Linda Sutter can’t say why she wanted to see the former harbormaster’s credit card statements from January through August of this year other than “something hit me wrong.”

Sutter spent three years investigating alleged misuse of public funds at the Crescent City Harbor District. She submitted a complaint to the Del Norte County Civil Grand Jury over their lack of a credit card policy and $75,000 in unapproved credit card use. After the Grand Jury “picked out one transaction” to focus on in its investigation, Sutter said she felt her claim was validated, but was disappointed in the results.

She resumed her investigation in August and filed a writ in Del Norte County Superior Court when Harbormaster Tim Petrick initially refused to let her see his credit card statements. Three weeks later — after the Crescent City Harbor District released Petrick’s credit card statements — the harbormaster had submitted his resignation.

Sutter says Petrick wouldn’t have resigned had it not been for her. As one of six candidates vying for three open seats on the Crescent City Harbor District Board of Commissioners, Sutter said the current commissioners have caused the harbor to “lose so much money.”

“I can no longer stand by without trying to get on as a commissioner because I believe I can bring real change,” she told KFUG Community Radio’s Paul Critz and Redwood Voice Community News last week.

Sutter, a fixture at public meetings, is no novice when it comes to seeking public office. She ran for the District 5 county supervisor seat in 2016 and again earlier in 2024, losing to Bob Berkowitz and Dean Wilson respectively.

She ran as Crescent City Harbor Commissioner for the first time in 2022, campaigning on many of the same issues that prompted her to take a second stab at the seat.

“I have a passion for doing this kind of work,” she said. “I’ll stay up all hours of the night, sure, because it’s not boring. It’s the passion that’s there. It’s just natural [to] write things down. But the problem is, when you can only speak for three minutes and it goes in one ear and out the other… it would be a lot better if I was on the Board and I was able to accomplish something.”

Sutter is currently competing against Dan Schmidt, Annie Nehmer, Devon Morgante and John Evans.

Though his name won’t appear on the ballot, voters may decide that incumbent Harry Adams, an official write-in candidate, should continue as a Harbor District commissioner.

Whoever gets on the Board of Commissioners, Sutter said she thinks the Harbor District can come back from its current crisis. She, like many of her fellow candidates, has confidence in the new interim harbormaster, Mike Rademaker. According to Sutter, Rademaker not only cares about how the Harbor District’s money is spent, he cares about how the community views those expenditures

Sutter said she’s also happy that the Board of Commissioners, just before Petrick’s resignation, rejected a proposed credit card policy that gave the harbormaster and deputy harbormaster spending caps of $9,999 and $7,000 respectively.

“They’ve busted down their credit cards so there’s just one for the office manager,” she said. “So if someone has to take a trip, she has to make the travel arrangements.”

Sutter filed a petition for a verified writ of mandate in Del Norte County Superior Court on Sept. 4. She alleges that the Harbor District and the current Board of Commissioners failed to provide public access to public business under the California Public Records Act.

In the petition, Sutter refers to herself as an investigative reporter — she contributes to the Crescent City Times, an online publication started by former City Councilwoman Donna Westfall. Though Sutter received Petrick’s credit card statements for May, June and July on Aug. 24, according to the petition, Sutter was again denied access to credit card statements.

In her petition, she said that Rademaker, who was the assistant harbormaster at the time, told her on Aug. 30 that he could provide access to Petrick’s credit card receipts. At about 2 p.m. the same day, Sutter was notified that Petrick had given staff “strict orders disallowing plaintiff [Sutter] to review the receipts.”

According to Sutter, the writ of mandate is scheduled to go before Del Norte County Judge Darrin McElfresh for a case management hearing on Nov. 15. According to a Notice of Case Management Conference Hearing, Petrick has resigned and Rademaker has complied with th eCPRA request and “assures Plaintiff transparency will be enforced.”

Transparency is part of the “real change” Sutter is after. This includes making sure everyone’s point of view is presented and that commissioners do their “due diligence” — a phrase she often uses.

Elected officials should ask questions if they don’t understand something, Sutter says, and in an open forum. She said that sometimes she feels commissioners don’t understand what’s going on and, as a result, make mistakes.

The Harbor District’s lapsed dredge permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the documentation needed for them to keep the entrance and marina navigable — is one mistake, Sutter said.

Not being forthcoming about credit card use, the lack of a credit card policy and the Harbor District’s dire financial straits are other things she wants to address.

Sutter also touched on the Harbor Board’s efforts to pass a fireworks ordinance following an explosion that occurred at South Beach on the 4th of July. That explosion injured 14 people, including a 3-year-old boy, and resulted in the arrest of two people.

Sutter criticized a similar ordinance the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors is working on, saying they’re trying to make it too hard.

“They’re expecting each jurisdiction to have their own — like — judge and all this other stuff. That’s ridiculous,” she said, referring to the administrative fines and citations violators of the county’s ordinance could face. “It needs to go through the Superior Court. It doesn’t need to go to each jurisdiction.”

Sutter also spoke to the Harbor Commission’s proposal to prohibit all fireworks in the marina and near Whaler Island while allowing the Safe and Sane variety on the beach.

“If you don’t have a police force, then you need to ban it, just completely, until we have a way to control it,” she said.

If she’s elected, Sutter says she’ll “work her tail off” to make the Crescent City Harbor a better place. She even has ideas for how to make the port attractive to tourists that don’t include building a Hyatt or a Hilton or another big hotel. Crescent City is unique, so the Harbor District should tap into the local indigenous culture and incorporate their designs into its architecture, she said.

At KFUG last week, Sutter unfolded a piece of printer paper with a crude ballpoint pen drawing of a plank house with a round entrance.  She said she can see something similar being used as cabins for visitors.

“How about let’s bring some ideas from the past to the future,” she said. “You want to have a rustic feel. You want to bring something unique. So we tap in on our natives, their culture. We’ve got the redwoods, the ocean, we’ve got pristine beaches and then we’ve got these rustic cottages.”

When asked how the commercial fishing fleet would fit in, Sutter said the area set aside for tourists would be separate from the bustle of Citizens Dock — that the Harbor would be both a working harbor and a tourist destination.