FREELAND — Port of South Whidbey commissioners have rejected Langley’s asking price on the sale of the city’s marina.
Port officials said the city offered to sell the marina for roughly $100,000 over the next five years. Instead, the port will offer Langley $40,000 over the next two years for the town’s small boat harbor.
Port of South Whidbey commissioners discussed a 28-point proposed contract with the city on the marina sale Monday night. Things appeared to be going swimmingly until port officials got to paragraph 3 — the money paragraph.
The city had hoped the port would agree to pay Langley any revenue the marina would normally generate for two years, followed by $20,000 annually over another three years. Langley wanted the money, expected to total $100,000, to limit budget impacts caused by the loss of marina revenue to the city after the sale.
The amount was included in the port’s original draft of the agreement, and included restrictions on how the money could be used only for marina-related expenditures.
The suggestion, however, led to quick revisions.
“If they’re going to use the money for harbor improvements or maintenance anyway, why pay them anything?” Port Commissioner Lynae Slinden asked. “I want the entire paragraph deleted.”
Commissioners also voted to change the suggested take-over date from April 1, 2009 to April 1, 2008. And Slinden continued to insist that the port should not pay Langley to take over the marina because the port is planning hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of improvements at the marina in the coming years.
Port Commissioner Rolf Seitle said the proposed contract was the result of negotiations he conducted with the city over the past several months.
He noted that if the city turns the agreement down, the port may have to pay a $29,000 penalty to Bremerton should the port terminate its proposed purchase of a 400-foot breakwater designed to increase moorage revenue in the marina.
Slinden was unmoved.
“Paying the city doesn’t do it for me,” Slinden said.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to turn over money without our control and I’m concerned about our financial obligations if this goes through,” she said.
Seitle said he had tried to negotiate the contract, called an interlocal agreement, based on what he believed his fellow commissioners wanted.
“We can’t go back on our agreement with the city,” he said.
Commissioner Geoff Tapert wondered if there wasn’t a way to help Langley during this transition period. “Personally, I’m fine with the general terms of the interlocal agreement,” he said.
“We’re down to pennies. We may need to break the tradition that decisions always have to be unanimous at some point to get this project underway,” Tapert said.
In the end, commissioners changed the draft agreement: the port has offered to let the city have the revenue from the marina for one year, then will make a single payment of $20,000 when they officially assume ownership in April 2008 for a total of about $40,000.
The port then approved a series of minor changes to the other 27 clauses in the contract.
Seitle presented it to the city on Tuesday morning. The Langley City Council is expected to talk about the status of the marina sale at its meeting tonight at city hall.
