CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - April 4, 2022
Attendees: Harry Liquornik, Paul Teall, Bernard Friedman, Michael Nelson, Michael Harrington, Chris Voss, John Colgate, Jeff Maassen, Gary Burke, Jackson Gross
Absent: Garrett Rose
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
0) 2022 Budget
1) Offshore wind update
Upcoming meeting with Cierco reps
Coastal Commission Ocean Energy Plan
2) Infrastructure project update
$50K budget ask to Waterfront Dept
City college partnership on welding workshop and kitchen?
Strategy on funding and govt engagement (CREF, Carbajal, new grants)
Input on remaining survey work
3) Ocean Rainforest meeting debrief
4) NOAA aquaculture strategy comment letter
5) Stearns Wharf 150 year anniversary event
6) Jackson Gross’ Aquaculture Presentation
7) Rock crab and Urchin event
8) Fishermen’s market insurance
Chris Voss opened the meeting on April 4, 2022 at 4:10pm. Meeting was held in person in the harbor classroom and via Zoom.
Agenda:
0) 2022 Budget
2021 Budget vs. Actual Tab:We had all but one abstain for the 2021 budget approval. Paul is not sure why we were in a deficit
Grant Funds Available Tab: Kim starts by going over the grant funds available saying that in 2021 we didn’t put a lot of effort into grant writing because we had funding available from years prior and lots of work to get done. So even though 2021 was a deficit when considering only the revenue brought in during 2021, we are not actually in a deficit because we had leftover grant money from past years. We actually brought in 125k through USDA in 2021 but it doesn’t show up on our P&L for 2021. They don’t give a lump sum upfront, it’s a monthly reimbursement process. We have enough money right now for our staff costs.
William Corbet is funding that we got for the Saturday Market in March of 2020. We have spent $6k to date (we have $9K left of a $15,000 original grant). $1,500 has been reserved as overhead, and the rest was spent in a bunch of small expenses for marketing, fillet station supplies, permit and staff costs for BR, Kim, and Ava.
John asked about the remaining Quota Bank funding and stresses it could be critical for future costs related to the quota. Kim confirms that we haven’t touched it for years and the $7K left of the original $25K is sitting there in case of new costs.
We have a couple other grants from 2020 and 2021 untouched which Kim suggests we tap into. We also found out today that we got $20k for the Cable 2022 grant for advocacy costs.
In total we have $146k available grant funding as of March 1 to spend, and an additional $24.8k to save that is made up of the 10% overhead from these grants. Harrington is setting up a separate bank account to house this separately.
Harry makes a motion to approve the 2021 financial statement, it is seconded by Chris. 6-0-0 vote, unanimous approval.
2022 Proposed Budget Tab:
Kim walked us through each line item of the 2022 proposed budget and answered questions about it. Most 2022 budget numbers are a straight average of the past 4 years. But in some cases, we have a more informed idea of a cost going up or down. Kim explained which ones deviated from a straight average and why. For instance, we expect our insurance cost to go way up.
Harry makes a motion to approve the 2022 budget outline, it is seconded by Chris. 6-0-0 vote, unanimous approval.
1) Offshore wind update
Upcoming meeting with Cierco reps
Cierco reached out to Chris and he will be meeting with them this week
The wide-ranged opposition will be discussed (from environmentalists, the Chumash, etc.)
Coastal Commission Ocean Energy Plan
Kenny Bates and the few communities up and down the coast are formulating community benefit agreements with consideration for one-time buyouts
2) Infrastructure project update
$50K budget ask to Waterfront Dept
Michael Jordan encouraged us to ask for this amount because he said it’s very feasible to ask for more than the $25k we originally asked for. The ask stipulates that the $50K would only be provided if and when we had a new large federal grant that the $50K is used for ‘matching funds’. Its unlikely we will be able to apply for and win a large federal grant this fiscal year, but you never know.
City college partnership on welding workshop and kitchen?
Ava has reached out to the Marine Diving program director and will follow up with more at the next meeting once they’ve had a chance to connect.
Update this week: Ava reported that the meeting was good but that the welding facilities at CC are not at all geared toward commercial use. Its just a demonstration facility without the heavy duty tools that fishermen would need.
Strategy on funding and govt engagement (CREF, Carbajal, new grants)
We have met with County Supervisors Gregg Hart and Joan Hartmann recently, both of whom have been very enthusiastic and supportive of our efforts and have stated they will continue to be advocates for us
When we met with Gregg Hart, he emphasized that we might be eligible for earmark funding, so we need to follow up with Carbajal and/or his staff.
Have planned a meeting with County Energy Division about the CREF and FEF programs and brainstorm ways to make these sources work for infrastructure needs.
Mike Nelson has been instrumental in getting our local elected officials to be our champions.
Input on remaining survey work
Harry asks Ava what other stakeholders have said - Ava has interviewed 15 other blue economy stakeholders so far (more are still being scheduled) and it’s clear that they need space – they all generally want to be involved.
We went in front of the harbor commission to present a couple weeks ago to give an update on the USDA grant - Kim went through an extensive powerpoint giving an overview/status update of where we’re at with the Maritime Collective project. We pitched our ask for $50K. It’s up to the Harbor Commission to decide on it.
Kim clarifies USDA grants must focus on how to help harvesters get more from their catch; their focus is more seafood production and local consumption. Cannot be used to build or purchase facilities. Equipment and training are the focus.
3) Ocean Rainforest meeting debrief
They should include an insurance policy that covers potential for a shipstrike - We will schedule another meeting with them once they have their insurance policy built out and hopefully there will be more Ocean Rainforest staff at the next meeting too
4) NOAA aquaculture strategy comment letter
After the Ocean Rainforest meeting, we discussed what position we want to take on the future of this project and aquaculture in general. There will be federal money invested on growing aquaculture in the future, and the idea is that we want these investments to be in port infrastructure and seafood marketing that benefits wild capture fisheries just as much as aquaculture. Bernard has pointed out that all existing players whether their aquaculture or wild capture have the potential to have competition and displacement from more people coming in but it also represents new opportunities for new entrants to our port so there is a need to make sure that is done like any new entrance, in a vetted way by the existing community.
There is a federal aquaculture strategic plan draft that was inviting public comments that was due on April 1st - We rushed to submit public comment. The points we made were:
Funding for local ports to make sure that infrastructure is there
Making sure this money is spent in ways that benefits all fisheries and seafood harvesters.
Making sure there’s local control and vetting and you don’t ignore the fact that there’s going to be the need for mitigation and mediation structures for conflict resolution and prevention
Going forward we’d like the board and members to give input to help formulate a formal position and talking points. This letter can be seen as a draft starting point for that process.
5) Stearns Wharf 150 year anniversary event
The planning committee has reached out several times - They want us to put something together and their goal is to fill their calendar so we could do an event 3, 4 maybe 5 times who knows, but they want to get us going with something.
Harry asks if they have a farmer’s market planned in any way and asks Kim to send them to Harry
Someone needs to talk to Tom or Adam White to figure out what we can do in terms of selling ready to eat food. Harry volunteered.
Ava is going to join their next Thurs. Am merchants association meeting to engage with the planning committee directly.
6) Jackson Gross’ Aquaculture Presentation
Bernard introduces Jackson who is an aquaculture specialist out of UC Davis. He is the cooperative extension specialist in aquaculture and also serves as the CA Director of USDA western/regional aquaculture center where he helps guide a lot of the aquaculture efforts in the state. He has 2 things he wants to discuss:
UCA&R the ag campus came to him and said they were interested in UC-wide aquaculture vs. the small pilots that exist on all campuses. He talked to them about freshwater facilities and convinced them we need a marine advisor to provide resources for the emerging area especially in the SB Channel that would help assist with permitting etc.
Climate Smart Commodities: Using SB Mariculture as a test site to grow kelp and show what this could look like if we were to do this in CA at some point on a small scale
Paul asks what Jackson considers small scale to which he responds that he’s not one to decide it could be 80 acres it could be 800 acres. Bernard says it would be more like 30 acres. Bernard thinks it would be beneficial to have a bunch of these throughout the channel.
Harry asks about Jackson’s policy background because currently the way the state is operating, we can’t do anything in federal waters, so it’s a huge policy issue trying to get anything going out there. We hear that OPC is trying to thwart any progress for permitting aquaculture in state waters.
If anyone wants to reach out to Jackson you can email him directly at [email protected]
7) Rock crab and Urchin event (Now Fishermen for Ukraine)
Paul asks if the event will be sponsored by Get Hooked or if it will be CFSB because there’s a donation from Get Hooked already budgeted in the 2022 forecast. Kim says its up to the market board, but also that Get Hooked is short staffed right now so it would be challenging for them. This donation doesn’t have to come from Get Hooked per se, it is just a placeholder indicating we expect to raise funds for CFSB.
Harry suggests Kim put on the Crab/Urchin Fest, but not as part of Get Hooked. Kim explains she doesn’t have bandwidth to do this herself and it wouldn’t be cost effective for CFSB. The Lobster Fest prep work was split between 4 staff at Get Hooked. Kim suggests Ava and the Market participants can get the work done, and Kim will provide the ‘playbook’ that helped make the Lobster Fest a success. For instance, Kim mentions it’s difficult to get permits like alcohol so you need to get the process started early. However, the Maritime Museum might be able to use their permit this time.
8) Fishermen’s market insurance
Paul asks why everyone doesn’t just have their own policy - Harry says that’s the direction we’re heading
Harry has taken the lead on updating our policy and coordinating with the city - It will eventually be set up similar to the other farmer’s markets in town who operate by a co-op type of organization which in our situation is CFSB
Chris Voss ended the meeting on April 4, 2022 at 6:00pm.