Accountability Alert!

March 28-2008                     photo by Brett Fish

Highline Forum now more accountable than ever!

Highline Forum authorizes public notification of agenda under pressure from Chris Cain

Burien, Washington: After a barrage of letters and emails to elected officials during Sunshine Week, a national movement to bring openness and accountability to local governments, representatives of the Highline Forum voted for the first time ever to publicly publish its agenda to the Highline Times newspaper.

The Highline Forum has met for several years without notifying the public of where and when the meetings would take place. Now however, the group plans to publish its agenda regularly.

Meetings are held in different locations about every other month in the cities of Des Moines, Burien, SeaTac, and Tukwila.

This will give citizens in the local cities a chance to be better informed and participate in plans each city has for a wide variety of issues from emergency preparedness to storm water run-off and industrial development. Since the Port of Seattle is a major player in the Highline Forum citizens will also have a great opportunity to see how the Port interacts with local jurisdictions.

“I think this is a great idea” said Board chair Bob Sheckler Des Moines City Council Member

“I've always been pleased about what we've talked about together, I am very pleased about the forum” said Rose Clark Burien City Council Member

This a a great step forward in public accountability for the citizens in the Highline area after all these years.

The Highline forum is made up of local city council members and Port representitives.

Openness and accountability coming to the Port of Seattle... Yeah right!

Posted 3/14/08 By Christopher Cain 

So, here we go again, On January 28^th, 2008 I requested, formally, from the Port of Seattle, expense account records of Ceo, Tay Yoshitani. I received the information the next day via email. Most of the 11 PDF documents they sent me were all the same but had different title numbers. So, I had to ask again and explain to them what they had done wrong and wait for them to send the new documents. I received them several days later. Now, I had almost all of the requested documents but even to this day I still don't have any documentation for an entire month of expenditures, the month of June 2007. I gave up trying to get it after yet another request failed to produce the documentation. Read the full article Here. Related article Here.

Port of Seattle General Council Craig Watson comes under fire for not signing letter of representation during audit. 2/24/08

During an interview at a public forum presented by Seattle Republicans called 'Shining a Light on the Port of Seattle', Seattle Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara expressed his deep dissatisfaction with Port General Council Craig Watson for not signing a Letter of Representation which was presented to him for his signature during a recent audit which found that the Port wasted nearly $100 million dollars of public money. Letters such as the one Craig Watson refused to sign are considered common practice during this type of audit.

When asked by Phil Bevis, President of the downtown Seattle Republicans Club “What is your evaluation of the performance and judgment of the general council” MR. Hara responded “I was greatly disappointed, I was greatly dismayed that this occurred... red flags immediately went up”

Later in the interview Mr. Hara elaborated “if I was CEO I would probably suggest that he look for new employment.. ultimately he works for the CEO and in the end if he is failing the CEO, we have only one other person to go after.. and that's Mr. Yoshitani in this case. We rest alot of responsibility with him, that his staff is making good and proper judgments”

The entire interview, which also features State Auditor Brain Sontag and Port Commissioner Bill Bryant can be seen by following this link

Port of Seattle Executive Annual Compensation Plus Benefits

There are over 1700 employees - 02/25/08

Chief executive officer                                      $319,313

Deputy Chief Executive Officer                         $225.011

Managing Director Aviation                               $213,213

Managing Director Seaport                                $202,040

Chief Financial Officer                                      $191,334

Chief Administrative Officer                              $181,116

General Council                                               $171,522

Sub Total                                                     $1,503,549

After one month of employment
Paid dental
Paid long term disability
Paid life insurance
Medical Insurance for Dependents: On the first of the month
following date of hire, Eligible and DRS-retired Employees shall
receive paid surgical, hospital, and major medical insurance
coverage for their eligible dependents.

There is 40 pages of benefit and compensations - to read the full report click Here

To View 2006 Port of Seattle Employees List (1,610 employees Click Here

Port of Seattle membership highlights – 2008 Taxpayer funded

Total membership cost for 2008                                                                       $932,206

Total number of memberships                                 1,134

Biggest contribution to a single group (Washington Public Ports association)         $211,000

Individual membership highlights

• Harbor club 17 mbsps. (status - private club)                                              $2,208

• Chambers of Commerce 22 mbsps. (status – private club)                            $45,197

• American Association of Airport Execs 45mbsps. (status – industry lobby)       $57,150

• Unknown or to be determined 8 mbsps.                                                        $14,890

• Financial audit group 17 mbsps.                                                                   $17,897

• Airport Council International 6 mbsps. (status – industry lobby)                      $137,804

• Local Environmental groups                                                                               $40
  

read the full report here

Keeping up with the Dinsmore's

$10,700 paid to Seattle Chamber of Commerce for privilege of going to Japan – expenditure questioned by Port of Seattle Auditor.

By Christopher Cain - Feb 2008

An investigation by the Port Observer of Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani's expense records for 2007 has revealed some startling expenditures of public money.

In April of 2007 Tay Yoshitani authorized payment to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce of $10,720 to take part in a “International study mission” to Fukuoka and Kobe Japan from May 11^th to the 19^th. Additionally, the Port already spends a whopping $35,000 annually for membership to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce a private business group. Full Story

Growing opposition to South Sound Logistics Center

The Washington Ports of Tacoma and Olympia have been working together on a joint project called the South Sound Logistics Center (SSLC) that would “reduce congestion by transferring cargo from trucks to trains" at a new location away for the busy and crowded Ports, the two ports claim.

300 citizens attended at a public meeting where they endured two hours of presentations by Port staff and consultants before getting and chance to be heard. Citizens were told that any questions they had would be answered in 20 days at the next public hearing on th issues. Full Story

Foward Perspective
“Nicely Done”, or Overdone?

Eco-links in the world of the fiduciary

Port Observer culomnist Paul Schlossman comments on the fiduciary legacy of former Port of Seattle CEO Mic Dinsmore. Full Story

Port Audit delays $418 million dollar rental car facility project at SeaTac
Port of Seattle Commissioners delayed authorizing funding to begin a plan to construct a $ 418 million dollar rental car facility which has been in the works for over ten years; citing problems resulting from a recent state audit which found $100 million in construction project cost overruns and unauthorized cost elevations. Full Story

The State Auditor’s Office has released its performance audit report

on the Port of Seattle Construction Management. The report and information about related public hearings are available at the following link: http://www.sao.wa.gov/PerformanceAudit/audit_reports.htm

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee has scheduled a public hearing about the Port of Seattle performance audit report for January 9, 2008 at 1 p.m. The hearing will be held at the John A. Cherberg Building,

Senate Hearing Room 4 at the Capitol Campus in Olympia. Directions to the state Capitol are available at the link listed above.

If you have questions about the report, please contact Mindy Chambers at

360.902.0091

HEADS IN THE SAND ON AIRPORT CONGESTION?

Frans C. Verhagen

Matthew Wald reported on November 27 that air traffic delays were up over last Thanksgiving. He accepted the FAA’s line of explanation—weather—without delving into additional research about these and other year-round delays. When is the media going to do its own research on delays and airport congestion and go beyond the narratives of the FAA and the ATA? Full Story

Commission Approves Cargo Fee to Fund Clean Trucks
Container charges to generate $1.6 billion for fleet turnover, air
 quality improvements

December 17, 2007

Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Monday, December 17, 2007,
 approved a cargo fee that will generate about $1.6 billion to help fund
 cleaner trucks and improve air quality. Full Story.

Fight against Wheyerhaeuser log yard shifts from court to city hall
OLYMPIA, Wash. -  No agency has ever fully assessed the environmental damage that is likely to result from Weyerhaeuser’s construction of a log export facility at the Port of Olympia.  That is why Olympians for Public Accountability and eight concerned individuals filed a lawsuit last summer, hoping to force the Port to comply with the State Environmental Policy Act. Full Story

Trails deal has no footing

“The purchase of this rail line, and related transactions, is already slated to be included in the scope of our next scheduled audit work, that being roughly this coming July. We have already begun preliminary inquiries to determine the legality of this transaction. We anticipate releasing our report on the Port’s accountability for the period 2006-2007 sometime next fall.” Washington State Auditors Office Nov. 26, 2007 Full Story

Port of Seattle now calls SeaTac Airport a "green airport"

SeaTac airport has roughly 400,000 flight operations per year or about 547 flights per day. In pollution output terms that means 3,100 metric tons of Carbon Monoxide, 1,277 metric tons of Volatile Organic Compounds, 1,874 metric tons of Nitrogen Oxide, 162 metric tons of Sulfur Dioxide and 61.44 metric tons of cancer causing Particulate Matter dispersed within 5 miles of the airport centerline. Full story

Port changes public hearing rules after pressure from Port Observer publisher Christopher Cain.

Until recently, the Port of Seattle commission meeting agenda rules stated that no public testimony would be accepted for “non action items such as policy and staff briefing or work session presentations.” Now however, after Christopher Cain pressed Port Commission President John Creighton on the issue, the commission agenda reads “The Commission does not generally take public testimony for non-action agenda items such as "Policy and Staff Briefings" or Work Session presentations, but may do so at the discretion of the Commission Chair.”

A proposal to progressively ban the dirtiest harbor drayage trucks will
 go for consideration to the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners
 at its next meeting, on Monday, November 5. The board meeting will begin
 at 2 p.m. 

The port tariff would achieve an 80 percent reduction in truck
 emissions within five years. The dirty truck ban would start October 1, 2008,
 by excluding pre-1989 trucks. By January 1, 2012, trucks that do not
 meet the 2007 federal standard would be banned from Port service.

"The Port is proposing this tariff to meet the aggressive air quality
 goals of our Clean Air Action Plan," said Robert Kanter, the Port's
 managing director of environmental affairs. 

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved a similar tariff at its
 November 1 meeting.

The tariff's ban will rely on electronic identification technology
 known as RFID - Radio Frequency Identification. RFID tags will be placed in
 trucks and RFID tag readers will be installed at Port terminal gates
 to ensure access only for clean trucks.