News-Pilot from San Pedro, California • 10

A10 News-Pilot San Padro Cahlorma Sat April 14 1984 ffijgj-flgSigMjLf I i 'fessTklr il Mt 1Ct7 1 Ajt JI5EJS --v ii j- y- --r A ZlTJci i -u- ij hi 'W 1 ulUM ikAty A Bay Yacht Club is challenging the Harbor Commission's decision to award club at the new Cabrillo marina in San Pedro to the Cabrillo Yacht Club challenges option awarded to marina competitor Yacht club By John Davies Staff writer In a fight that pits two Cerritos Channel marina operators against each other a group that unsuccessfully sought an option to build a yacht club at the new Cabrillo marina in San Pedro is challenging award of that option to Cabrillo Yacht Club Bay Yacht Club a development group headed by Lighthouse Yacht Landing operator Ron Gleason is sending a letter to Mayor Tom Bradley objecting to award of a lease option to a joint venture of Cabrillo Yacht and Island Yacht operator Bob Rollins The letter alleges the Cabrillo Yacht proposal failed to meet requirements in the Harbor request for proposal and should have been rejected James Wohl a lawyer who is one of the principals in Bay Yacht charged that the Cabrillo Yacht proposal: not contain a required lease option agreement to place the yacht club where Rollins produced documents recorded Nov 30 showing formation of his joint venture with Cabrillo Yacht Club and receipt stamps from the Harbor Department showing that the proposal was submitted at 345 pm Dec 1 proposal is still exactly the he said changed a Ev Comings staff commodore for Cabrillo Yacht Club and chairman of its new facilities committee said that the Harbor Department had never advised Cabrillo Yacht that its proposal was in any way incomplete seems to me like he said He confirmed that Cabrillo Yacht had switched the sites for its proposed yacht club and service building but said that was done when Harbor Department property experts said they had no objections yacht club originally was to be built back up the hill on the west side of the Comings said asked the Harbor Department if we could change Former public investigator gets 'slap on the- wris sentence By Teresa Simons Staff writer The former chief investigator for the Clark County Nev public office was given what a prosecutor called a sentence Friday for his no-contest plea in a $185000 insurance fraud scheme involving two yachts one of which was reported stolen from a Wilmington marina In an unusual move Long Beach Superior Court Judge Ernest Kelly had indicated last month what punishment he would give Douglas Reinertson 47 if Clark County officials allowed the defendant to keep his post Reinertson was forced to resign but Kelly nonetheless gave him a sentence similar to the one he had prearranged Reinertson was ordered to pay $60000 restitution to two insurance companies and sentenced to 180 days in a confinement detention facility in Las Vegas where he is to be placed on a work-furlough program He will have to stay at the facility on nights and weekends but on weekdays can work at his new full-time job with a food a lease option to build a yacht have been The change in the yacht club site was also significant Wohl said because a Bay Yacht proposal to make a similar change was rejected by the Harbor Department The request for proposal specified that the specific placement of the yacht club was important to a sense of at the marina he said were not matters of Wohl said in the letter to the mayor were absolute conditions to the consideration of the proposal for an In the letter Wohl goes on to the say that Bay Yacht believes the Cabrillo Yacht proposal was changed after the Dec 1 deadline fact that the winning proposer was allowed to amend his proposal well into January is a matter which may have significant importance in the event litigation he said Developer Bob Rollins earlier had denied categorically that any change was made in the Cabrillo Yacht proposal after the deadline The judge added that considering the amount of money Reinertson would be earning it would be excessive to make him pay full restitution attorney Ed George of Long Beach said thought it was a very fair sentence We had asked for no time in custody because we felt the loss of his job was sufficient The judge sort of cut the baby in George maintained his client was duped into the fraud scheme Reinertson a former Clark County deputy sheriff who had been on the public staff since 1967 faced a maximum prison term of five years and eight months Hodgman said that while a judge sometimes prearranges a sentence contingent on a guilty plea he found it unusual for Kelly to prearrange the sentence contingent on an outside factor such as whether he was able to keep his job Reinertson was accused of collecting phony insurance payments for two yachts after he reported one of the boats was stolen from Yacht Center in Wilmington and the other sank when struck canneries do the Felando said boat owners will have to move to other ports to unload their catches some to San Pedro others to Van Camp canneries in Samoa and Puerto Rico he said San While San Diego is losing its last cannery tuna fishermen say it is still too early to bury the fishing part of the industry Although the future looks bleak it has appeared that way before Tuna fishing used to be a hook-and-line industry Fishermen stood at the rails of the boats in pitching seas pulling the heavy tuna out of the water one at a time with a strong-armed heave In 1952 there were 225 such bait boats in Southern California But the 1950s became a disastrous time for the local tuna industry as the fleet was decimated by low-priced tuna taken by Japanese vessels which used purse seine nets to capture tuna Dozens of bait boats moved to other ports many were sold abroad and some owners went bankrupt Then in late 1958 Lou tunaboat Southern Pacific left San Diego for its maiden voyage as a purse seiner Brito began using huge nylon nets and powerful new winches with the same technique the Japanese had used Between 1959 and 1961 51 San Diego tuna vessels were converted from bait fishing boats to tuna seiners It marked a new era in tuna fishing with modern boats and high technology The industry grew rapidly during the 1960s relying on the technology and expertise developed by innovative San Diego tuna fishermen Most of those fishermen were of Portuguese or Italian descent It is estimated that about 11000 Portuguese live in San Diego many of them working in the tuna industry The 1970s were a time of turmoil for the industry Canners and fishermen were that and they said they had no objections that that was But Comings joined Rollins in denying that the Cabrillo Yacht Club had sought any changes in its proposal after the deadline was changed on our he said Mike Lemke assistant property manager for the Harbor Department said he could not say without a careful review of the Cabrillo Yacht Club proposal whether a lease option agreement had been submitted or any changes made Detailed information on the substance of each proposal has yet to be released by the Harbor Department which originally had told proposers information submitted would be held in confidence Under public records law however such proposals become public once received and evaluated The Harbor Commission voted April 4 to release the information on April 18 after giving proposers a chance to specify any financial information they believe the law may exempt from public records status allegedlyobtained a phony registration under the name of Freedom II The two men then told Coast Guard officials the Freedom II sank off the coast near San Francisco in late 1981 after it was hit by a frigate ship The said they survived the wreck but their two women companions one of whom they identified as Suzanne Russell were lost at sea Suzanne Russell had married John Russell in 1971 and eight years later had adopted the name of Cherie Anne Dozier when she married Robert Dozier After the purported wreck of the" Freedom II John Russell and Robert Dozier contacted authorities a second time to1 report that three women not two had been aboard the boat The two men changed their story a third time admitting Cherie Dozier and Suzanne Russell were the same person Coast Guard officials found no evidence of the purported boat sinking or drownings Suzanne Russell also is listed as a defendant in the case but it is not known if she is alive While the porpoise kills had been reduced the controversy flared again in 1980 when a San Diego tuna fisherman 22-year-old Jerry Correia died after being attacked by a shark while trying to free a porpoise from a net Beset by regulations at home the tuna fishermen also became embroiled in the so-called In 1976 US tuna boats paid Ecuador nearly $15 million for licenses to fish in waters off that coast Before those licenses were purchased Ecuadorian patrol boats seized seven American tuna seiners for fishing inside the 200-mile zone off that coast More than $1 million in fines were paid to get them back Later Mexico closed its coastal waters and claimed an exclusive fisheries zone out to 200 miles as well Despite all those setbacks and the closing of the Van Camp cannery tuna industry executives still hold out some hope for another comeback Kerns said his organization will push for tariffs on foreign tuna to help the industry over its present difficulties 20 to 25 percent of canned tuna sold in this country is said Kerns one out of every four cans That makes it tough for the US tuna Kerns said Van Camp be blamed for closing the plant because of uncontrollable market conditions Kerns said Van Camp was also faced with a drop in the worldwide price of fish contributing in general to the US woes A year ago the price of tuna was $1200 a ton Now $900 he said also has an adverse effect on the fishing fleet he said means the canneries pay the boats enough for them to make the profits they consider necessary to remain in business the Harbor request for proposal said it should be changed as the result of a letter submitted in mid-January weeks after the Dec 1 deadline for the proposals Leaders of Cabrillo Yacht Club immediately responded that: Harbor Department had never suggested anything was missing from the Cabrillo Yacht proposal proposed site of the yacht club was changed but the change was made with Harbor Department approval are unaware of any mid-January change in the proposal Wohl said he Gleason and Edward Sax reviewed the Cabrillo Yacht proposal and discovered that the yacht club had not submitted a lease option agreement which he said was one of 13 requirements imposed in the request for proposals was a material thing if they had left out the $20000 deposit they have been Wohl said failed to attatch a material contract item to their proposal and the proposal wholesale company where he will make $31000 a year He was making $43000 with the Public Office Deputy District Attorney Bill Hodgman argued that Kelly was encouraging insurance fraud with the sentence he had proposed While Reinertson had pleaded no-contest to two grand theft charges Hodgman brought in a witness a former girlfriend who said Reinertson had made various admissions to her as to his guilt Judge Kelly sentenced him if you can call it Hodgman said outside the courtroom I call it a slap on the wrist say anymore because I know Judge Kelly gets the News-Pilot at his Hodgman said he felt Reinertson should spend at least some time in custody The prosecutor also said the $60000 in restitution was less than a third of the $185000 paid for the fraudulent insurance claims Kelly however noted that Reinertson had no criminal record and questioned how he would be able to make restitution if put in jail considered the most modern in the world At its peak in 1980 2300 people were employed there But tuna industry officials said the plant compete with a worldwide glut of tuna on the market and competition from processing plants overseas with lower operating costs Jay Brown director of the Van Camp Seafood Division said closing the plant was a matter of economics Brown said the company could not continue to operate the San Diego cannery when it was costing more to process the tuna here than what the tuna sells for on supermarket shelves Operating costs and wages in Southern California average $7 to $10 an hour in Southern California compared with $450 an hour in Puerto Rico $240 an hour in American Samoa and 30 cents an hour in Thailand San Diego tuna fishermen say they are disappointed that the Van Camp cannery is closing down but they understand the problems August Felando president of the American Tunaboat Association said the association will use the closing of the Van Camp plant as leverage to encourage elected officials in Washington place a tariff on imported tuna could change the situation Felando said asking for the the imposition of the tariff only for a five-year period That should give the industry time to adjust to market conditions to the recent tremendous surge in imported Felando said the closing of the Van Camp could be a blessing in disguise certainly point it out during the hearing on our petition in he said illustrates what up against It shows being also wondering about the other California Felando said "If Van Camp thinks better to switch production elsewhere will the other It may be too early to bury Southern California tuna industry by a whale off the Southern California coast Authorities discovered that the boat supposedly struck by the whale actually had been sold Hodgman has described Reinertson as a who purchased the boats with bank financing and had them insured in his name Two other men Robert Dozier 36 and John Russell 46 remain fugitives in the case have an idea where they Hodgman said obviously no point in catching them if going to take them to Judge The fraud scheme was uncovered by Harbor Division Detective Rex Shields who discovered that a 51-foot sailing vessel reported stolen from Yacht Center the Insperation had been renovated and had a phony registration under the name of Freedom II Reinertson bought the run-down Insperation in early 1981 then reported it stolen and collected $110000 in insurance money authorities said Russell and Dozier meanwhile were hired to renovate the boat and rocked by a series of blows rising fuel costs poor fishing and increasing competition from foreign countries One of the most controversial and publicized events was the porpoise-kill debate which still goes on today Beginning in 1976 environmental groups won a series of lefjal battles to ban the killing of porpoises 'while fishing for tuna Reacting in disgust to a series of conflicting tuna-porpoise regulations and judicial rulings most of the US tuna fleet about 123 purse seiners in port either in San Diego or Puerto Rico stayed in port for three months in early 1977 in protest porpoise-kill quotas imposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service The tuna fishermen find schools of porpoises to locate tuna and set their nets in which the porpoises often become ensnared and drown The quotas and limits placed on US tuna vessels was a boon to foreign-flag fishing vessels who operated under no such restrictions In April 1977 Star-Kist Foods Corp announced the layoff of 400 of the 2000 production workers at its tuna cannery at Terminal Island because of new tuna fishing regulations Once again the San Diego tuna fleet used new technology to deal with a problem Nets were redesigned and the way they were circled around the tuna was modified changes that resulted in slashing the number of porpoises killed from about 134000 in 1975 to 66000 in 1976 By 1979 the picture had improved dramatically About 15000 porpoises were killed by US tuna fishermen in 1979 well below the limit of 51945 set for the year Some tuna officials consider 1979 as the highwater mark for the industry It was estimated that the US tuna industry was worth $2 billion a year in 1979 and employed 30000 workers most in San Diego and San Pedro By Jay Johnson and John Farina Copley News Service For 100 years tuna fishing has given the waterfronts at San Pedro and San Diego an aura of adventure But it is a hard unforgiving business that through the years has been filled with more than its share of turnarounds booms battles flush times despair and disasters The announcement Wednesday that San last cannery Van Camp Seafoods will close on July 1 laying off 1200 workers is just the latest in a long series of blows to the industry the situation is serious for San Diego I think that it necessarily means the fleet is doomed said Bud Kerns executive director of the US Tuna Foundation industry has had its problems before and always bounced But others believe the tuna fleet will have to follow the canneries Fishermen working 100 Southern California tuna seiners go out of business but they may not be able to continue to operate in Southern California tuna industry to San Diego is what apple pie is to San Diego City Councilman Bill Cleator said guess you can get along without it but certainly not going to be Closure of Van Camp and the expected closure of canneries on Terminal Island unless a protective tariff on tuna i is passed was linked to the high cost of labor in San Diego said Jose Munoz executive vice president of the American Tunaboat Association can be done about he said a good question The future sure as hell look very Just two years ago Bumble Bee closed its tuna cannery here and laid off 900 workers The Van Camp plant opened in 1976 at a cost of $27 million is.