Competitive Bidding Needed for Marina : It’s Puzzling That County Officials Are Pushing Premature Renewal of Contract

There’s no good reason for the county to dispense with the bidding process on a lease to operate Sunset Marina Park, one of the five lucrative county marina operations. There’s every reason why it should go to bid.

Yet the Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission is reviewing a new 30-year lease deal for the current private operator, Goldrich & Kest Inc. of Culver City, with final consideration by the Board of Supervisors to follow. The only possible explanation for this puzzling state of affairs is that there are people in high places in county government who are determined to see this lease renewed. And their enthusiasm for renewal has been indulged without much concern for whether there might be a better deal--or partner--for the county.

As reported recently in The Times, county inspectors over the past decade have sounded like broken records, repeatedly citing maintenance deficiencies. For the marina to attribute unyielding problems to “communication” glitches is laughable.

These repeated citations suggest that management of an important public resource is both sloppy and cavalier. And this dubious track record comes on top of an earlier controversy, also reported by The Times in June, in which the firm employed Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder’s son to work with county staff during lease negotiations from 1989 through mid-1990.

Now the commission has been asked by the Board of Supervisors to review a new lease agreement that would award a 30-year renewal to the firm eight years before the lease is due to expire and without competitive bidding. The outcome, when the commission reconsiders the deal later this month, is far from certain.

But guess who has been defending renewal? For one, Wieder; her aide says, “She feels the proposed agreement adequately addresses the issue of maintenance by G&K.;” Then there’s John W. Sibley, the chief deputy director of the County Environmental Management Agency, who says renewal would boost the county’s share of income and expand the marina’s boat storage capacity.

Couldn’t these and other benefits be realized by seeing who else might be interested, at the appropriate time, in such a lucrative operation? The county might do much better financially. And does it make sense for the county to remain in partnership with a firm that has not kept up its end of the bargain on maintenance?

Orange County has only a handful of these precious franchises. Don’t be so quick to give away the keys to the kingdom along the coastline.