On September 17, 2026, the City of Monterey Appeals Hearing Board convened at 10 a.m. to hear an appeal by Eric Foster regarding the Harbormaster's revocation of his mooring license and liveaboard permit. The board voted 2-0 to deny the appeal, upholding the revocation effective October 1, 2026, due to Foster's non-compliance with the city's vessel insurance requirements.
Good morning and welcome to the Appeals Hearing Board. Uh for September 17th, 2026. The time is 10 a.m. Um let's start with a roll call. Uh board member Shell. Board member Fritz. Um let the record reflect that. Excuse me, Chair Glenzer is out as well. Today from City Staff, we have Nicole Rodriguez, the Harbormaster, uh, assistant city attorney, Karen Cratley, and uh city attorney, Christine Davy. Chrissy, with uh Mr. Abby, would it be best to start with the public comment verbiage? Now, I think that's a good idea. Oh, I'm sorry, we do need to acknowledge that uh the teleconferencing will not be taking place as um the board member um who was going to be teleconferencing in has um decided that he will not be able to make it today. Okay. So now we will uh I'll read the uh public comment uh verbiage. Public comment and participation information is provided on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monterey.org backslash agendas. In-person attendees, please keep your electronic devices muted to prevent audio interference because consistent with the First Amendment and the Brown Act, individuals have the right to speak at public meetings, which includes the right to criticize or support city policies or actions. The city encourages your uninhibited and robust feedback on public issues affecting the city. Thank you for your participation. Okay, and with that, we will go to the consent agenda, which um we have one thing on the consent agenda, which is the approval of minutes for August 20th, 2026. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. A second. Okay. Let the uh record reflect that the uh motion has passed two to zero. And now they vote. Did they vote? There was a motion in a second, but so um all in favor. Okay. No, it's approved. I'm so glad you're here, Miss Abby. Okay, now we will move on to um general public comments. And let's see, do we have anyone online? Seeing no one online. Anyone in the chambers like to make a public comment? None in the chambers. We will close public comments and move on to our public hearing. And I can go ahead if you want. Okay, this is a public hearing. The title is appeal by Eric Foster of Harbor Master's Revocation of Mooring License and Live A Board Permit in the Monterey Harbor pursuant to Monterey City Code sections 17-33 subsection K and 1743 subsection F3. And at this time, the board, if you could indicate if there's been any ex parte contacts, meaning if you received any information relevant to this appeal that's not contained in the staff report that might be um relevant to this issue if you could disclose those ex parte contacts. No ex-party contacts, great. And then I'm gonna make a statement about the role of my office in this proceeding. I'm the city attorney, I'm representing the board in this hearing. I've had no um information or contact with city staff on this other than receiving the packet at the same time as the board and the public. Assistant city attorney Karen Cratley is representing the department in this matter. She and I have not discussed it, and we've um maintained an ethical screening wall. And the reason for that is to ensure due due process so we don't have the same attorneys um intermingling and and advising both uh the department and the decision maker. So we do that to ensure due process. And so with that, the way the procedure works for these hearings is um each side may have an opportunity to do an opening statement if you wish.