Police Chief / Anchor-Out Meeting – March 2

Police Chief John Rohrbacher talks to the anchor-outs | photo and story by Court Mast

On Wednesday, March 2, 2016, Sausalito Chief of Police John Rohrbacher held an open meeting at the Sausalito fire station to address the issue of anchor-out vessels illegally moored within the waters under Sausalito’s jurisdiction.

Chief Rhorbacher had placed printed flyers around Sausalito and the floating homes docks saying he had intentions to begin enforcing Sausalito’s city code wherein boats could not remain moored or anchored in Sausalito waters longer than 10 hours without the written consent of the Chief of Police. Around 75 people attended the one-hour meeting, most of whom were from the anchor-out community.

After outlining his intention to enforce the law, the Chief explained he lacked much of the information to know where to begin, including exactly where Sausalito’s boundaries lay on the water. So he conducted the meeting as an information-gathering session, and quickly opened the floor to questions.

The attendees used the opening to tell the Chief he didn’t have the authority to remove them because all the waters were either privately owned or under federal, BCDC (Bay Conservation Development Commission) or RBRA (Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency) authority, that this was uneven enforcement of the law, and that the vessels were their homes and they had nowhere else to go. At the same time they derided the chief for allowing the dinghy tie-up at Turney street to become overcrowded. No one spoke in favor of the law enforcement effort.

The Chief kept the meeting at a level of civil discourse and said he would procure a fully-detailed map so everyone could understand Sausalito’s boundaries. He explained that all information would be considered and the enforcement process would be done in a fair way. And, there would be more meetings.

Related coverage: RBRA and Sausalito City Council at Loggerheads