_{Thumbnail photo by Gavin Van Alstine}

At the recommendation of Fiscal Officer Sandy Moreno, four Crescent City Harbor commissioners on Wednesday agreed to reduce the amount of money set aside in a restricted reserve account from $181,000 to $56,000.

The Board’s decision comes after Moreno had proposed creating a restricted reserve account in May to satisfy a loan payment to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and address its maintenance issues. 

The Board’s action on Wednesday unrestricted about $125,000, according to Moreno.

“It allows us to have use of that money,” she told commissioners.

Commissioner Annie Nehmer dissented.

The $181,000 had been set aside nearly a year and a half ago after Moreno and Harbormaster Mike Rademaker recommended forgoing fire and collision insurance for the marina. At a June 28, 2025 meeting, Moreno said the $181,500 premium would have put the district in a $40,000 deficit by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year.

They also noted that the policy included a $250,000 deductible and it didn’t include coverage for wind, wave or tsunami damage.

However, instead of using that $181,500 for maintenance and to keep the Harbor District solvent, the Board — at Nehmer’s insistence, Moreno told Redwood Voice — agreed to put those funds into a Local Agency Investment Fund, or LAIF. 

At that meeting, Nehmer noted that if the money stayed in the general fund it likely would have been spent. 

In October 2025, Nehmer urged the harbormaster to obtain insurance quotes, saying that the agent she had communicated with indicated that the harbor could insure the marina against tsunami, wind and wave damage.

At the same time, the USDA was working with the Harbor District to find an alternative to the Commercial Property — Inner Boat Basin Docks policy it had rejected, Moreno said. Insurance costs had nearly tripled for about two and a half years, she said. Another consideration was self insurance, Moreno told Redwood Voice.

The Crescent City Harbor District obtained a new insurance policy in July 2026, Moreno said, which satisfied the USDA’s loan requirements.

In her staff report for Wednesday’s meeting, Moreno said that Del Norte County made the $260,302 payment to the USDA on Sept. 1 using CCHD transiency occupancy tax revenue. That payment is part of the USDA’s $5 million loan to help the Harbor District rebuild its marina following tsunamis in 2006 and 2011.

On Wednesday, Nehmer argued that she has yet to see the Harbor District’s insurance policy even though she had asked for it twice.

“I can’t approve something I’ve never seen,” she said. “You claim we have it fully covered, but I would like to see an actual insurance policy to verify that we are covered.”

Nehmer said she wanted to see the entire policy.

Board President Rick Shepherd said he, too, would like to see the policy.

However, both Rademaker and Moreno argued that their agent, Chris Dufour, of Redwoods Leavitt Insurance Agency, had given them everything he had at this point.

“It’s something you don’t normally get for five or six months,” Moreno said. “Again, I know you guys hate when I say this, but these are standard operating procedures… and I’m on it. It’s not you asking for it. I’m asking for it.”

Moreno said the Crescent City Harbor District has a certificate of insurance that their agent sent directly to the USDA.

“You don’t have to worry about what you have covered and what you don’t have covered because they’ve given you the documents and this is the document you give to all your external people,” she said. “That’s what proves your insurance.”

After a comment from Linda Sutter, who is seeking a seat on the CCHD Board of Commissioners, Moreno referred to a letter the Board of Commissioners approved to be sent to the USDA proposing to make a $263,888 payment from a debt service reserve account and replenishing that account through annual payments of roughly $26,000. Reducing the $181,000 now that the Harbor District has insurance leaves $56,000 in that account, which equals two annual payments, Moreno said.

“The only reserve we need to have right now is two (years) of USDA — $56,000,” she said.

In other financial matters, the CCHD Board of Commissioners also approved a $100,000 settlement payment to Fashion Blacksmith.