October 11, 2020

CFSB Board Meeting Minutes - September 28, 2020

Attendance:

Chris Voss, Bernard Friedman, John Colgate, Michael Harrington, Gary Burke, Harry Liquornik, Garrett Rose, Kim Selkoe, Mike Nelson

Notes:

BR Hoover

Agenda:

  1. Vote to elect Executive positions (President, VP, Treasurer).

  2. Financial Report

  3. Discuss priorities and strategies for our infrastructure project

  4. Discuss spending our unallocated grant money

  5. Discuss accepting more foodbank donation money

  6. Discuss signing MOU on Sea Otter delisting

  7. Discuss and vote: Donation to Maritime Museum, Donation to PCFFA, urchin issue

  8. Updates on fisheries news

Chris Voss opened the meeting September 28, 2020 at 3:00pm via Zoom.

Approval Of General Meeting Minutes

Harrington requests the following be corrected:

  • Remove Harrington from attendance list from the General Meeting in August

  • 2020 Budget Summary: Increase in expenses was because of payments to Wildlife Science International of $5600.00 for otter delisting research. 

A motion made by Voss to approve the minutes for the August 15,2020 meeting was seconded by Harrington and unanimously approved (5-0).

1. Vote To Elect Executive Officers For The Board Of Directors (President, VP, Treasurer).

Voss and Harrington stated their interest in keeping their current positions as President and Treasurer, respectively. Colgate expressed a willingness to relinquish the Vice President's position, if other board members were interested. Harrington nominated Friedman for  V.P.; Friedman agreed. 
 
A motion was made by Harrington to elect Voss as President, Friedman as Vice President, and Harrington as Treasurer. The Board discussed nominating McCorkle as an Honorary Board Member as recognition of his dedication to CFSB and value as an Advisor. Voss amended Harrington’s Motion, which was seconded by Colgate, to create a non-voting Honorary Lifetime Board Membership for McCorkle in recognition of his remarkable contributions to CFSB. The amended motion was unanimously approved. (7-0)

2. Financial Report By Michael Harrington, Treasurer

Harrington began his report by noting that the 2020 Budget was approved at the General Meeting without following Best Practices and was not presented in the proper format, which required that minor errors be corrected by Kirsten. 
 
Moving forward, Harrington urged the Finance Committee to meet with Kirstin to ensure the budget is prepared and submitted correctly in the future. Additionally, Harrington suggested that in 2021, all the membership fees be paid upfront.  Harrington requested that only a budget approved by the Treasurer be presented to the board for approval.
 
Harrington, as Treasurer, approved the financials. A Motion was then made by Voss to approve the Financials that was seconded by Friedman and approved unanimously. Vote (7-0) . 

3. Discussion Of Priorities And Strategies For Infrastructure Project

Updates from Kim

  • Next step is finding property. Our primary goal is to exhaust all opportunities to secure for City property, while  surveying  private property.

  • Developing a Funding and Implementation Plan (cost of soil sampling etc…)

  • Engaging Sherri Franklin(urban Design Center) for grant writing  and capacity building.

  • Selkoe, Nelson and Voss have been in conversation with Sherri Franklin. Franklin has worked on large projects in L.A. such as AltaSea at San Pedro Harbor. Her involvement would be in grant writing and to help CFSB secure a larger government grant funding for the infrastructure project. 

  • Chris, Kim, and Mike interviewed her last Sunday and were very impressed with her work..  

  • Franklin would essentially prepare the grant application for her own initial contract fee and CFSB will submit to the SB Foundation. 

 
Ideas Discussed 

  • Liquornik suggested expanding the search area and looking in Carpinteria or Goleta..

  • Colgate suggested looking at  properties that might be ruled out for other uses because of projected sea level rise. Voss agreed, since CFSB’s land uses would be categorized as adaptable to sea level rise. 

  • Rose voiced  support for the addition of cold storage capacity to the infrastructure project.  

  • Voss stated that he believed the Waterfront Department had an obligation to provide space for gear, boat and cold storage.. Harrington agreed that finding suitable land for the boatyard is the responsibility of the city.. 

 
A motion was made by Harrington to move forward with hiring Franklin for the Infrastructure project, which was seconded by Colgate and approved unanimously. Vote (7-0)  

4. Discussion Of Unallocated Grant Funding

Selkoe suggested  investing in a membership drive and trying out a Constituent Management System called “Little Green Light” to improve member communication and management. 
Harrington agreed that this would be a good idea to explore. 

Harrington made a motion to use Cable Grant funds to acquire Little Green Light software for a one year trial period, which was seconded by Voss and approved unanimously. Vote (7-0)

5. Discussion Of Acceptance Of More Food Bank Donation Grant Funding.

Catch Together would like to donate another ~$50,000 to CFSB to continue the Foodbank donation program. Half will go towards purchasing seafood, and the other half will go towards PR, education, and other programmatic costs. 
 
Burke and Rose commented that they participated in the program this summer and were very pleased with how things went. Voss and Nelson expressed their willingness to help out with operations and Harrington agreed to do the bookkeeping. BR would also be directly involved in the administration of the seafood donation program. 
 
Colgate proposed adding an administrative fee to budgets of all new grants to cover indirect costs.. 
 
Colgate made a motion to add a 5% administrative fee to all grant applications, which could be waived by the President. The motion was seconded by Harrington and approved unanimously. Vote (7-0)

6. Discussion Regarding Execution Of MOU On Sea Otter Delisting

Motion made by Voss, seconded by Colgate, to sign the MOU stating CFSB agrees to support Pacific Legal Foundation’s (PLF) efforts to pursue delisting. Unanimous vote in favor by 5 board members present.

7. Discussion And Vote: Donation To Maritime Museum, Donation To PCFFA, Urchin Issue

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) has been receiving a donation of $1,000 every year from CFSB. Mike McCorkle has acted as the liaison between CFSB and SBMM and represents CFSB’s interests as a board member of SBMM. However, there has been little communication and involvement between the two organizations lately.  Kim relayed that she has expressed our interest to the SBMM in renewing a closer, mutually beneficial relationship. There was disagreement as to the approach in making a donation this year and the message it sends.

Motion made by Voss, seconded by Rose, to donate $1,000 to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. 5 in favor, 2 opposed. 

In regards to PCFFA, attendees voiced that they are in support of making a donation to the organization and that they are happy with the advocacy work, especially by Mike Conroy. 

Motion made by Voss, seconded by Burke, to donate $1,500 to PCFFA. 7-0 Unanimous vote in favor.

8. Updates On Fisheries News

Aquaculture - Friedman 

Friedman urged CFSB to be aware of new developments in Aquaculture and reported the following updates: 

  • Ventura Shellfish Enterprise (VSE) has released Preliminary Operations Plan. 

  • San Diego: New fish farm (Pacific Ocean AquaFarms) in the ocean off Bird Rock and Mission Bay is moving along and is open for public comment. 

  • The Ocean Protection Council provided a $350,000 grant to UCSB to provide assistance developing the State’s Shellfish Aquaculture Implementation Plan. 

Friedman agreed to share his correspondence to the Fish and Game Commission and his comments on the VSE’s Preliminary Operations Plan and Draft.

Wind Farms Update 

Burke attended outreach meeting on wind farms near Morro Bay. He stated his opinion that the proposed project would move forward.  From the meeting, “it looks like they are going to follow through with this”. 

Channel Islands Sanctuary Advisory Council 

Selkoe shared that she has joined this advisory council and that she and Tim Athens hold the Commercial Fishing seats. She remarked that this was a good forum to learn about news from all state agencies and local NGOs, and share information and messaging with the public.