Let’s Stop Official’s Abuse of Power in Marian Del Rey
When we hear rumblings of both Los Angeles County officials' and some
of the Marina Del Rey dock masters' abuse of power and support of
corruption, it means that an eruption of people standing up for their
rights must follow. Otherwise, our hard won democracy, which
stands for equal rights and protections under the law for all, will be
turned into what resembles an oppressive and lawless communist state
under the rule of thugs. All the trappings of graft, scarcity,
tyranny, and unfair discrimination will soon follow. None of the
constitutional values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
can flourish in this type of political environment.
Currently small boaters have the California Coastal Commission to
ensure access to their boats and to parking within a reasonable
distance from their boats. If the County of Los Angeles Officials
have their way, a proposed law currently before the California State
legislators will soon be passed. This would remove the only
currently existing check to powerful corporate developers in the County
of Los Angeles along our treasured California coast. These
officials and developers seek to emasculate the Coastal Commission’s
oversight of Marina Del Rey’s future development. This is their
way of paying developers tax dollars to make huge profits, decrease
through demolition most of our existing affordable housing, take
possession of our public parks for their own personal profit, and
significantly decrease the number of low income boaters. If
successful, this would effectively deny marina access to small boat
owners, to moderate and low income county residents, and to honest
yacht brokers, while increasing marina access to elite corporations,
the luxury housing market, wealthy big boat owners, and dishonest yacht
brokers.
Yesterday, I saw monetary extortion and abuse of management's power in
action. When I witnessed a boater, in the middle of the day and
while he was at his boat, have had his “permitted” car towed by a
hostile manager, I became resolved. As a Marina Del Rey, CA
resident who has now personally witnessed these strong arm techniques
in action, I must speak up on the modest boater’s behalf. This
agressive action was especially egregious, due to the non-permitted
undocumented workers’ vehicles parked in the same parking lot, but in
the fire lane at the time. These illegal employees of that marina
were neither asked to move nor were their vehicles towed. The
large amount of available parking spaces in the lot at that time of day
(Tuesday afternoon), and the lack of due warning, seems to indicate a
malicious and ill-motivated intent on the part of that particular
marina manager.
Even more concerning than towing the small boater’s vehicle is the way
the marina management is systematically denying this boater his rights
as a renter. Apparently, although in good stead with payment of
his slip fees, the marina management feels that they are entitled to
continue to keep possession of the paperwork on his lease and his
boat’s documents as well. How convenient for the management
company! This gives them carte blanch to behave in anyway they
choose, even if it is unfair or illegal. I have rarely heard of
anything so outlandish! What is this management company up
to? How many other small boaters face the same discriminatory
treatment? Where can these citizens go to report this disgusting
abuse of power and get redress of their grievances? Currently,
small boat owners of modest means have little or no representation with
either the Marina lessees or the County of Los Angeles. And now
the County is trying to push through another law designed for them to
"legally" confiscate, tow and demolish small boats denied marina slips
at will and with only incestuous, inner-departmental oversight.
After repeated requests by the boat owner for the management company to
complete the process and return his documents, he has been given a
complete run around to this date. I am positive that if a glossy,
new fifty-foot power vessel came in, the multimillionaire’s paperwork
would be expedited and parking spaces and policies would be given to
them on the spot. It is also very likely that the dock master
would receive between $1000.00 and $5000.00 as a “gratuity”. I
may be naïve, but I believe that in these United States, we are
guaranteed equal protection of the law. The only difference that
I can see between these two boat owners is that the person with the
small vessel (who coincidentally works in the boating industry) tries
to survive on his modest wage despite this economic
discrimination.
The effects of having a $185.00 towing fee assessed against the small
boater’s income when he makes only $400.00 a week before
taxes(slightly above minimum wage), is economically crippling at
best. To put the situation in perspective, this is equal to
almost the entire amount of his monthly slip fees. The small
boater does not have the means to employ a high priced lawyer to assist
him in defending his legally guaranteed rights. One can only
imagine that this indeed was the intension and understanding of the
marina manager when she had his car towed.
Given the current situation and scarcity of boat slips, one could
further suppose this behavior to be motivated by the prospect of
freeing up the small boat owner’s greedily sought after boat slip in
order to collect a “gratuity” from the new renter. Both boat
brokers and boat owners have confirmed to me, off the record of course,
that this manipulation of slip rentals is a standard policy employed by
several dock masters. The County’s current plans to once again
support the reduction in the number of slips 35’ and under only
provides more incentive for dock masters to behave this way. They
would rather reduce the amount of boat slips by 100%, convert
them into 50’ luxuty boat slips, and collect larger “gifts” in the
process for less work.
Several of the more affluent yacht brokerages factor this policy into
the cost of doing business in the marina. They receive preferred
placement for their clients this way, effectively denying slips to
smaller operations and squeezing them out of existence. In a
nutshell, available slips mean boat sales and commissions from those
sales. It’s a matter of pay up, shut up, or we’ll illegally
intimidate and harass you. And if you’re a boat broker who won't
play the game and give the dock master a cut, you can forget about
getting your clients a slip. No available slips almost guarantees
no boat sales.
For all you boat owners who have been forced to give pay offs to a dock
master or be denied a slip for your small boat, and for all of you boat
owners who have refused to support this graft and have been denied or
forced out of your slips, we need to continue to organize an official
investigation and put a stop to this destructive activity. Until
that can happen, we need to continue to speak with each other, share
our experiences, and document this information for use at a later
date. I think that there should be an amnesty for those who have
already paid this graft in order to find a home for their boat,
and protection from vindictive marina managers for those who report
these abuses. Maybe then those individuals will feel secure
enough to speak out and help the boating community weed out the people
who are instituting gang mentality on our docks.
I am not saying that we don't have some fabulous dock masters, we
do. Their job is a rather challenging one, I acknowledge, and in
most cases they do a fabulous job! What we don't need is to
encourage a group of wealthy lawbreakers to harass and abuse their
power in order to deny marina access to the every day, average, small
boaters and infringe on our civil rights. This is not the type of
boating environment I want in the marina’s future. We as a
community are responsible for our own situation in Marina Del Rey, and
in unity our voices cannot be ignored. Together, let’s stop the
negligent over-development of our marina community; keep our public
lands and parks public; protect marina views; deal with the serious
issues of traffic, parking, sewage, and dimishing supply of affordable
housing; and finally, defend the rights of boaters, even if they are
not excessively wealthy.
Michelle Summers
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You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://marina-del-rey-conservancy.org/index.php?topic=211.0
Regards,
The Marina Del Rey Conservancy Team.