You may have heard that control over the Sailing and Events Center (SEC) is "up for grabs." The SEC - formerly known as the Youth and Groups Center - is the facility between Baby Beach and the West Marina, and carries a long and proud tradition of providing education, youth development and recreational opportunities to our harbor community. The County has recently announced that it will be issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for an independent contractor to manage the facility. There are lots of rumor, speculation and misinformation about what this all means. Here we intend to provide the facts as we know them, then render our position on the matter.

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What does this mean to the organizations that presently operate out of the SEC, such as Sea Scouts, Westwind, and others that use the facilities for their meetings and classes? Well, that's the big question, isn't it? Here it's important to understand the regulations that dictate how the facility must be used, and the terms of the pending RFP. Every square foot of our harbor, every building, dock, parking lot, park area, and so on, must be utilized in strict compliance with the California Tidelands Trust and Local Coastal Plan (LCP). In the case of the SEC, it must continue to provide recreational and educational services to the community. It cannot be converted to a restaurant or shops as we have in the commercial district on the east side of the harbor. What exactly these recreational and educational services look like will be determined by the language of the RFP and ultimately by the contract with whomever is chosen to manage the facility. We have not seen the RFP yet, but OC DPH has assured us -

Where does your Dana Point Boaters Association stand on this matter? First, throughout our history we have always strived to reduce or eliminate unnecessary operating and capital expenses in our harbor. Our harbor is owned entirely by the state of California, which has entrusted it to the County of Orange to manage. However, our harbor operates financially independently from both the State and County. Other than tax revenue, all money generated in the harbor stays in the harbor (that's the law), and the State and County do not contribute to our harbor's capital or operating expenses. That means all services provided by OC DPH and their operating agencies are funded by revenue collected in our harbor, the vast majority of which comes from boat slip and dry storage fees. Hence, DPBA strives to hold these agencies accountable to being good stewards of our money. The wiser they spend our funds, and the less they waste unnecessarily, the less cause they have to come back to the well for more (i.e., slip rate increases), and the more they have to spend on the services that matter to us most (i.e., dock maintenance).

Nobody disagrees that OC DPH does not manage the SEC well. Even OC DPH says so. The facilities are not in optimal condition, and using the facility can be a bureaucratic nightmare. And OC DPH is losing $300,000 annually to do it. There must be a better way. Perhaps a private non-government operator, under strict contractual obligations to preserve what matters most, can find efficiencies (cost savings) in managing the facility, improve its upkeep, and pursue revenue opportunities that serve the educational and recreational mission of the SEC. So often those of us who spend our leisure time around Baby Beach see the SEC dark and locked up. What if you could rent a paddleboard, buy lessons, grab some sunblock, buy swim gear, or grab a burger from the snack bar? While at the same time, Sea Scouts continues to develop kids into ocean-minded mariners, you can still take sailing lessons, and Dana Outrigger continues to launch its vessels from Baby Beach. And all in exchange for allowing a private operator to hang their shingle over the door and take some pride in reinvigorating this underserved facility.

Too good to be true? Perhaps. But we know the County won't allow the status quo to continue. Nor should we - it's not working. And if this RFP process is bound to play out, we are determined to see it through to a conclusion that serves the best interests of our harbor. The terms of the RFP have not yet been publicly disclosed. But we hope to see stipulations in the RFP that require proposals to preserve the recreational and educational tradition of the SEC, and ensure that the non-profits (i.e. Sea Scouts) that serve our ocean-minded harbor community remain without compromise, with affordable usage fees that don't undermine their solvency. And most important, we intend to hold the County accountable to selecting an operator that promises the same. We urge you to remain tuned in, to share the news, and speak your mind so that the powers that be hear loud and clear that the SEC must remain the educational and community-serving treasure it is today, only better.

Respectively Submitted,
James Lenthall
Vice-President

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