PORT ANGELES — Moorage rates will go up at the Port Angeles Boat Haven and Sequim’s John Wayne Marina, but just how much remains to be decided.
Two port commissioners Tuesday signaled they’ll raise fees, with Commissioner John Calhoun saying it was necessary to correct a reduction in rates for 2014-15.
“We worked ourselves into a hole,” he said, noting that while the reduced rates had increased marina occupancy, they produced a net loss of revenue.
Commissioners said they expect to reach a detailed decision at their Oct. 27 meeting.
The Boat Haven currently charges $6.21 per foot for a 20-foot uncovered slip, including a 12.84 percent leasehold excise tax. For a similar-size boat, John Wayne Marina charges $7.45 per foot, also including the same excise tax.
Calhoun and Commissioner Jim Hallett both rejected a citizens committee’s urging to lower rates in hopes of attracting more boaters.
About two dozen people — including committee chairman William Spring of Port Angeles — packed the commissioners’ hearing room for the 90-minute discussion.
Comparing rates
Both the port staff’s recommendation to raise fees and the committee’s proposal to drop them stemmed from studies that compared Boat Haven rates with those of other marinas on the Olympic Peninsula and in Puget Sound.
Port staff echoed a consultant’s figures that show the Boat Haven is cheaper than about 80 percent of those marinas, while the citizens committee cited three nearby marinas that are cheaper than Port Angeles.
Spring lambasted port staff for what he called a “wildly biased” sample of rates at other marinas.
“We were flabbergasted with this insult to our collective intelligence,” he said.
Commissioner Colleen McAleer said she wouldn’t support a rate increase until she could examine comparative figures on the median income or average net wealth in communities whose marinas compete with the Boat Haven.
Calhoun and Hallett, however, said rates’ effect on occupancy didn’t stand scrutiny or provide for administrative and maintenance costs and depreciation.
‘You guys are crazy’
“Our consultant said, ‘You guys are crazy not to keep up with inflation at least,’” Calhoun said.
“I would be leaning toward taking the current rates we have [including the reduction that remains in force] and applying a Consumer Price Index raise plus 1 [percent] or 1.5 percent, and consistently applying that through time.”
Hallett likewise rejected the committee’s correlation between rates and occupancy.
“You can’t cut your way to profitability,” he said. “How much lower can we go?”
Hallett said he’d like to see a proposal somewhere between rates at competing marinas and the Consumer Price Index-plus suggestion.
The staff’s proposal calls for 90 percent to 95 percent of rates at comparable marinas for the Boat Haven and 110 percent of those rates for John Wayne Marina.
Calhoun and Hallett said that, although 1 percent of Clallam County’s residents own boats, all of them are paying taxes on bonds issued to improve the Boat Haven.
“If we didn’t have the marina debt, we’d either have lower taxes or we’d have more to invest in our best chances for economic return,” Calhoun said, meaning industrial development.
“A great deal of our debt is taken up by the marinas. I think the taxpayers of the county deserve a market return on their investment.
“It’s what the market will bear, no more and no less.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
