Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Wednesday, Sept. 18 @ 2:41 p.m. / Local Government
Commissioners Question Harbormaster's Credit Card Use, Reject Proposed Policy
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Crescent City Harbor commissioners on Tuesday rejected a proposed credit card policy that gives the harbormaster a spending cap of $9,999.
One commissioner, Brian Stone, also attempted to delay a response from Harbor District staff to the Del Norte County Civil Grand Jury, whose report on allegations of credit card misuse came out in July.
The proposed policy and Grand Jury response came before the Board about two weeks after the Harbor District, in response to a Public Records Act request, released credit card statements pertaining to Harbormaster Tim Petrick.
Though their general counsel, Ruben Duran, stated in a Sept. 3 letter that the purchases Petrick made with the credit card were “proper under all applicable law,” commissioners said they were frustrated that they had not seen the statements even though they had asked for them.
“I’m not going to go pointing fingers, but we have had a major failure on the part of, not only the individuals involved, [but] staff and management. I am really torqued about this,” Stone said, adding that he had asked to see credit card statements for years. “My first question to Mr. Petrick is why wasn’t this brought to us two years ago? I have been concerned about spending and screaming about it for ages. I’m not going to go into all the reasons why we walked ourselves into this mess, it’s just not going to be anything that’s good for anybody. My point is where did these come from? Were they there when the Grand Jury started inquiring? I have my doubts.”
Stone proposed rewriting the proposed credit card policy to only allow the office manager to have one with a spending cap of $1,500, though Board President Harry Adams said that limit should be no more than $5,000.
If something needs to be purchased, and it’s really an emergency, Stone said, the Harbor District can cut a check.
In response to a California Public Records Act request from Linda Sutter, the Harbor District disclosed statements and receipts from purchases Petrick made with the CCHD credit card from January to July 2024.
Sutter and four other candidates are currently running for one of three open seats on the Harbor District Board. Sutter told commissioners on Tuesday that she had submitted a writ of mandate to the Del Norte County Superior Court because she had not received the public documents she requested.
Sutter accused Petrick of theft of public funds and the Harbor District Board of a lack of transparency.
“It is my opinion that Mr. Petrick is a grave liability to this Harbor District,” she said. “If Mr. Petrick is charged with … theft of public funds, this can affect [your] grants.”
According to the credit card statements, the expenses Harbor commissioners and the public questioned include the purchase in January of six packages of TaylorMade customized golf balls and 24 poker chip ball Logo ball markers for a total of $362.85 from Golfballs.com.
In December, Petrick spent $616.97 to register for a California Association of Harbormasters conference and golf tournament and $1,329.12 for a stay at the Asilomar Resort in Pacific Grove, where the conference was being held.
Sutter and other members of the public also questioned Petrick’s DoorDash purchases in February. Those expenses include $120.42 on Feb. 21 at Taste of India and $75.15 at the Bagel Kitchen. Petrick also used the CCHD credit card for an Uber Eats purchase of $65.28.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, Petrick told the Wild Rivers Outpost that the DoorDash purchases were related to meetings with Association of Harbormasters representatives and companies they’re working with. He said they were discussing how the association was approaching proposed legislation as well as how regulations from the California Air Resources Board would impact mariners at their ports.
Petrick said in the last, roughly year and a half, the Board of Commissioners took issue with “maybe three charges.”
“They would have liked to have been involved with the discussion, but the [expenses] were within my spending authority,” Petrick told the Outpost, adding that his spending authority as of Tuesday is under $12,000. “The Harbor District sponsored the golf tournament. I would have spent $300 in advertising, which is what I spent [on the tournament]. The Board wanted to be involved. They’re concerned with the optics.”
In addition to giving the harbormaster a spending cap of $9,999 using the CCHD credit card, the proposed policy would give the assistant harbormaster a spending limit of $7,000 and the office manager a spending limit of $5,000.
Staff issued a CCHD credit card would have been required to provide receipts to the office manager. If a staff member uses the card for a “business-related purchase which is not within the scope of the employee’s duties or the employee’s authorization level” those expenses become their responsibility unless they’re formally approved.
Inappropriate charges could result in a loss of credit card privileges, a demand for restitution to the Harbor District, disciplinary action “up to and including termination” and potential prosecution, according to the proposed policy.
If a staff member uses a Harbor District credit card for personal reasons, they would have been required to report the occurrence to the office manager and reimburse the CCHD, according to the proposed policy.
However on Tuesday, Commissioner Wes White said the policy should state that no personal charges should be allowed “period.”
“I don’t believe credit cards are needed by anyone other than the office manager,” White said. “We can do advances for trips and some of the charges I understand are promotional charges, I think they probably should have been brought before the Harbor Commission before those charges were made like the promotional golf balls. I’m frustrated, pissed off, I’m not happy about the credit card charges that have occurred.”
The credit card policy comes after the Grand Jury stated in its report released July 22 that the Harbor District had drafted a credit card policy in November 2022, but it hadn’t been discussed or approved by the Board of Commissioners. They urged the Board to approve the credit card policy by Sept. 30, 2024.
The Grand Jury began investigating the Harbor District after receiving a formal complaint from a member of the public that there was at least one occasion of a staff member using a company credit card for a personal expense in 2021.
According to the Grand Jury’s report, staff member did not claim a travel expense they were entitled to as a way to offset the unauthorized expense, but the Grand Jury couldn’t confirm complete reimbursement.
On Tuesday, Stone said he had a problem with the response to the Grand Jury report from the Harbor District’s executive staff. Stone didn’t believe Petrick when he said Assistant Harbormaster Mike Rademaker and Finance Director David Negus wrote the response and threatened “walk out of that door and recuse myself” if the Board of Commissioners approved the statement.
Stone said he had requested credit card statements dating back to 2019. When the Grand Jury report was released he emailed another request to Petrick on Aug. 9. He said he got a response back from Petrick wanting to know why he wanted the information.
“You have not only offended me, but you have offended everybody in this room,” Stone said. “What you have done is you have a conflict of interest. You are supposed to go and not be involved in any way, shape or form. You are supposed to back away. That’s what a normal person would do. This was an intrusion on your part, which should have never happened and it’s right there for anybody who wants to take a look at it.”
Petrick insisted that he had no part in writing the response to the Grand Jury. He noted that, though the response from Harbor District staff is due Sept. 30, the deadline for the Board of Commissioners to respond is 90 days from when the report was issued.
Duran, who reviewed the response, said that while Stone is entitled to do what he needed to do, there was no need for him to recuse himself. There was no action required from the Board of Commissioners on the Grand Jury response, Duran said.
Duran said that under California law, a conflict of interest refers to financial interest. He said the response to the Grand Jury report carries no financial interest for Petrick.
“It’s my understanding that there’s no specific person named in the Grand Jury report nor any specific job description or job title at the district,” Duran said. “All of that is to say I agree that the Board should very carefully consider its response to the Grand Jury and I agree that Mr. Petrick’s response is the executive response that he is entitled to send by virtue of his position.”
In their response to the Grand Jury, Rademaker and Negus stated that the unapproved personal charge was identified and the reimbursement documented “well before the Grand Jury’s investigation.” They state the staff member identified the unapproved charge themselves and took action to rectify the situation.
They also state that the Crescent City Harbor District has instituted regular training for staff who spend public funds to ensure they’re up to date on best practices. Cross training with the District’s accounting and administrative staff is also being implemented to ensure that “multiple staff members are familiar with financial protocols and can step in as needed.”
Petrick was hired as deputy harbormaster in September 2020 and became harbormaster in July 2021 after his predecessor Charlie Helms retired. On Aug. 6, 2024, Harbor Commissioners approved increasing Petrick's salary to $134,150.50. This included a base salary of $125,000, a 4.2 percent cost of living adjustment and a 3 percent performance incentive.
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