Lake County”s quagga mussel boat sticker program has been under way for more than a month and while the response has been excellent — more than 5,000 stickers have been issued since its inception — there is still some confusion among boaters.
Effective July 1 the county began requiring a minimum $7 fee for issuing a sticker. But while the county requires a minimum $7 fee, that doesn”t mean boaters will pay $7. Why? Agents (businesses) who issue the stickers can charge whatever they like and are not regulated by the county. Most are charging $10, but others are getting as much $12, and one is charging up to $15. On Saturday, one out-of-county boater told me he paid $45 for three stickers — one for his boat and two for personal watercraft. He felt it was excessive.
According to Deputy Water Resources Director Pam Francis, the matter of all the inspections stations charging the same fee has come up at several meetings, but the county”s legal counsel told her that no restrictions could be placed on the inspectors as to what they charge their customers.
In other words, the inspectors can charge whatever the market will bear. The county”s fee is $7, but it”s up to the individual inspectors to determine the final charge for boaters. These inspectors purchase a block of stickers from the county and pay, in advance, $7 per sticker.
The way the system works is that there are two types of certified inspectors. One is a screening inspector who screens the application for a sticker. If the applicant meets the criteria set forth by the county, a sticker will be issued, the price determined by the issuing agent. The other certified inspector is the one who actually inspects the watercraft, the boat inspector.
If the boat came from a quagga-infested area or is suspected of having the mussel or its larva attached, the screening inspector would then direct the boater to take his boat to a boat inspector. In some instances the screening and boat inspector will be the same person. The fee to have the boat actually inspected is $15 for a boat under 12 feet in length, $25 for a boat that is 12-18 feet in length, and $40 if the boat is longer than 18 feet.
In addition, if the boat has ballast tanks or a bladder, such as most of the wakeboard boats, there is an additional $20 fee. The inspectors get to keep the inspection fees. And this is on top of the $10-or-more fee for the boat sticker
According to Francis, only a few boats would actually be required to be inspected, depending on where they came from and other factors.
According to the county ordinance, if the boat leaves the county and returns, the boater must stop at a screening station and respond to a query on where the boat has been. A check of the inspection stations revealed that out of more than 5,000 stickers already issued, there have been only two boaters who said they have left the county and then returned to the county, which is hard to believe. Actually, the inspectors have the authority to charge another fee just to question the returning boater.
Francis said boaters should shop around to find the lowest fees charged by inspectors. She said that a few resort owners are even giving away the stickers for free as a service to their costumers. She said the Lake County Visitor”s Center in Lucerne is open seven days a week and is authorized to issue stickers. They charge $10.
Melissa Fulton, CEO of the Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber will charge only $10 for a sticker and nothing to re-certify a boat that has already been issued a sticker. The chamber”s office is open Monday through Friday.
While I”m no lawyer, I believe there is precedent for the county to set the fees the inspectors charge. For example, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has licensed agents throughout the state. They are only allowed to charge the basic fees for fishing or hunting licenses, plus a 5-percent extra charge for the agent. In other words, a fishing license costs $38.85, which includes the 5-percent handling fee to the license agent. The agent isn”t allowed to charge whatever he wants as is the case with Clear Lake”s sticker program.
Local businesses that sell state lottery tickets are only allowed to charge $1 per ticket, not what they want. The same applies to a number of other programs run by state and local governments.
If this problem isn”t solved, the entire quagga mussel program could be in trouble. I can just see a bunch of tournament fishermen talking at the ramp. One says he paid only $10 to get a sticker. His buddy says that he paid $15 for the same sticker, and a third says he paid $20. They would all probably say that Lake County is ripping them off.
Human nature being what it is, I can just about guarantee that as soon as an inspector who charges $10 learns that others are charging $20 or even $30 for a sticker, his fee will go up.
I think this issue is so important that it should be referred to the State Attorney General”s office for a ruling. Many individuals have put in a lot of hard work to make the program successful and it would be a shame to see it fail.
