Lyme - For almost 20 years, Robert W. Baumer kept his sailboat at Hamburg Cove, on a commercial mooring rented from Cove Landing Marine.

When he decided to make the switch from renting a commercial mooring at a cost of nearly $2,000 a summer to the significantly cheaper moorings managed by the town, Baumer realized just how difficult it was to obtain a mooring as a newcomer.

Harbor Master Gary Reynolds said it was a simple case of demand outpacing supply. Between renewing existing mooring permits and setting aside a certain number of permits for commercial use, there just hasn't been any available mooring space to assign by lottery in at least four years, beyond those granted to homeowners with water rights, Reynolds said.

But Baumer, of Clinton, saw a lack of clear rules and regulations dictating how a boat owner could apply for a mooring. Reynolds, who is also owner of the Reynolds Garage & Marine and the town's Board of Finance chairman, was operating with significant power and little oversight, he said.

"What you have here is a closed system that nobody understands," Baumer said.

In a July 28 letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office, Baumer called for Reynolds' immediate resignation from the position he has held since 1992, when he was appointed to the three-year job by then-Gov. Lowell Weicker.

"... It is my contention that Harbor Master Reynolds does not manage the waterways of Hamburg Cove on equal terms or in the general interest towards those applying for a new mooring permit," Baumer wrote in his letter.

Baumer also claimed Reynolds falsely represented the lottery system by which Reynolds said he granted mooring permits when they became available. In the course of his research on the matter, Baumer said he also found instances of moorings being used for commercial purposes without a permit and permit numbers being issued twice.

Reynolds said his lottery system - where he picks names out of a hat - was the only equitable way to assign mooring permits when they became available. Waiting lists, the alternative that many harbor masters use, are so long they become meaningless, Reynolds said.

The process isn't the issue, Reynold said. The issue is the lack of moorings, which have become scarce as more people have become owners of waterfront properties with rights to a mooring - a direct result of larger waterfront properties being divided into smaller waterfront homes, Reynolds said.

The mooring field at Hamburg Cove is unique in that transient boaters can moor their boats on unoccupied moorings for free until the permit holder returns, Reynolds said.

If people are abusing the system, Reynolds - who gets paid $675 a year as harbor master - said he didn't have time to tackle them right away.

"The system works," he said. "It takes time to address the issues, and we address them as we become aware of them."

Harbor management plan?

Baumer said he wanted the state to investigate Reynolds and require the town to adopt a harbor management plan, a formal rule book of sorts on the governance of harbors that both the town and the state would have to approve.

The problem is that the state's 1984 law regarding harbor management plans make their adoption voluntary, not mandatory, said David Rossiter, the harbor liaison officer for the state Department of Transportation who oversees the state's 42 appointed harbor masters.

In towns without harbor management plans, such as Lyme, the harbor master has, by state law, the right to govern using his or her best judgment and discretion, Rossiter said.

"The harbor master has to look out for the public trust, and he has to try to make an effort to allocate moorings in a fair, even-handed manner," Rossiter said.

Rossiter is investigating Baumer's allegations against Reynolds and declined to comment specifically on the case.

But complaints such as those raised by Baumer are unusual, Rossiter said. In fact, Lyme First Selectman Ralph Eno said Baumer's was the only complaint the town has received since Reynolds became harbor master.

There are 21 harbor management plans in the state and four more in the works, said David Blatt, supervising coastal planner at the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Lyme decided not to go through the expensive and time-consuming process of developing a harbor management plan because it didn't feel one was necessary, said Eno, who runs the town of about 2,000 residents.

Eno said Reynolds has been an effective harbor master, and he saw no need to spend taxpayer money to develop a plan that "provides no tangible benefits to the residents of this town."

"The vast majority of people that hold moorings there, apart from those that hold riparian rights, are not Lyme residents," he said.

The closest thing the town has to a fixed set of guidelines on how to obtain a mooring permit is the town's "Hamburg Cove Mooring Permit" ordinance, passed in 1992.

The ordinance states that those interested in applying for a mooring permit must pay a $20 application fee, to be reimbursed if the application is denied. The same year the ordinance was adopted, the DEP took issue with the application fee, stating in a letter that the town could not charge such a fee in the absence of a harbor management plan.

Eno said he and Reynolds met with the DEP commissioner at the time to resolve the issue; no changes to the town ordinance have been made, and the town has continued to charge the fee.

Blatt, of the DEP, said he believed the town did not have the right to charge the fee but that the DEP lacked the jurisdiction to correct the issue.

"Even back then, when we were taking a fairly hard line over the town, we did not have any administrative authority to do anything about their mooring permit application fee," Blatt said. "Someone would have to challenge it in court."

j.cho@theday.com