Perry gets planning position at harbor

Harbor Commission members voted Tuesday night to create and fill a part-time  harbor planning position.

Until now, Young basically functioned as the harbor’s entire management department.

I’ve been spread pretty thin,” Young said. “I’m not complaining, but this will really help the harbor district move forward on some important projects.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to hire Ernie Perry, who is about to retire as director of the Del Norte County Community Development Department.

“He has all the right knowledge,” Young said. “Everything we do involves the California Coastal Commission, and for the county he’s the person who was the go-between (for) the local planning commission and the coastal commission.”

“There are approximately a half dozen projects that he will be involved in.”

And while Perry hasn’t been given a list of

projects he will be working on, he is quietly excited about working with the harbor.

“I think it will be interesting,” Perry said. “As I get older I don’t get as excited as I used to.”

Perry’s retirement is scheduled for Oct. 14, and originally he wasn’t expecting to be going straight back to work.

“My retirement was announced in June,” Perry said. “It wasn’t until a month ago that representatives from the harbor asked me to help.”

“I’m really looking forward to having Ernie on board,” Young said. “This is a good opportunity for the harbor to make things real.”

Perry is retiring under the California Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), and is only allowed to work for another PERS organization for 950 hours a year, Young said.

“It was never going to be a full-time position,” Young said. “We don’t have the funding or ability to bring in a full time staff member.”

Creating a part-time planning position at the harbor is not the district’s first attempt at getting help with planning.

“At first we talked about buying time from the county’s planning person, but the county determined they didn’t have people to spare,” Young said. “Next we considered buying the city planner’s time — we were even leaning toward it — but we found out that Ernie was retiring, which created the opportunity to look to him.”