Late last week, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a recall effort against Port of Seattle Commissioner Pat Davis could proceed as planned. The unanimous ruling, which found that there was evidence of official malfeasance in Davis’s secret 2006 guarantee of a lucrative golden parachute to retiring Port CEO Mic Dinsmore, was pretty unequivocal:
“We can infer from the record that Comm. Davis understood her duties as Port Commissioner and the legal necessity of voting in public session before potentially obligating the Port in any monetary agreement, and, for purposes of recall, intentionally acted outside the scope of these duties by signing an agreement with Dinsmore.”
But the issue here isn’t just the contract for Dinsmore. For decades, the Port of Seattle, secure in its separate taxing authority for King County, has been the most corrupt and arrogant public agency in the state, which is saying something. The cronyism, back-scratching, sweetheart deals, and corporate welfare know almost no bounds. And during each of her 22 years on the Commission, Davis has championed that cronyism and staunchly resisted any efforts at accountability and reform. (It was also her initiative that brought the WTO ministerial to Seattle in 1999, a brainchild that alone should disqualify her from further public service.) For years, Pat Davis has exemplified everything wrong at the Port.
After last week’s court ruling, Davis immediately announced that she wouldn’t seek re-election when her term expires at the end of 2009. But she should still be recalled before then, for several reasons.
First, she can still do a lot of damage (and cost taxpayers a lot of money) if left in a position of power for another 16 months.
Second, Davis deserves to pay some price for her malfeasance — not simply to have a nice retirement party while her fellow commissioners name a wading pool after her. Or give her own secret golden parachute.
Third, even after a scathing performance audit by State Auditor Brian Sonntag — and an ongoing criminal investigation — the Port has been dismissive, defensive, and bitterly resistant to meaningful changes in its cronyist culture. In that context, get a load of this quote from fellow Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton — who ran on a reform platform last year, despite questions about her own corporate conflicts of interest — in arguing against the recall effort. Davis and Tarleton, it turns out, are working together to “implement” some of Sonntag’s demanded reforms. In other words, now that the fox has eaten every hen and destroyed the henhouse, she is standing, hammer and nails in paw, and undoubtably hungry again, ready to build the new henhouse. And, according to Tarleton:
“If we did not have her [Davis’s] knowledge about how things did not work in a transparent and open way in the past, we would not have been able to make many of the most important revisions to the delegation of authority,”
Words. Fail. Me.
Fourth, beyond making sure Davis can do no more damage, as Tarleton and the response to the performance amply demonstrate, Davis is scarcely the whole problem at the Port. And that audit barely scratched the surface: it only looked at the Third Runway project. It did not examine other airport projects, anything in the marine division (where SSA and other corporate contractors have bankrolled many a Port Commissioner campaign), or the Port’s lucrative waterfront real estate development projects. And the audit wasn’t looking for fraud (though it found plenty anyway).
What all this suggests is that there’s an ingrained, corrupt culture at the Port of Seattle that needs to be uprooted. The staff, commissioners, and CEO must all be held accountable. Recalling Pat Davis demonstrates that there’s a price to be paid for betraying the public trust — and maybe, just maybe, some of the other foxes at the Port will either change their own behavior, or get turned out themselves, if the precedent of recalling Davis moves forward.
The public has had enough of this nonsense. It’s time to fight back. Petitions to recall Pat Davis are available here.
Excellent reporting, Goldy.
Hot Damn! Precisely my own thoughts. Thanks for the website to send for petitions so that I can get to collecting signatures.
It was pretty obvious that her statement, just about an hour after the Court unanimously declared that the recall could proceed, was meant to appease & make everyone think “Why bother, since she’s going OUT anyways?” But this NEEDS to go forward, if only to make an example and provide a little discomfort for Princess Pat.
Drain that swamp!
Precedents do count. Does anyone remember a few years ago, when the Port announced a deal for saving the waterfront streetcar? Commissioners Molloy and Fisken were NOT informed of what the other three commissioners were announcing in the way of financial support. This was Davis and Edwards’ opportunity, along with Mic Dinsmore, to give a boost to Paige Miller who was running for Seattle City Council.
I wonder: if we’d made a big deal about that apparent violation of the OPMA, then maybe some of the other stuff would not have happened.
More reasons for the recall:
5. There are plenty of other electeds who take the public for granted. They think the people simply don’t care. Well, this is a chance to prove them wrong. Did anyone notice that in Pat’s flyer for re-election a few years ago, she had glowing quotes from Christine Gregoire and Rob McKenna? I don’t think either would issue them now, but that’s not the point. The point is: lots of electeds take the public for granted.
6. A lot of people simply don’t know anything about the Port’s taxing authority, or the way it has borrowed and borrowed and borrowed. A lot of lawyers and bond underwriters have done quite nicely from this. Will anyone else benefit? That remains to be seen.
The recall is a chance for taxpayers to become aware of the Port’s tax, its tax increases, and its debt.
According to documents linked to from this page,
http://www.portseattle.org/abo.....dget.shtml
the Port is collecting $75.9 million from king county taxpayers this year. That works out to $0.2250 per thousand. So a person with a $400K house pays $90.
Note: the Port does NOT plan on dropping the rate per thousand as assessed values go up. So if your property assessment goes up 20%, so will the amount you pay the Port. See this quote:
“The Plan assumes the same levy rate will be applied in all future years and that growth in
assessed value will result in a growing levy amount.”
Source:
http://www.portseattle.org/dow.....e20081.pdf
The Port should be paying its own way.
I have never understood why the Port has property tax authority. We have one of the busiest ports in North America, plus over 26 million passengers per year going through SeaTac Airport — aren’t there enough opportunities for generating revenue without sticking it to local taxpayers?
Isn’t Acting Governor Eyman responible for the performance audits that turned up the corruption at the port?
I agree. The recall absolutely must proceed. Even if it turns out the election occurs just weeks or even days before Davis’s term is up. After all, the cost of a recall election is miniscule compared to the amount of money the Port has thrown away. Hopefully it will send a message to other public officials!
And Clifford deserves to see this through as well. I know first hand how difficult and time consuming it is to prepare a “sufficient” recall petition, especially if you don’t have money to hire a lawyer. In fact, I believe Washington State is one of the most difficult states in which to get someone recalled, if not THE most difficult. Definitely not for the faint at heart. Lots and lots of legal hoops to jump through. Clifford is another hero in my book for holding this elected official accountable.
Couldn’t agree more w/this. In addition to his remarks let me add a recall effort will shine an even brighter light on Davis’ conduct and the Port’s problems in general AND, if it is successful, place an official rebuke on Davis’ record. Still, even this doesn’t seem enough . . .
Guys! It is NOT Goldy.
It’s Geov.
Get a grip people or at least some coffee.
Guys! It is NOT Goldy.
You’re right!
Left, right, center – all should agree that, while there will be differences in policy, there can never be the kinds of gross misconduct that seem to be routine at PofS.
To think…PofS taxes us to underwrite all this corruption.
The Piper
Pretty selective use of quotes, Geov. Not two sentences earlier, Gael says:
“All elected officials are accountable to the voters, and the legal process is taking its course, and she is going to be held accountable,” said Commissioner Gael Tarleton.
That hardly seems opposed to the recall effort.