The Bay Commission last night ended up being pretty cordial given the tension left over from the previous meeting. Hats off to District President and 4^th District Commissioner Dennis Hunter for setting the tone at the beginning of the meeting, urging respect for different opinions, as well as adherence to the principals of communication, courtesy and common sense.

There were a few moments of tension in the standing-room-only meeting, just to keep things entertaining for folks watching or participating, and juicy news about the status of the Goldman Sachs deal.

As commissioners were invited to make initial comments on the Redwood Marine Terminal business plan, Ronnie Pellegrini and Roy Curless opted to say nothing because they wanted to hear from the public.

Then it was Third District Commissioner Mike Wilson’s turn to churn the issues. “I have a different view because talking about the project is what we are elected to do,” he said and then launched into his concerns about the proposed project, starting with the issue of competition with existing private dock operations on the bay. When Ronnie Pellegrini countered that other users are “out of room,” Wilson suggested that these other users could invest to expand their operations for much less than $40 million.

One interesting point Wilson made, is that “if you look at this as a transportation project as an alternative to the railroad instead of a part of it, that is if you consider a $30 million project as an alternative for a railroad that’s $300 million to $600 million and beyond, according to John Barna [Executive Director of the California Transportation Commission], that could be a good selling point because the pitch is completely different. We are seeking to do economic development on Humboldt Bay and sometimes I think we are taking the path of the most resistance.”

Dennis Hunter was brief, but made some strong points beginning with challenging some people’s assumptions on how he would vote: “People have made perceptions on how they think I am going to vote. And they are wrong. I have a lot of questions.” He said he wanted to see a more specific cash flow forecast between 2015 and 2020, justification of the cruise ship number, a flushing out of the relationship between the port and the NCRA, clarification of the cash flow analysis, and the landlord lease concept further defined.

Higgins was even more brief, referring to projected red ink in the budget and saying, “I don’t think we can fund 10 years of studies and lawyers, and lot of this is out of our pocket.”

For the most part, public comment was very civil and lots of speakers made great points. I would say the majority of speakers were skeptical of the project.

One rather humorous speaker gave a rather witty 3-minute schpeal questioning the mental health of commissioners for developing this plan. Had it not been so witty, it would have been in bad taste, but appreciation for the humor seemed to carry the day.

Randy Gans, leveled a personal attack against Commissioner Higgins for his MyWord piece in the Times-Standard voicing concerns about red ink in the budget saying “I can’t believe we were subjected to that,” and, “By God, let’s stop the grandstanding.” Higgins called him on the personal attack and said he was calling it how sees it based on the information presented to him.

Then it was on to the Goldman Sachs deal. It turns out that negotiations aren’t going so well. Hunter, the one commissioner on the committee which is negotiating the deal, said that the rosy picture painted in the presentation to the commission hadn’t lasted into negotiations. “At this point in time there is no agreement and there are some huge issues and questions that the committee is dealing with,” said Hunter. “It is entirely possible that the committee will not bring a contract back for open discussion.”

This clearly bugged Commissioner Curless and he and Wilson had a little back and forth:

Curless: I’m interested to see what Goldman Sachs has to say.

Paul (The district’s Lawyer): We have some serious disagreements with Goldman Sachs

Curless: I should have told him to tear that thing out.

Wilson: That it’s a good point and that we had the option to have the owner tear it out and clean up the site.

Curless: You weren’t on th board so it wasn’t your problem

Wilson: I’m just saying…

Wilson went on to make comments about his concerns about Goldman Sachs and the district’s need to think more deeply about what it means to be green:

“It’s hard to see who Goldman Sachs is really representing…I have reservations to a single entity owning a port / rail facility…If and when the train comes back I want to ensure that it is ours and that it comes back for the reasons that we want it.

On the green port, Long Beach did push for reductions in emissions…They have also lost business because of that. It doesn’t come easily…We have to internalize the idea of being green. We have to get rid of the paper cups and put solar panels on the roof and replace the Charger with a hybrid.”

This got some applause.

So, all in all, an interesting and entertaining meeting. The next Bay District Meeting is August 14^th, 7pm, and a new location is likely to be announced.