Towns set for 80% increase in dues to manage anchorage

Tiburon and Belvedere would see their member dues rise nearly 80 percent under the Richardson Bay Regional Agency’s fiscal 2023 budget — an increase officials say is necessary to cover increased staff costs, a temporary mooring field and other initiatives that will help the agency fulfill its settlement agreement with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

The agency’s board of directors at its April 14 teleconference meeting voted 3-0 to approve a preliminary $1.8-million budget for fiscal year 2023, a 36-percent increase in spending over the current fiscal year. The board also approved the location of the 15-ball mooring field — about 500 feet off the Sausalito shoreline, out of the eelgrass, though Sausalito officials and some sailors objected the location was too close to shore and would interfere with recreational sailing and kayaking.

“While nobody likes to see a 78-percent increase in a bill, I think the general consensus is that this bill was coming due,” interim Executive Director Steve McGrath McGrath said. “There has been a significant underfunding of the (agency) for many years, and now the time has come to move forward and accomplish our goals, and that comes with a price.”

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