Harbor Patrol expenses rising

There is virtually no fat to trim off the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol budget or staff, and there’s no way to force cities with harbors to help pay for the increasingly costly service, according to a report released by a county group assigned to examining the issue.

“There are no easy solutions for the proper structure and funding of the Harbor Patrol,” found the report, which was distributed to county supervisors last week. “While cities and their residents reap some benefit from having harbors, and the harbor patrol, the county cannot compel cities to pay for harbor patrol.”

Because of a 1975 resolution by the county Board of Supervisors, harbor patrol responsibilities were handed over to the Sheriff’s Department and away from the county’s Environmental Management Agency. Part of the understanding was that the county would reimburse the sheriff for the costs of patrolling the harbor.

The report comes from the county Working Group, a small task force made up of people from Supervisor John Moorlach’s office, the Sheriff’s Department, the OC Parks department and Dana Point Harbor.

While harbor patrol expenses have increased nearly 22% in the last five years, from $9.3 million to $11.3 million, services remain the same. In the last 10 years, the budget has more than doubled, according to the report.

But all the while, as far back as 1975, staffing has remained the same at the Sheriff’s Department’s Dana Point, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach harbors, the report notes. Increasing costs in fuel, employee pensions and salaries are among the reasons costs are up, said Harbor Master Lt. Mark Long.

Given the budget crisis, the report floated out different ways for the harbor patrol to potentially save money.

The Sheriff’s Department could abandon harbor patrol altogether and stick with its only legally required duty — patrol the coasts and tidelands. That, according to Long and the report, is essentially pointless.

Given the size of the coast and required 24-hour patrols, the Sheriff’s Department would have the same level of staffing they do now, minus maybe two deputies, Long said.

“Rather than just having deputies patrol the coastline, the county wisely chose to have those deputies also patrol the county areas within the inner harbors, including Dana Point harbor, county tideland areas as well as perform rescue services, marine firefighting and value-added services,” Long said.

The report suggests changing the type of officer or deputy who patrols the harbor or coastline to someone less costly (and with less training). Long echoed Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ input into the report that having different classes of officers would create more headaches than save money.

Long said that scheduling and staffing “nightmares” would arise because one type of officer could not cover another’s shift, and only certain deputies could respond to certain incidents.

And because Hutchens has authority over the staff, the report stated, she refused to consider it as an option for those reasons. With cities not even legally obligated to pay for the Sheriff’s Department to patrol their harbors, the report noted that there are few, if any options, for the county.

The only one that appears clear is that the harbor patrol is a regional function that should continue to be funded, it concluded.