By Steven Fletcher
Staff Writer
—
MANCHESTER — Police Chief and Harbormaster Glenn McKiel, at the center of questions swirling around the harbor and the revenues from its moorings, has proposed a comprehensive restructuring of the police harbor division.
And he unveiled his plan at a selectmen's meeting Monday night before the largest crowd Town Hall's Room 5 has seen in recent memory, residents and officials said.
The meeting and McKiel's presentation came at a session designed to have the selectmen and Town Administrator Wayne Melville discuss a report delivered by the Harbor Advisory Committee to the selectmen in June — citing a $31,000, two-year shortfall in revenues from harbor mooring fees, urging an outside audit of the Harbor Department's books and receipts, and also recommending a restructuring of the harbor management system, including hiring a full-time harbormaster separate from the Police Department.
In his presentation, McKiel recommended combining the clerical and associate harbormaster roles into a single position, increasing the amount of time patrol personnel go out onto the water, and shifting the processing of the moorings to a third-party vendor.
"This is what will help us to achieve goals," he said.
McKiel said that the proposal will use the resources that the harbor division has more efficiently and effectively. He also proposed a full-time, 40-hour-per-week position that combines the associate harbormaster's responsibilities with those of the harbor clerk. The person selected to fill this role, he said, will need some maritime skills, but will serve in a predominantly as an administrator.
He said that the department would also like to hire people to serve as patrol staff on the water during the boating season, and on heavily trafficked weekends in May and September. The department traditionally pays police officers $50-$60 per hour overtime to patrol the harbor. He proposed to hire three reserve officers with no land duties to patrol the harbor for $18-$20 per hour.
The new patrols would go out seven days a week during the boating season, increasing the department's presence on the water, from the randomized five day per week patrols conducted over the last few years.
The department, according to Assistant Harbormaster Gabe Mongello, who gave a presentation on the third-party vendor plan Monday evening, will soon switch to a Fandotech service called "Online Mooring." The system automates the town's mooring permit and wait lists, and provides those moored in Manchester Harbor a way to pay via credit card, list fees online.
Through the new system, the town keeps an accurate count of mooring permits, payments, and applications. Both full wait lists and permit lists will be available on the site.
Residents can opt out of the online system, if they lack an e-mail address and prefer to deal with paper work the old-fashioned way. Mongello mentioned that the old system will take longer to process. McKiel told Monday's crowd that the wait list will stay in the same order regardless of the new system.
He also said that a full waiting list would sit on the town website before the end of the week, following a question from Beverly resident, Eric Berger.
McKiel said that he will discuss the issues with the Harbor Advisory Committee before presenting the final budget.
"I applaud the new software, but it is, just software and we need to have a management structure to support it," said Selectman Lee Spence, in an e-mail sent to the Times. "The chief's ideas about committing more resources to administration are a step toward better management."
But Spence said the board needs to consider the longer term, and determine the correct mix of civilian and police personnel required to run the harbor. Spence also commended efforts to recover the uncollected mooring revenues from the 105 inner harbor moorings, but acknowledged that more work needs to be done.
McKiel said the process stands as a complete reconstruction, not record maintenance.
Members of the audience, including Jim Halen of Manchester, which spilled out into the hallway, asked about the possibility of a third-party audit of the harbor records. Manchester's Joe Rendos asked if the police department had any records of misplaced checks. McKiel presented an example.
Town Administrator Wayne Melville said that, before an audit would be possible, the town's auditing firm, Powers & Sullivan, would need to reconstruct the records at a cost of some $100 an hour. Then, the town would need to bring in a second firm to audit their work.
Meeting attendees requested that the Board of Selectmen look to appoint a full-time harbormaster, outside of the police department. McKiel said that he accepted the idea — but added that he would like to fix the current harbor problems before turning the department over to a new person.
Manchester resident Woody Kelly felt that the harbor could only be "straightened out" if it moved outside of the Police Department.
Former harbor committee chairman Paul Dozier said he also felt that the current harbor management system was structurally broken; he also said the meeting was conducted out of order, in that it largely provided residents with a "spoon fed" state of the harbor, rather than a discussion of harbor management.
"Everybody would like a new harbormaster, but do you want to pay for one?" asked Finance Committee member Adele Irving.
Improvements to the harbor division, suggested resident Duncan Wilkinson, could be financed by an increase in the mooring permit fee. He referred to the current price as a bargain, and could remain as such with an increase of two or three times the current rate of $6.50 per foot based on the length of a person's boat.
"We can do better," said McKiel, "and we will do better."
Steven Fletcher can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3447, or gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com.
