_{Thumbnail photos: Gerhard Weber (left), Dan Schmidt (right) | Courtesy of ccharbor.com.}

A month after he added his name to a now-stalled effort to recall Dan Schmidt, Gerhard Weber sought his colleague’s censure before relinquishing his role as ringmaster of the Crescent City Harbor District.

Weber, who presided over his final meeting as CCHD Board chairman on Wednesday, said he felt partially responsible for “all the circus that is going on.” He acknowledged that he publicized his proposal to officially reprimand Schmidt 24 hours ahead of Wednesday’s special meeting, but argued that his allegations against Schmidt were “nothing new.”

“Some of those items are months old,” Weber said. “Some of the items, newspapers, have been written about. There’s nothing that hasn’t been discussed less than three weeks ago.”

Weber wasn’t able to move forward with the censure on Wednesday. After Commissioner Rick Shepherd raised concerns that 24 hours wasn’t enough time for Schmidt to respond to Weber’s allegations, the CCHD Board voted 3-2 to postpone the item until a future meeting.

Schmidt thanked Shepherd for his consideration and said he didn’t think Weber should preside over a discussion regarding the censure. He urged postponing the discussion for when Weber was no longer Board chairman.

“He doesn’t become judge, jury and executioner,” Schmidt said. “He can be an advocate for his position and I can be an advocate for my position and somebody else is running that meeting. We’re so close to that point in time, where his term is up, so let’s just kick it back to December.”

Commissioners also agreed to hear a proposal to censure Weber, Shepherd and CCHD Vice Chairman John Evans brought forth by Annie Nehmer. Nehmer had presented her charges when she was censured on Sept. 16. On Wednesday, she said she didn’t understand why Weber’s proposed censure of Schmidt was urgent when her proposed censure was ignored even though she followed CCHD bylaws and got approval from the district’s attorney.

“It was never agendized,” Nehmer said. “I don’t really get the urgency. This is a special meeting when this isn’t special business.”

In his statement, Weber brought up California conflict-of-interest and nepotism rules and said Schmidt’s advocacy of his brother’s appointment to a high-level executive position within the Harbor District. Schmidt and his brother are joint owners of the Del Norte Triplicate, Weber stated, and Dennis Schmidt’s potential hire would provide Dan Schmidt “with a new source of income, which could reasonably be expected to support or subsidize his ongoing participation in the joint business venture.”

“Even if no actual transfer of funds were ever made, the reasonable foreseeability of financial interdependence is sufficient to trigger the statutory concern,” Weber stated. “The issue, therefore, is not the personal character of the applicant nor any judgment of competency, but the structural risk that public resources could indirectly support or stabilize a jointly-held private business.”

Weber also said that Schmidt didn’t recuse himself from an Oct. 8 discussion over whether or not hiring his brother would be considered nepotism, but publicly advocated for Dennis Schmidt’s appointment.

Weber’s second charge against Schmidt concerns an allegation that he publicly disclosed information that had been discussed during a closed session meeting. On Wednesday, after Schmidt said he was concerned about a lack of specificity in his statement, Weber said he wouldn’t repeat the statements Schmidt had allegedly made because they were discussed in closed session.

“I am not going to repeat the same thing I’m accusing you of,” he said. “So I am at a disadvantage. There are plenty of witnesses out there that can verify that you have talked about certain things that I cannot talk about.”

In Weber’s statement, he said the public disclosure of discussions the Harbor District has with their attorney regarding litigation or potential contract negotiations could could the agency at a disadvantage.

“Commissioners are expected to safeguard privileged and confidential information so that the district may operate effectively, defend its legal interests and conduct negotiations on fair and stable terms,” Weber stated. “Accordingly, the instances in which a closed session’s subject matter was referenced publicly have had implications for the district’s legal posture, governance effectiveness and public confidence in the confidentiality of Board deliberations.”

In a conversation with Redwood Voice Community News on Oct. 13, Weber said he signed former Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin’s now-rescinded notice to recall Schmidt in part because he had publicized a matter that had been before the Harbor Board in a closed session meeting. At the time, Weber said he and his colleagues hadn’t censured Schmidt yet, but “he continues to do things that are totally unacceptable.”

In his written statement, Weber again referred to Schmidt’s role as Triplicate publisher, alleging that he had “repeated and relied upon statements made by third parties concerning the Harbor District, its staff and its contractors” without verifying if those statements were accurate or clarifying their context. Schmidt publicized these statements in the newspaper and referred to them during public meetings, Weber alleged.

For his final basis for censuring Schmidt, Weber referred to his colleague’s contact with proponents of a recall effort brought about by former Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin. Weber mentioned Schmidt’s “door-to-door visits” with those who signed Gitlin’s now-rescinded notice to recall and said the action could discourage future civic engagement from the public.

“The issue here is, therefore, not whether any individual felt threatened, nor whether Commissioner Schmidt intended to influence participation,” Weber stated. “The relevant standard is whether the conduct could be reasonably perceived as discouraging public participation in a protected democratic process.”

On Wednesday, in response to Nehmer’s question regarding urgency and her assertion that her own censure proposal was ignored, Weber said that it’s the chairperson’s job to decide what’s on the agenda. 

“If there is something you want on the agenda and you don’t get it, make a motion, and let two other people agree with you and you can always override the chair,” he said. “As of right now, all you can say (is) ‘I wanted those few people censured and the chair didn’t agree.’ Alright, good, fine no problem.”

Weber said he had received information from CCHD’s legal counsel, Ryan Plotz, that his proposed censure of Schmidt is legal, however he said Schmidt’s actual censure is no sure thing.

At this, Nehmer made a motion to postpone Schmidt’s potential censure to a future meeting in December and Schmidt, who seconded her motion, asked that Nehmer’s censure proposals against Shepherd, Evans and Weber be considered.

“I have complete confidence that John or Rick can handle this very delicate emotional matter in the appropriate manner and they’ll have 10 days to gear up for it, review bylaws and understand what Roberts Rules of Order refer to (as to) the conduct of commissioners, and so will I,” Schmidt said. 

Though he was in the hospital until about noon on Tuesday, Schmidt said he spent a “good part of the remaining 24 hours” preparing to address Weber’s censure charges. 

“This matters to me,” he said. “This matters to the entire commission and the entire community. We got to get back to business here, get back to common sense, get back to doing the job that we’re supposed to be doing.”

Linda Sutter, a frequent critic of the Harbor District, including Harbormaster Mike Rademaker and Financial Officer Sandy Moreno, accused the last minute call for a special meeting a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. Censuring Schmidt isn’t an urgent matter, she argued, and Weber’s allegations are speculative.

Sutter also referred to a statement Shepherd made at the Harbor District’s Oct. 29 meeting about the Triplicate’s new format, one she recorded and posted on her Facebook page, the Del Norte Journal.

“Mr. Shepherd is recorded on camera saying he felt that the Triplicate is tabloid and if no good articles came out about the harbor, then we would have to censure Mr. Schmidt,” she said. “You guys are so screwed right now.”

Gitlin, who was ousted from the Triplicate as editor after Nehmer hired a lawyer to address her concerns about potential libel and defamation, accused Schmidt of using the newspaper to attack people. Schmidt didn’t like the “old Triplicate,” Gitlin said, but he likes “the one he can control.”

While he referred to the censure as a slap on the wrist with no consequences, Gitlin said that it will give his recall credence when he resumes it ahead of the November 2026 midterm election.

Another member of the public, fisherman Loran Brown, urged Schmidt and Nehmer to resign, saying that while he respects both of them, their presence creates dissension on the Board.

“If you leave, maybe things will get done, things will get better,” Brown said. “Right now, if you stay here for the complete term, this is going to be continued chaos.”