King Harbor Blog

I'm always most relaxed and content when I'm on or around the water. Boats have always been a big part of my life so it was only natural that a desire to volunteer my services within my community led me to the waterfront.

I became a Redondo Beach Harbor Commissioner in 2005. In 2007 I found a way to help focus attention on the harbor by writing a weekly column for the Easy Reader called Harbor Lights. It's all about King Harbor.

In January 2008, this blog was launched. It's a forum to share ideas on the many issues and subjects of interest that surround the harbor. Click here for more about Harry Munns.

Feel free to contribute opinions, facts or ideas, either about the subjects covered in Harbor Lights or other topics related to King Harbor. My only request is that you keep it civil. Let's make sure we respect one another, even when we disagree. Happy Blogging!

Harry Munns January 6, 2008

In February Easy Reader published a column I wrote entitled Sailing Around isn't Kids' Play http://www.easyreadernews.com/columns/harbor-lights-sailing-around-isn%E2%80%99t-kids%E2%80%99-play It was about Abby Sunderland's attempt to sail around the world non-stop and solo.

I wrote that I really couldn't say whether parents who encourage their kids to do dangerous things were guilty of abuse or they are enabling their kids to realize big dreams. Frankly, if she accomplished her goal the discussion of abuse would probably have ended.

She didn't accomplish her goal. Her Boat, Wild Eyes, dismasted in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She set off her Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) and for a few tense hours, her condition was unknown. The Australian government sent out a search plane that eventually located her 2000 miles from land.

The discussion of abuse was dialed back a notch because she lived through the storm that tore Wild Eyes' rigging down. But people are asking what was a 16 year old doing out in the middle of an angry ocean by herself?

It's a good question and the most recent answer has added fuel to the fire stoked beneath the abuse allegations. Her dad, whose occupation has been listed as sailing instructor, is alleged to have contracted with a production company to produce a reality show. Critics are now connecting the dots and accusing him of sending Abby off to battle some of the toughest seas on the planet so that he could become famous and make money.

I don't know Mr. Sundarland but my guess would be that those dots should not be connected. The accusation that a father would send his child into harm's way for money is ugly and horrible.

You can't know what's inside another person's head but I'm giving Mr. Sunderland the benefit of the doubt. I'm incredibly happy that Abby is safe and will soon be returned to her family. All of the other ancillary factors are meaningless by comparison.

I wrote a column in the Easy Reader in which I declared that I was the boating public’s conduit to city government in Redondo Beach http://www.easyreadernews.com/columns/harbor-lights-boaters-voice. I’d like to reiterate that here. If you are an individual boater who uses King Harbor for any reason from paddling a kayak to entertaining on a yacht, the city has a mechanism for you to have your voices heard within city government.

It’s me. I’m the boater’s representative on the harbor commission. I’m there to represent the interests of people who use King Harbor for recreational boating.

For the 5 years since I was appointed to the harbor commission, I’ve heard a number of representatives of groups of boaters speak to the harbor commission and the city council on behalf of their groups. That was the proper way the interests of groups with a particular opinion should be presented to city government.

That rhetoric had evolved over my 5 years on the commission. The voice of a few groups has begun to be presented as the voice of “the boaters”. As this false representation began to evolve, I began to become disturbed. A small handful of powerful boating groups were beginning to present themselves at the voice of the overall boating public. They were definitely not what they claimed to be and as much as I liked the individuals involved, I felt it was my duty as the harbor commission’s boater’s representative to point out that these representatives of specific groups did not speak for anything close to a majority of King Harbor boaters.

Allow me to prove it. If you are a King Harbor boater who is not affiliated with a particular club or organization, tell me your position on the boat ramp or a master plan for Mole B.

If you’re not connected to a boating club or group your response will almost certainly be, “what?”

The boaters of King Harbor are not screaming for a boat ramp or a master plan for Mole B (who even knows what Mole B is?). But if you attended a harbor commission or city council meeting you’ll walk away believing your boating future depends on these two things. It doesn’t!

I’ve asked the special interests involved in these movements to tone down the rhetoric. They haven’t so it’s time to come forward with the truth.

If you use the facilities in King Harbor for boating and you have opinions about the harbor and its future, please call on me to carry your thoughts to city government. That’s what I was appointed to do. Post a response here or email me at harry@munns.org.

There are plenty of reasons to avoid King Harbor but you won't see any of them here. Instead, I prefer to focus on the reasons why I spend so much time there.

I was there this morning from about 7:45 to 8:15. I was riding on the bike path. I can't remember the last time I rolled out of bed and got on my bike but last night when the urge hit me, I knew that was what I wanted to do.

My strand bike rides usually begin at Pier Avenue in Hermosa or 190th Street. I usually ride north to El Segundo.

As I've mentioned previously, I like boats. I like going places on them. I like just being around them. I (usually) like the people I meet on them. I even like taking care of them although that has to go to the bottom of the list.

So I had the notion it might be fun to ride south, through King Harbor and I was right. The first thing that should be pointed out is that if you bring music on an iPod as I did, you need to crank up the volume when you're on the street. There are a lot of cars and trucks around at that time of day.

I must have missed the sounds of the surf in the horseshoe and the seabirds but Jimmy Buffet was a satisfying substitute. Once I got out of traffic, the air was clear with the subtle scent of ocean. Even though the sun was low in the sky, it warmed the land and water with a kind of orange glow that  turned to a radiant gold right before my eyes.

The wind wasn't up yet so the water in the marina and the ocean beyond
shimmered and reflected the occasional sharp speck of sunshine.Crews on the fishing boats were getting ready to head out to sea. Cleaners opened restaurant doors then locked quickly them so they could get to work preparing for today's lunch and dinner guests.

One of the things I like about the Pier/Harbor area is that it's completely different at different times of the day. 7:45 to 8:15 was a treat. Maybe tomorrow I'll check out 7:15 to 7:45. Maybe I'll see you there.

It has been awhile since I updated the Harbor Commission section of this blog. I’ll try to summarize the high points.

Since September, 2009 the commission has lost 4 members. The only remaining members of the previous commission are me, Harry Munns, Shane Michael and Alex Bannerman. Shane took over as Chairman from Alex in October.

Three of the 4 open slots have been filled and we expect the remaining empty chair to get a new commissioner in April, 2010. We have welcomed the following new members.

Blaise Tracy – a communications specialist and President of the RB Education Foundation

Anthony Cignarale – an attorney who works in the insurance industry

Tarek Shaer – an architect/developer

We have a very impressive group of people who volunteer to lend their expertise to the community. But even some of the newer members of the Harbor Commission have commented that we aren’t given a lot of meaningful work to do. This is a struggle that continues regardless of who’s on the commission.

There have been some glimmers of hope. The City Council sent the long-awaited Harbor Business Plan to the HC for evaluation. The commission will begin gathering public input  through the Business Plan Subcommittee this month, March 2010. If you have an interest in this document or King Harbor business in general, please try to attend these meetings.

I will try to post information here when I have it. Meanwhile, the plan will be on the HC agenda for at least two more months. The April meeting will take place on the second floor of the main library at 7 PM, April 12th and the May meeting will be in the same place May 10th. The location will move next door if the City Council Chambers renovation is completed.

It was a great pleasure to welcome District 2 City Councilor, Bill Brand to the HC meeting in March. He came to the podium on more than one occasion to provide insight for commissioners and attendees on a number of items.

One issue the commission considered was the refusal of the City Manager to provide monthly harbor budget updates to the commission. Councilman Brand shared the commission’s opinion that if this information was available, it should be shared with the commission.

City Manager Workman cited 8 reasons he believed he was not obligated to share this information with the HC. I took exception with his claim that the City Charter didn’t include the HC in budget discussions. The charter clearly says that the HC, “… will further the commercial and recreational development of the harbor.” We can’t do that without accurate, comprehensive financial information.

Councilman Brand also briefed the HC about the 5 recommendations we made for items to be included in the recent City Council strategic planning meeting. Twice a year the council meets to update the strategic plan. As a matter of city policy, you could say if it ain’t on the strategic plan, it won’t get done. It looks like we got 3 of 5 recommendations on the plan.

We also found out from Brand the perception of cloudy information coming from city government about the operation of Seaside Lagoon in the summer of 2010 probably has more to do with a lack of definitive knowledge than a grand conspiracy. The Mayor, council and Recreation Director, Mike Wytzansky all seem pretty sure we’ll be swimming in the lagoon in May. We’re still not sure why they’re so confident so we may fall back on the more entertaining conspiracy theory before too long.

A group of King Harbor fishermen (and women) came to comment on the Marine Life Protection Act. If you aren’t up to speed, there’s a lot to know about this issue. One admittedly biased but comprehensive source of information is http://www.keeprockypointopen.com/. If you use or might use the part of the ocean that borders the northern corner of the PV peninsula, you may want to get involved in keeping it open because there’s a distinct possibility that severe restrictions will be enforced in the near future.

Those are the high (and low) points. If you have an interest in King Harbor you may want to familiarize yourself our agenda and what we do. You can see our agenda here http://laserweb.redondo.org/weblink/Browse.aspx 72 hours or more prior to our meetings which occur on the second Monday of each month, at 7 PM. Please come and address the commission on any agenda item about which you are concerned. This is really democracy at work. We’re all real people, citizens of the city and interested in what’s best for our community. Don’t be shy!

If I’m going to be judged by this blog then I have no choice but to admit the following; I’m a lousy blogger.

What I’m going to tell you next isn’t an attempt to brag or make anyone question their own actions. One of the things that kept me away from my computer for at least part of the summer is the very thing this blog is about, King Harbor. So I guess I’m saying I have an excuse, at least since June.

Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve done in KH this summer; drinks at Old Tony’s, dinner at Samba, lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack (I’ve got an 8 year old son), sailed big boats, sailed a Sabot with my son from the yacht club, swam in the Seaside Lagoon three times, spent July 4th at the Lagoon, hiked more than half way out the breakwater, hiked to the end of the jetty behind the little pier multiple times, played football at Moonstone Park, discovered the location of Turtle Park, hiked the outside of the Galveston wall on Yacht Club Way, rode bikes all around the marina, attended 3 concerts on the pier. There’s more but rather than risking anyone saying I’m bragging, I’ll leave it at that.

King Harbor’s the place I go lots of times when I don’t really have anyplace to go. I might end up on a boat, in a park or in a restaurant. Sometimes I have a plan. Sometimes I don’t. Lots of times I just go down there and figure it out when I get there. Maybe I’m weird, but I never get tired of it.

Chances are you haven’t spent as much time in the harbor as I have this summer, but there’s still time to swim in the lagoon, rent a paddle boat, go out on a fishing boat and any number of other activities.

Please post a reply and tell me what you have done, what you wish you had done and what you’d like to do in the future. There really is a lot crammed into that little space. I’d like to hear from everyone who uses it, even if you don’t use it as much as me.

The May HC meeting was a re-airing of one of the fundamental complaints that comes up again and again within the commission. As requested, Director Parker provided us with agenda items related to Pier and Harbor business the City Council has recently processed.

The key word in the previous sentence and the root of the pervasive discontent among the commissioners is "processed" as in past tense. Failure to include the commission in decisions that concern the Pier and harbor has been a source of tension between the Harbor Commission and the city for most of the 3+ years I've served on the commision. In fact, last year one commissioner suggested he was ready to quit and that the only way to send a message to the city would be for the rest of us to quit along with him.

Unfortunately, most of us want to serve on the commission as a way to participate in city government and give something back to our community. The city's big mistake with the Harbor Commission was appointing a bunch of smart, competent people. If the intention was to give us little or nothing to do, I would think the best people to be satisfied doing little or nothing would be individuals who lack those two qualities.

So being a guy, I ask the question, how do we fix it? Well, we tried about a year and a half ago. We sent a letter to the city council asking them to direct the City Manager to run all Pier/Harbor items that will appear on the council's agenda through the Harbor Commission first.

That symbolic gesture wasn't intended as any serious attempt to alter city policy. It was just a plea from a group of eager volunteers asking for a chance to be included in the process, to help. I never saw an official response to that letter, but reports indicated the council agreed with the concept.

Yet there we were more than a year later looking at an agenda that included in excess of a dozen items relating to the Pier/Harbor that had all received action from the City Council. That's right, "received" as in past tense. The Harbor Commission never saw them.

I'd be happy to point the finger where I believe it needs to be pointed, but I'll leave it to the reader to look at the players in this game and figure out who's disrupting the team's harmony.

I've felt like a lot of different things in my life, a recipient of good fortune, a victim and a cog in the machinery to name a few. This is the first time I've ever felt under-utilized. It's kind of hard to get used to, but I guess I'll be going to the next commission meeting so what does that tell you?

Bill Brand and I disagree on the one thing that defined his political career prior to election to the Redondo Beach City Council. He thinks the AES Redondo Power Plant would best serve our community if it became a park. I don’t believe that’s the best use for that property, when and if it becomes available for conversion from its current use. I will give him this, if a park or power plant were ever the only two options, Bill and I would be in complete agreement, bring in the bulldozers and plant some grass.

I’ve expressed this opinion in my Easy Reader column, Harbor Lights, and in public statements at Harbor Commission meetings. King Harbor, the focus of my column and my Harbor Commission work, lies in Bill’s district, District 2. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Bill and I looked at all the issues facing our common territory and found we agreed on more than we disagreed upon. In fact, it’s safe to say we both want what’s best for District 2, the Pier and King Harbor.

When you’ve disagreed, sometimes vigorously, with someone in the pages of a newspaper and other public discourse, you don’t expect to find that individual personally agreeable, at least I don’t. So it was a pleasant surprise after a few emails to finally talk with Bill on the phone and find we had a lot to talk about and it all transpired in a pleasant, harmonious fashion.

I believe in the ideal of citizen-run government and the value of diverse opinions. I congratulate Bill Brand for his election victory, welcome him to the council and look forward to working with him in coming years.

Let me start by saying I know anyone who's been checking this blog lately has been disappointed by the lack of new content. Isn't the whole idea of a blog to post current, timely information? Yup, it is and I appologize for not keeping it that way. If you see me around town, bug me about it! I deserve it! I'll try to improve even before I get any harassment.

March was a pretty light month at the HC. We got to review the latest plans for a new, improved Lagoon. We seemed to agree on a couple things. The water feature should be as large as possible and under no circumstances should we give up any park land for parking.

Mike Witzansky explained that it was just there in case we needed to swap some space to Decron, the current owner of the leasehold that borders the lagoon. I liked that explanation better but still believed the public will never stand for any deal that converts that gives away a portion of the park.

It's tied to the boat ramp. I'll rant about the ramp later, but for now let me just say that I'm tired of ramp advocates trying to ram their concept down everyone's throats. There is no plan for a ramp. There has been no approval. Anyone who tries to tie a ramp to the lagoon is playing a very risky game. They may lose a lot of friends when their fictitious connection between a ramp and the lagoon gets exposed for what it is, fiction.

They've become very aggressive and they seem to have bamboozled a few city officials, but not all of them. My advice; recede into the background and wait for the right time to fight your battle. Otherwise risk the very real possibility of getting tarred with the "kook" brush.

In the end, the HC approved one of the plans, I think it was #3. It doesn't matter much because the City Council approved the same one after lengthy discussion about how there was almost no possibility of coming up with the $11 million to build it.

City government's funny, in a frustrating, illogical sort of way. When you get to the state and federal levels you lose the funny and all you've got left is the frustrating and illogical. City government's a picnic by comparison.

It was pretty cool (no pun intended) to see people ice skating in Seaside Lagoon in November. I've skated at the Culver City rink where the Kings practice (or at least they did then) and the mall in PV. This was by far the best of the three, palm trees swaying, the harbor and the Pacific, beyond as a backdrop.

Tom Kearney and Scott Williams worked very hard to make this dream a reality. On the morning of November 18th, hours before the opening ceremony, I saw Scott luggin equipment down to the shed that housed the compressor. I hope they succeed. They deserve it.

The city helped as did a number of sponsors. If all goes as planned, the event will repeat for the next two years and perhaps beyond.

As an an advocate for the harbor, I'm thrilled to see the Seaside Lagoon operating in any capacity during its usual dark period from September to May. It's great to see people down there having fun. Now let's see if we can figure out something to do with it between January and May.

We were presented with some of the documents the Harbor Business and Transit Department and Fire Chief prepared to apply for a grant from the Department of Boating and Waterways for transient moorings in the harbor. According to the chief, we can expect to hear something in about 6 months.

The commission was also presented with a summary of the City Council's September 10th Strategic Planning Workshop. The City Council has had these meetings on a 12 month cycle in the past. It appears they are shorting that cycle to 6 months.

It seems the meetings help those involved in the highest level of city government set some goals and deadlines for their achievement. Without the benefit of having performed a detailed analysys of past goals and their current status, it appears the city's overall record is satisfactory. You can see an outline of the objectives at http://www.redondo.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=17222.

Director Parker presented her report summarizing some of the recent activities in the harbor such as the Lobster Festival and the visit of the tall ships, Lynx and the Californian. She also summarized some of the upcoming events such as ribbon cutting for Seaside Ice, Santa's visit to the Pier and the boat parade.

The Harbor Commission saw the completed (at least for now) version of the web site that's intended to draw visitors to the Harbor/Pier area. There was another round of complaining about the name redondoharborresort.com. In case you missed it, some of us, me included, believe it's misleading to call the harbor Redondo Harbor or even Redondo Beach Harbor because it has a proper name, King Harbor. Overall, the site looks good and we have great hopes that it will stimulate activity.

The Mayor sent a letter to the commission, which we assumed would be sent to all commisions, regarding the City's Utility Users Tax. A committee made up of the Mayor, two City Council members and the City Treasurer will recommend to the City Council that it, "approve a modernization of the existing UUT tax with NO increase in the rate."

Budget and Finance Commissioner Gary Ohst suggested that, "Anything that hints of an Internet tax loophole will meet with opposition." We will certainly hear more about this when it becomes a ballot measure.

Earlier this year, RB city staff predicted a series of new signs, some of which will direct people to the Pier/Harbor, would be installed in the summer of 2008. Harbor, Business and Transit Director, Gwendolyn Parker submitted a report on their progress. Seven directional panels are scheduled to be installed in October. Five monument signs are secheduled to be installed in November. We'll see.

The HC has had a group of sub-committees set up in case we ever needed to take action on any of the topics they cover. We've talked about getting rid of the sub-committes and just creating them when they're needed for a project. We did something in between doing nothing and getting rid of the sub-committes altogether. From now on, we will dissolve the existing sub-committes once a year and re-establish the exact same committees immediately. It's hard to decide whether we actually did something or not.

We re-elected Alex Bannerman as committee chair, Trish Murakawa vice-chair and yours truly as secretary.

Aquatic Design Group, Inc. presented an updated plan for various rehabilitation plans for the Seaside Lagoon. Time is running out on that project. In September 2009 when the Lagoon closes for the season, the current permits will run out. The Water Quality Control Board expects a clear solution to the pollution problem by that time. If the solution requires extensive construction, which it probably will, that work must be completed by May of 2010 to avoid missing that summer season and possibly others. So far, the city still hasn't figured out what to do. The clock is ticking.

There will be new benches, planters and railings on parts of the Pier. We looked at a few designs and offered suggestions. The most important part of this project is that the city will get $176,000 worth of new furniture. What we don't know is how long it will hold up and contunue to look new.

We welcomed a new member, Corwin Eberting, who replaced Jon Bevington. Jon went to the Planning Commission. We're all looking forward to working with Commissioner Eberting.

If you've been looking at this blog for news about King Harbor in the last few months, I'm embarassed to say, there hasn't been any. My company, BookMyFun Online Reservations www.bookmyfun.com hosts the blog. We performed some major hardware and software upgrades over the summer and The King Harbor Blog was one of the last things to return to normal.

Unfortunately, some of the material was lost, specifically, comments to the orignial postings. No, I didn't delete opposing opinions. They were just lost in transit. If you posted something here in the past, I urge you to take a moment to re-type your posting.

Everything's working now so I hope to get back to blogging.  There's lots to talk about.

The Chamber of Commerce, the Pier Merchants Association, King Harbor Association, city government and various other interested parties, spend considerable time and effort trying to solve the same mystery. How do we get more people to use and enjoy the fantastic resources in the Pier and harbor area?

Walk down the pier or boardwalk any Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the good weather and you’ll ask yourself, "why all the fuss?" There’s people everywhere. Travel the same route on a Monday morning in January or February and you’ll get it within the first minute. You wouldn’t be able to hit a person with a fully-loaded AK-47.

There are plenty of reasons to come to King Harbor, restaurants, night clubs, fishing, boating, Seaside Lagoon (in season), to name a few. On some weekends, like the weekend of September 27-28, the place fills nearly to capacity.

Credit the newly invigorated Lobster Festival, the Rods, Rides and Relics car show on the Pier and the Dolphin Dash for that weekend’s crowds. In the next couple of weekends the Redondo Beach Art Group will present The Power of Art inside the AES Steam plant. Redondo Beach Marina and the King Harbor Association will host the tall ship Lynx.

What’s the message in all this? The static attractions in the harbor area do an adequate job of attracting people. If you want more people, you need more attractions. It’s that simple.

The Pier has music and a few festivals in the summer and the Lagoon has a few events scattered throughout the year. If you want more people to come here, you need to create the impression that, in addition to the regular stuff, there’s always something fun going on along our waterfront.

Part of the solution would be to coordinate the existing events and market them altogether. In addition, the frequency and number of special events should expand to fill as much of the annual calendar as possible. Then the King Harbor Events Calendar needs to get marketed so that everyone within driving distance knows that there’s always something fun going on in Redondo Beach.

A tall order? Sure, but it’s doable and as it begins to come together, our need to share the harbor and pier with others will slowly become satisfied.

The meeting started like most others, with role call and a salute to the flag. We spent received presentations from various city staff. Newly hired Harbor Projects Analyst, Veronica Wolkow, reviewed her progress on the harbor resort web site.

Harbor, Business and Transit Director, Gwendolyn Parker reviewed the 6 month strategic plan and the water quality matrix. While it may not always be obvious, the harbor does make progress.

The idea behind branding Redondo's waterfront as a resort destination has been embraced by many stakeholders. When people plan their vacations to this part of the country, they have lots of choices. The city wants to put itself up at the front of the line when those decisions are made. It's a way to package and brand the harbor and its surroundings.

A few of us have voiced our strong objection to creating a new name, Redondo Harbor Resort when there's no such thing as Redondo Harbor. Our harbor already has a perfectly good name, King Harbor.

Aside from that, the web site is coming along fine. It's due to roll out by the end of the year.

An outside consultant has been hired to prepare a business plan for the harbor. It has great potential for guiding one of our city's most valuable assets to bigger and better things. It's in the early stages, so it's too soon to tell how it will turn out.

We had a short discussion on harbor reserves but it seems as though specific numbers are still somewhat vague.

The Harbor Department has created some pamphlets with guidelines for handling potential sorces of pollution. They're being called Best Management Practices.

The anxiety level rose when we landed on the subject of the August joint meeting with the City Council and the Budjet and Finance Commission. The best way to sum it up is to say some of the commissioners felt we were more like observers than participants. This has become a chronic complaint among some Harbor Commissioners, me included. It's a subject for another post, but it made for some lively debate in September.

We tabled a discussion about sub-committes for another meeting.