SLIP LEASE PRIORITIES DURING HARBOR RECONSTRUCTION

October 13, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On September 29th, the Municipal Yacht Harbor Tenants’ Association hosted a general meeting in the New Orleans Yacht Club meeting room for all parties having boats in the Harbor or who were otherwise interested in the process of slip assignments both temporary and permanent.  Notification was made by postings on the New Orleans Yacht Club and Southern Yacht Club electronic bulletin boards as well as by email to our membership.  Approximately 75 people were in attendance.

 

Since not all attendees had the same level of knowledge regarding the current situation and plans for harbor reconstruction, substantial time was spent relating information from the most recent Municipal Yacht Harbor Management Committee board meetings.  While there was some diversity of opinion as to individual issues, all parties understood the potential displacement of some or all of the current slip tenants and all were willing to work under whatever program was developed so long as it was fair and impartially administered.  The following information was made available to the attendees:

 

·        MYH Slip Rent Roll from 8/05

·        MYH Slip Waiting List from 4/05

·        Results of the MYHSTA Tenant Survey through the meeting date.

 

Based on voting that was close to unanimous, the tenants felt that temporary slip leases, if any, should be assigned according to the following priority:

 

1.      Former leaseholders who were current in their lease payments at the time of the storm and have a boat presently in the Harbor

2.      Former Harbor waiting list members who presently have a boat in the harbor

3.      Those who presently have a boat in the Harbor but did not fall in priorities 1 or 2 above or 4 below

4.      Former leaseholders who were not current in their lease payments at the time of the storm and have a boat presently in the Harbor after payment of all past due amounts and late charges

 

The attendees felt that there should be every effort made to insure the accuracy of the information utilized to assign potential tenants to one of the priorities above, especially those who reflected delinquent payments to the Harbor for their slip lease and those who were on the last waiting list available.  Once assigned to a group by the priorities above, the attendees felt that the following process should be followed:

 

1.      Posting of the list of those potentially awarded temporary slip leases

2.      Proposed lessee would have a relatively short period to time to return insurance and vessel documentation in proper form together with deposit representing approximately 6 months of lease payments.  No specific amounts were determined, but a range of $500-$1,000 was discussed.  Perhaps a reasonable way to address this issue would be to base the deposit on twice the former quarterly base slip lease fee as follows:

a.       30’ - $360

b.      40’ - $480

c.       50’ - $600

d.      60’ - $720

e.       70’ - $840

3.      Inspection of vessel to make certain that it is present and seaworthy

4.      Signing of lease

 

Considerable time was spent discussing standards for boats allowed to be tenants, but no conclusion was reached at the meeting.  There was also considerable discussion that the tenants should be those who actively use their boats, not just park them in the Harbor.

 

Another discussion that was pretty much evenly divided centered around the question of priority for New Orleans residents versus other residents of the region versus other Louisiana residents versus out of state residents.  It was also evenly divided as to whether there should be a differential between what New Orleans residents should pay for a lease versus non-New Orleans residents since the Harbor is to be self-supporting.  An additional discussion centered on ranking within Priority 1 based on length of time as a slip leaseholder, but there was concern that accurate records might not be available to provide such documentation.

 

Many of the attendees expressed concern about the actual process of having boats that could not comply with the leasing requirements or who met the requirements but were not high enough in the priority list to actually receive temporary slip leases move so that those that were awarded temporary leases could move into available slips.  The attendees were informed that this was a process that the MYHMC Board was investigating and that they intended to take seriously.

 

There were numerous other process issues raised regarding things like how slips would be assigned in the case of shortages within certain slip sizes while following the overall priorities above or whether tenants with small amounts past due in 2005 would be treated as Priority 4 or Priority 1 when the amount past due might be the result of Harbor staff error.  The MYHSTA pledged to the attendees to work actively with the MYHMC Board to insure a reasonable, fair and unbiased resolution to the process for both temporary and permanent slip leases.