CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - November 28, 2023
Attendees: Chris Voss, Kim Selkoe, Harry Liquornik, Gary Burke, Mike Nelson, Marco Farrell, Jeff Maassen, Jeff Hepp, Andy Rasmussen
Notes: Ava Schulenberg
Agenda:
Financials
Ocean Collective
Cademo - Offshore Wind
Replacing Paul’s Board Seat
Salmon
E-bike with trailer for beach cleanups
McCorkle way in the harbor - Marco Farrell
Holiday party 12/9 at The Brewhouse
Please RSVP to Ava so we can get a proper headcount for food
MPAs
Cable Committee Grant
Saturday Market
Other
Ava - Raise/Title Change
Intern for CFSB?
Chris Voss starts the meeting at 3:11PM upstairs in the harbor classroom.
Agenda:
Financials
Chris says our funding in a general way has run down to some degree due to funds being eaten up over time but there’s been an aggressive effort to get more funds in the past couple months.
Kim shows the current grant tracker spreadsheet and says we have $73K available in grants, and $58K in the General Fund so we’re not doing too bad and hopefully by Q2 of 2024 we’ll have another $40-50K and by September we might get a $500k grant that she will talk about later in the meeting. There’s also smaller grants that we’re going after again like the Cable Grant, etc.
Donations are down slightly
It’s hard to predict what grants we will get so the budget numbers aren’t super reliable. We brought in a total of $69K and we budgeted for the year $92K
Memberships look to be doing fine we budgeted $2K and have brought in over $4K
We over budgeted for insurance because we got a better policy half way through the year
Grant writing will come in at $3K or more as Kim has been working with Kelsey (grant writing consultant) a lot in the past couple months
Ava’s budget and expense is almost exactly on target
Rent for the boat yard is over budget
We’ve reimbursed only about half the amount we projected for safety gear (estimated $3K)
We’ve netted $2K as of today and will likely go negative by the end of the year but not by much
Chris makes a motion to pause this for now until more board members join the meeting
Ocean Collective
Kim says CFSB and SBCC signed an MOU to develop the Ocean Collective (formerly known as the Maritime Collective) at City College - The key parts are a list of shared goals/programs including a program on sustainable ocean careers
Kim says we don’t need to get super heavily involved in the program building process because their faculty are very involved on building their curriculum
Gary asks if the MOU talks about aquaculture and Kim points out that “small-scale aquaculture” is included because this topic is constantly being pushed into the spotlight
The second point is locating the facility - We are still working on site analysis and we also talked about co-locating potentially with other businesses who use the space
Collaborative pursuit of additional funding
The next step is doing a walking tour of the lower Loma Alta area to see the areas that are underutilized and then we would get bids from design firms to do the analysis to come up with possible blueprints and engage with stakeholders (neighbors, etc.) to make sure their opinions are heard and then take it to the Coastal Conservancy. We also have had confirmation from the City of SB that they will allocate their $50K given to us towards the design step of this process
Marco asks if they shut down the Marine Tech program? Kim says that they are having trouble staffing the program after the main leader announced his retirement.
Kim submitted a NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant for $500K to fund the first 2 years of the Ocean Collective operations. This would fund a new Director to run the Ocean Collective and launch programs that serve the fishing community. What we proposed for programs were a recruitment and mentoring program, a ‘community learning’ series of seminars and workshops on topics of interest to the fishing community, and a collective business support service center. For that we would be working with an existing program at the Economic Development Collaborative (EDC), and existing small business support program for all types of businesses, and they would help us assemble a list of providers like insurance brokers, business consultants, permitting, legal and accounting, etc that have expertise for maritime business. The idea is to get better rates for higher quality services by collective engagement.There’s also a sub award for a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to study the community-driven formation of the Collective, which will strengthen the proposal because it’s leveraging what we do to make sure other communities can learn from it
Gary asks where we would get the teachers? Kim says there’s a travel budget so folks from anywhere (budget depending) can come in and give workshops.
Kim says we will know more on the status of our application in the spring
Chris says this collective is a really good idea because it builds a relationship between our maritime community and SBCC. One of the main objectives of our engagement with SBCC is to gain gear, boat, and cold storage, among all the other great benefits that this integration will bring to the community, but SBCC is aware of our storage needs first and foremost. As we select who’s on the new board formed for the Collective, we need to prioritize diverse interests and make sure the bulk of the influence of the board is coming from the commercial fishing industry with additional seats given to other important blue economy stakeholders (i.e. boat builders,etc.)
Mike Nelson says the President of SBCC is a big supporter and this makes him think that this will prevail.
Chris says that there is a general acknowledgement that the strong relationship between SBCC and the maritime industry has weakened. We’re hoping to meet SBCCs initiative of training people in ocean careers for employment in a changing economy, while we can also benefit with our infrastructural needs.
Chris says it’s a dynamic time for us to be engaging with SBCC because there is new recognition of the need for community colleges to try new things and partner with industry better.
Kim also submitted a Whale Tail Program Grant (Coastal Commission) for about $25K - We put it in last year and didn’t get it (asked for $45K and they said that was too much) so we toned it down and are asking for less this time and focusing on social media, outreach, and specifically bringing women and indigenous people into commercial fishing. It’s not necessarily serving our direct needs but it’s creating ways of being relevant to a broader group and helping our standing in the community.
Kim says her and Chris have also been engaging in giving input to a Chevron granting program - They want to fund projects that benefit Carpinteria/Gaviota communities, k-12 education and indigenous community needs. At the end of the process, Kim said they emphasized they don’t want to fund any staffing costs or travel costs, so that makes it tricky. But, we did propose getting funding for the community learning series with a Chumash focus and ballparked $45K, but with the limitations on what the money can be spent on, we still will have to figure out how to allocate what we’re given.
Kim emphasizes how important it is that we engage the Chumash community as its overdue to create relationships between our communities, especially now with all of the new policy coming up that puts tribes front and center to marine management we need to be working together.
Cademo - Offshore Wind
Chris is engaged with the 7C working group - Minimize, avoid, and mitigate are the 3 key words
A tribal rep was just added to the working group - Again, tribal interests are starting to get more visibility in the state of CA though they have not been in the past (especially when compared to OR, WA, and AK)
Chris says there’s a company called Cademo that has a proposal off Point Arguello for 4 of the big turbines that will be put in 250ft of water - They’re pursuing a lease and just created a community benefit agreement with the Santa Ynez Chumash tribe (federally recognized). Cademo is not involved in the 7C working group but will be impacted by the framework produced by the working group.
Coastal Commission will have final approval of all offshore wind activities (including this one); They have the ultimate power
Chris emphasizes the economics of offshore wind are crumbling around the world because at the end of the day it is an impractical concept
Our federal govt just made a huge step to offer even more incentives to companies to build these offshore wind monstrosities
Chris says we have Megan Harmon on our side and she has a seat on the Coastal Commission - Gary says the Coastal Commission is comprised of 12 seats - 4 from the senate, 4 from the assembly, and 4 from the governor
Kim says it’s all about whether or not they are protective of fisheries throughout the application process; Gary thinks we will get the short end of the stick down the line
Chris says PCFFA’s funding is primarily coming from cable funds and that demonstrates how the Cable fund model is working and should be used for Wind.
Marco says on the east coast they had a lot of beached whales - Somebody has to be studying that on a university level out there? Kim says the headline she saw was scientists confirming offshore wind had nothing to do with the fatalities, but she wonders how they know that.
Replacing Paul’s Board Seat
Jeff Hepp has expressed interest in filling the seat, we will send this out and see if anyone else wants to be considered. The board will decide on the replacement internally, according to the bylaws.
Salmon
George Bradshaw (President of PCFFA) hosted a recent meeting that Chris attended:
Chris says there are 3 main things - George says there are not enough salmon so he’s been appealing to the state to raise more salmon so they’ve improved the delivery system from the hatcheries to the delivery system to improve survival rates; Money is flowing into that work. Glenn also stressed that you need to have water - His motivation is to enhance the natural stocks. The Department ha a proposal to address the current collapse of salmon stocks with a bag limit, which has been embraced in Washington and we’re not sure how it will manifest, but the general consensus is we need to fight this tooth and nail and we need to organize our resistance
Gary says he would rather see a bag limit that’s seasonal not daily so you can go get them in a week if needed etc., - Gary says he trusts George
Chris says is it really worth it to get your boat all ready to go and fish salmon with a bag limit? Gary says if he lived in Moss Landing, yes, if he lived here, not so much; Gary says they don’t want us to catch too much because there’s not much out there, so how else do we control it? Harry says this is a double edged sword.
Jaime Diamond is engaged on this as well.
E-bike with trailer for beach cleanups
Joe Garrigan brought this idea up - Here are his thoughts: “My thought was to give you and the cleanup team the tools to remove lobster gear efficiently. Won’t work on every beach. Or every time of year. But helps show the fleets dedication to cleanup. It would be a big help in removing the older gear that no individual has a financial incentive to recover. An e-bike with a small trailer could do a lot. And the island guys share the reputation that the coastal guys have. So they should care about the issue too.”
Kim says maybe we could build a trailer with big beach tires with a powerful E-Bike
Gary says who will pay for this? Harry says let’s find a grant. Kim says we can likely find funding for this, maybe with Chevron.
We need more capacity to do more beach clean ups. We will talk to Channelkeeper about getting a regular schedule going for joint clean ups. We think they are getting more funding for more clean ups.
McCorkle way in the harbor - Marco Farrell
Marco passes out photos of salmon in the harbor recently and says it triggered the thought of naming the current Fish Walk “McCorkle Way” because he says he deserves more than just a bench or plaque somewhere.
Kim brings up the fact that Carrie Culver has been working with Ava on the recent Fish Walk update project so maybe there’s opportunity to overlap this initiative with that project if CFSB approves supporting this
Marco will draft a letter and send it to us
Jeff Hepp says get Kronman to help
Holiday party 12/9 at The Brewhouse
Please RSVP to Ava so we can get a proper headcount for food
Send photos to Ava for the slideshow
Mike Nelson brought up the idea of activities we could do at the party like the challenge we saw at Pacific Marine Expo
Gary Burke says anchor toss
MPAs
We were blindsided by this recently - a bunch of proposals for new MPAs are pouring into the Commission from environmental groups. One MPA is proposed off of Carpinteria Reef by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Kim has a call on Friday.
Marco asks how can they add MPAs if they’re not doing a whole study on the current ones? Kim says they are doing studies on them (Chris and Ava went to the MPA decadal review earlier this year)
There’s another MPA being proposed off of Morro Bay, another off Gull Island, and another off Point Conception, including Carp Reef, 4 new MPAs that we know of.
Cable Committee Grant
Saturday Market
Kim’s idea here is to potentially get funding from the Cable Committee so we can give the vendors a chunk of change for marketing, etc. and hire a manager that also works at the fillet station
Chris and Kim say the amount of arguing and time taken up of Ava’s has gotten out of control. We need to make a change and hire a designated person to manage the new vendor apps, schedule meetings, send the Friday emails, as well as run the fillet station - Kim emphasizes the role needs to be robust because it will be hard to find someone who just is working a 5-hour per week job. Kim says maybe we could hire someone who also does some work for CFSB in a broader sense as well if they need more hours (i.e. website work, social media, marketing, etc.)
Gary asks where the funding comes from? Chris says everything comes from CFSB; Kim says the Sat Market grant fund ran out a while ago and CFSB has been covering the costs since then
Marco asks if vendors pay anything currently? Chris says no and Harry says we should all be paying to be a vendor, we will bring up all these topics this Saturday at the market meeting
Gary asks about the Tuna Market in San Diego - LLC run by Pete Hallmay and he said to have any kind of successful market it needs to be run like a business with one person/owner in charge - Would be interesting to hear about how the Dory Fleet Market is structure in Newport Beach
Kim says typically there’s a fee even to even apply to a market like this but we’ve never implemented anything like that - Harry says we’ll figure something else out at the meeting this Saturday
Other
Ava - Raise/Title Change
After 2+ years I, (Ava), feel that I have proven my commitment to CFSB and its future endeavors. I am deeply invested professionally and personally in this community but due to inflation over the past couple years (rent being raised, etc.) I need to ask for a raise. If I could afford to work for CFSB for free, I hope you all know that I would, but Santa Barbara is not getting any cheaper, so I am grateful for your consideration on this item.
Harry makes a motion to raise my pay from $25 to $30/hr - Gary seconds the motion, Chris approves for the next invoice and ongoing (unanimous approval, 3-0-0 Vote stands). Kim says if we get more funding next year from the SK grant we can consider increasing pay again next year..
Kim suggests making my title “Assistant Director, CFSB” - Chris makes a motion to elevate Ava’s title to “Assistant Director, CFSB”, Harry seconds, Gary approves (Unanimous approval 3-0-0 vote stands).
Ava is very grateful for this promotion!!
Intern for CFSB?
Kim mentioned this earlier under cable grant
Parade of Lights 12/10 11AM-9PM
The Waterfront Dept. would love to see more engagement from the commercial fishing fleet. Please go upstairs and fill out an application if you’re interested!
Yard Update
Harry says he needs to finish cleaning out McCorkle’s containers this week - Jeff has already gone and cleaned out a bunch.
Chris Voss ends the meeting at 5:03PM.