/biannually is not enough of a threshold
Rasmussen reminded everyone that Mick Kronman (former harbor master) declared that if a fishermen's fishery was eliminated by regulation, the waterfront department would not terminate their slip permit.
Harry summarized the discussion by stating that there were 2 issues: first, the waterfront department's policy for discounted slips (numbers and rates of visitor, guest and grandfathered permits) and second, the cost of slip transfer fees.
Fishermen for Ukraine CFSB Donation
Paul feels uncomfortable spending money from the general fund, and was under the impression that our donations would come from grant funding, but we don’t have a grant that can support us spending money on this specifically
Kim says it’s not appropriate to withdraw funds from any grants, but the general funds is like our nest egg, but it’s up to the board to decide what to do with those funds
Chris asks if anyone can make a motion to make some kind of financial commitment to donate to World Central Kitchen, he asks the 5 board members that are present if anyone wants to make a motion
Harry asks to wait to see how much we gross and go from there
Gary asks what the projected profits are: Paul explains that we’ve grossed $18,000 so far with the ticket sales alone, plus the auction items, and subtracting the CFSB reimbursement, we’ll likely be able to donate around 15-20k
Fuel Cost/Inflation
Andy says fuel will never go down until our government pushes more domestic production, we need to push Carbajal which he won’t like, but fuel went up 50 cents today alone, and we need to do something about it because this country is screwed right now. Right now, Exxon is trying to open the Santa Ynez unit and put it all on a truck to Bakersfield but they can’t do it because they’re not allowed by the state government.
Paul asked how can CFSB help? Andy suggested approaching Carbajal about working to give the oil/gas companies permission to move forward.
Kim suggested speaking with the Exxon folks too before submitting a letter and also calling Greg Hass for recommendations.
Harry makes a motion to write a letter to our city, county and federal representatives on behalf of CFSB supporting that the fire up the Santa Ynez unit and get all that existing infrastructure back online, Paul seconds the motion, unanimous approval of the 5 board members present (5 out of 7, vote stands)
AOA Webinar
The atlas is now up for public comment and they are looking for specific information about the maps
The meeting is Monday June 27th so we encourage folks to attend and weigh in on the items they’re requesting (can be found in the email Ava sent out with the map)
Kim also brings up the question of if we want maps for ourselves because SeaSketch has offered to do this for us pro bono and says they could use a system to keep it all confidential, the alternative would be to see what Carrie Pomeroy is doing. We have until July to do the public comment and then they might be opening up the areas for lease applications by the end of the year
We’ve already expressed opposition to this and will continue to oppose it moving forward
Comments raised:
Why don’t we just use the blocks because the data is already there? The block data is much lower resolution than would be useful in siting these aquaculture areas.
We should know specifics in terms of what species we are talking about before we give out this information - There are different issues for different species.
It’s just a chunk of area being gone no matter what, it’s spatial loss at the end of the day
It works well in our favor when you can show them the map and pinpoint different impacts to different fisheries - If you have economists run numbers and put it on a chart, it will help.
We should fully oppose it because we don’t know what might be of value in the future. Black cod gear on the backside of San Miguel is an example because no one used to care 10-15 years ago but now there’s maybe 12-20 guys going back there, so if there’s a change in the demographics of Santa Barbara and we get bigger markets, something like that might be of value in the future but not right now. There is a general agreement that we have to look forward to the generations coming down in the future and we need to broaden our vision.
We’ll come back at our next meeting with a presentation about SeaSketch and potentially Carrie’s option to have our options laid out on the table. Harry asks what about NOAA? He said they have economists,
Chris makes a motion to oppose but if it’s going to happen anyway, it needs to be done with a better understanding of the significant economic impacts it will have, which can be aided by having a locally driven mapping process
Maritime Collective
Follow up meeting this week (Wednesday 3PM)
Meeting will take place in the harbor classroom and a Zoom link will be sent out as well for anyone who cannot attend in person
We will discuss what we discovered in the surveys, plus a potential governance structure, etc.
Report back Carbajal meeting
Kim stated that the Congressman agreed to have his staff help CFSB look for federal grant opportunities to fund the acquisition and development of the Maritime Collective.
Offshore Wind Update
Lease bidders are getting a 2.5% incentive if they engage with commercial fisheries, but we believe this percentage is far too low, so we will be suggesting a 15% figure vs. 2.5
Offshore wind costs 6x more than what onshore wind costs, plus if you factor in environmental impacts, once you add it all up, it’s wildly expensive, on a nice day out there, it’s crappy, so maybe we’ll find another solution than this extremely impactful idea that will end up being very expensive - Why not just do it on land? There’s plenty in Mojave that are working just great.
Fish and Game Commission Fishing Communities Policy process
There’s a policy drafting workshop on June 22nd from 3-5:30PM
Sea Otter Delisting
Harry will forward a letter that we will sign off on in support
Other
Michael Harrington asks for Ava to have a credit card, Kim and Chris need to approve this
Chris Voss ended the meeting on June 13, 2022 at 5:40pm.