Thumbnail photo: Roger Gitlin, former Del Norte Triplicate editor, speaks at a Crescent City Council meeting in June. | Screenshot Former Del Norte Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin announced that he has begun the process to recall Crescent City Harbor commissioners Dan Schmidt and Annie Nehmer, though he’s not sure if the recall election will take place next June or November. Gitlin announced his intentions before Nehmer and her colleagues Rick Shepherd and Gerhard Weber on Wednesday. He accused Nehmer of costing the Harbor District about $55,000 in legal fees and Schmidt of trying to persuade the Board of Commissioners to give his brother an executive role at the port. “These breaches undermine the district’s ability to protect taxpayer funds in litigation and have collectively eroded public trust in (Schmidt’s) capacity to fulfill his duty,” Gitlin said. “Collectively they warrant recall. I have begun the process and will be seeking the intention to recall both of these commissioners in the foreseeable future.” Dan Schmidt | Courtesy ccharbor.com Schmidt, who is the Triplicate’s new owner, arrived at Wednesday’s Harbor District meeting about 25 minutes late and wasn’t present when Gitlin made his announcement during general public comment. However, Schmidt told Redwood Voice Community News that he was aware of Gitlin’s statement in his recall petition. Depending on when it takes place, a recall effort against two commissioners could cost the Crescent City Harbor District up to $130,000 if it results in a standalone election, Del Norte County Clerk-Recorder Alissia Northrup told Redwood Voice on Friday. Northrup confirmed that Gitlin spoke with her about the recall process and she gave him the paperwork he needs to get an effort going. But, given the timeline, it’s unlikely that it will be on the June 2, 2026 primary election ballot, she said. Annie Nehmer | Courtesy of ccharbor.com “He has four months to collect signatures and we have 30 days to check the signatures once it’s all approved and we’re nowhere near that yet,” Northrup said. If Gitlin does collect the 3,101 verified signatures needed for each commissioner to be subject to a recall election and the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors calls the election, it must take place between 88 and 125 days of that order, Northrup said, citing California Election Code 11242. “Usually, the harbor consolidates its elections with the other elections in November because it doesn’t cost as much, splitting it with the other districts,” she said. “In this case, they would be on the hook for the whole thing. Once the process starts it’s on a timeline and it happens when it happens.” At this point, however, Gitlin hasn’t started anything official, Northrup told Redwood Voice. Gitlin first threatened to recall Schmidt and Nehmer at a meeting Sept. 10, calling them scourges. In his statement on Wednesday regarding Nehmer, he said that she’s demonstrated an inability to work collaboratively with her colleagues, which led to her former censure on Sept. 16. Later in the meeting on Wednesday, Gitlin said Nehmer is intending to file another lawsuit against the Harbor District and asked her to disclose the nature of the lawsuit to the public. Gitlin also asked the Harbor District’s financial advisor Sandy Moreno to elaborate on how much it cost the district to defend itself against previous actions Nehmer took against the agency in court. “The number that gets bandied about how much (it is) is $55,000,” he told Moreno. “Can you delineate these fees as a result of Ms. Nehmer’s hiring of a private attorney, Paul Boylan, and how it’s added incrementally to what would be normal legal fees? I think it’s important for the public to know when all these efforts have to be defended and because of that we have to utilize our attorney. And I keep thinking the number is $55, I have a suspicion it’s a lot higher, it will grow a even higher from now, and if you can clarify that that would be one thing.” On Friday, Moreno and Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said they weren’t sure where Gitlin got the $55,000 figure from. Moreno said she’s going through the Harbor District’s bills and will be able to break out the amount it’s expended as a result of Nehmer’s legal action, but that she thought the $55,000 dollar figure is incorrect and it seemed high. On Thursday, Nehmer told Redwood Voice that she didn’t know what lawsuit Gitlin was referring to in Wednesday’s meeting. “If I filed a lawsuit, he would’ve seen it on the court docket,” she said. “The only pending lawsuit I have in court is the one as a harbor commissioner that we all have with the court versus Linda Sutter.” A search of the Del Norte County Superior Court docket shows that two cases Nehmer filed against the Harbor District were voluntarily dismissed as of July 11. The only open case pending is the writ of mandate Sutter filed against the Harbor District and its Board of Commissioners, including Nehmer, on Feb. 27. Nehmer and Boylan, the Davis-based attorney she hired out of concerns that she would potentially be defamed in the Triplicate, have parted ways, both told Redwood Voice earlier this week. Boylan said with the Triplicate under new ownership, his relationship with Nehmer has come to an amicable end. Schmidt told Redwood Voice on Friday that there was some truth to Gitlin’s statements about his brother, Dennis. The Crescent City Harbor is being mismanaged, Dan Schmidt said, because Rademaker doesn’t have adequate experience or training. The harbor commissioner said he urged his colleagues to reach out to his brother who, he says, has the background, knowledge and skill set to “help Mike solve many problems.” “My brother Dennis has 40 years experience as a municipal utility administrator. He’s worked jobs in the City of Anaheim from summer intern to one of the top executives of the Anaheim Public Utilities Department,” Dan Schmidt said, adding that though Rademaker had promised to meet with his brother for about six to eight months, that meeting never happened. “I think Mike knows if he gets somebody smart and close to the tepee, close to headquarters, if you will, it may very well make Mike uncomfortable.” While he acknowledged the truth in Gitlin’s statements regarding nepotism, Dan Schmidt argued that him urging Rademaker to work with his brother isn’t true nepotism. “The regulation is designed to keep an incompetent person from being hired or being promoted because of their relationships with somebody else,” he said. “This is just the opposite of that. Dennis is a highly competent person who would fill an essential job.” According to the California Department of Human Resources' Human Resources Manual, nepotism is when an employee uses his or her influence or power to hire, transfer or promote an applicant or another employee because of a personal relationship. Because such practice is contrary to the merit-based civil service system, nepotism is prohibited in the state workplace. Dan Schmidt said that the Board, including him included, feel that Rademaker should have the ability to pick his own management team, which is why he supported Rademaker’s decision to hire Moreno. “If that’s his team and he can work with that team, fine,” Schmidt said. “Dennis could be on that team too. I mentioned it to the Board and I didn’t get a response. I mentioned it to a couple of commissioners and I got no response.” For his part, Schmidt pushed back against Gitlin’s allegations that Nehmer’s legal action against the Harbor District has wasted taxpayer money, pointing to the potential $130,000 price tag if it has to put on a recall election. “I say Roger, put your money where your mouth is,” Schmidt said. “You come up with the $130,000 if you want to throw us out of office, don’t expect the Harbor District to pay for it.”