Supervisors Drop Marina Lease Extension, Study Options

Orange County supervisors on Tuesday withdrew from their agenda a controversial proposal to extend a company’s control of Sunset Marina Park at Huntington Harbour.

Referring to a request for the withdrawal from the firm that operates the marina, Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said there was “no basis” to do anything except drop the matter from consideration.

The withdrawal appears to leave the county a variety of options for determining future control and management of Sunset Marina, which generates millions of dollars of boat-slip rentals and other income.

For now, the county still has a contract with the firm that had sought the 30-year lease renewal, Goldrich & Kest Inc. of Culver City. The existing contract, also for 30 years, is scheduled to expire in 1999. Among other options, the county could let the contract expire and seek competitive bids from other prospective operators.

Goldrich & Kest President Jona Goldrich, with four of the five supervisors signaling their intentions to vote against the proposed 30-year lease extension, informed the board on Monday that he wished to withdraw. Goldrich asked the supervisors in a letter to “direct the appropriate agency” of county government to enter negotiations for purposes of buying out his firm’s existing lease.

If such a buyout could be arranged, Goldrich wrote, it “will eliminate any need of a major lawsuit being filed.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Vasquez was the only supervisor who commented about the withdrawal of the lease proposal. The proposal had generated controversy in part because of Goldrich & Kest’s employment of the son of Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and because of what county inspectors have described as the firm’s substandard maintenance of Sunset Marina.