Hear the audio as we present your petition to the BCDC Commission on March 15th, 2018! Friends of Westpoint Harbor sent our petition to the State Auditor, legislators, governor, and hand-delivered a copy to BCDC during the full commission meeting of March 15, 2018. Here’s a link to the audio as your petition is presented to the BCDC by a friend of Westpoint Harbor: https://bit.ly/2HVLPWZ You can listen to the audio of the full meeting (including all the public comments) on the Friends of Westpoint Harbor website. Just click on the sound cloud audio link on our home page: https://friendsofwestpointharbor.org There were almost 30 members of the public who spoke at the hearing, the majority spoke for Westpoint Harbor, about half of the Westpoint Harbor speakers shared personal knowledge about facts of the conditions at the harbor that refute the allegations and the others brought up concerns with BCDC's process and BCDC's making unexpected interpretations of the permit rather BCDC focusing on the BCDC mission. Three environmental groups spoke in support of BCDC as an agency with good history and while their words were strong, they simply repeated BCDC's position and without direct knowledge of the harbor and the allegations. Though commissioners rarely comment at length during CDO hearings, Commissioner Dave Pine spoke highly of the harbor and expressed thoughts that there was common ground between BCDC and the Westpoint Harbor. Hearing the sincere comments from so many members of the public may have been an epiphany for some of the other commissioners who -- until that day -- had only heard the staff position on the Westpoint Harbor case. The Commission voted unanimously to return the flawed CDO back to the enforcement committee from whence it came. The best outcome would have been a dismissal of the CDO. Here is Westpoint Harbor LLC owner Mark Sanders thoughts for all Friends of Westpoint Harbor: “Friends of Westpoint Harbor, As you know, the full BCDC Commission met [March 15 2018] to vote on a proposed Cease-and-Desist Order (CDO) against Westpoint Harbor, the latest chapter in the long and difficult battle against the unjustified actions of BCDC. The proposed CDO would have imposed massive fines and new requirements (some of which are impossible). Failure to meet those new requirements could trigger additional fines of $6,000 PER DAY, enough to break anyone who tries to stand up against BCDC overreach. Although the Commission did not fully dismiss the bogus case against us, it declined to adopt the CDO proposed by BCDC Enforcement Staff. The Commission also rejected a second Enforcement Staff proposal to schedule an evidentiary hearing before the full Commission. Instead the Commissioners punted, remanding the matter back to the BCDC Enforcement Committee to consider additional information from BCDC staff and Westpoint Harbor. It seems no one wants their fingerprints on what has become a cause célèbre. This is against the backdrop of the Enforcement Committee already rejecting a revised order put forward by Enforcement Staff at the January hearing. The public statements were powerful and effective, and it seemed many Commissioners had not actually studied this complicated matter. One did, Commissioner Pine, and he courageously spoke of the value of Westpoint Harbor. We don’t yet know when the Enforcement Committee will meet to consider the remand. Chairman Wasserman and Commissioner Pine expressed hope that BCDC staff and Westpoint Harbor will consider ways to resolve the disputes before the Enforcement Committee meets again. I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the amazing support and incredible efforts of Friends of Westpoint Harbor and the thousands who helped shine light on what is going on. Your work and actions on behalf of Westpoint Harbor have made a remarkable difference, and I feel the tide is finally turning. Mark“ Friends of Westpoint Harbor would like to thank you again for your support of the change.org petition! Please do sign up for the Friends of Westpoint Harbor News so you won’t miss out on new information about your petition and the case as well as other Friends news about the harbor. Here’s the link http://eepurl.com/dkj4PL