OK, now that I have your attention, let me point out that it was Eyman’s one genuinely non-toxic initiative, I-900, that gave State Auditor Brian Sonntag the authority and resources to go after the Port of Seattle, resulting in the performance audit released Thursday.
Yes, Goldy is right; the “$97.2 million waste” figure is a shot in the dark (the actual figure is probably much, much higher, because corporate corruption isn’t being counted as “waste” here); performance audits are necessarily subjective; and the news that the Port is an arrogant cesspool of waste and cronyism is no news to anyone who follows local politics. But the latter point vastly underestimates the impact of this report, for two reasons. One, not that many of us weirdos closely follow local politics — not compared to the number of people who will see today’s (and subsequent) headlines.
And secondly, the Port’s abysmal performance is intimately wrapped up in an Old Boy (and Gal) network of privilege and you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours winking (and smirking) that also implicates our local media. For far, far too long, every journalist in town has known what the Port of Seattle, with its own independent taxing authority, is doing to taxpayers (hint: it’s not “serving”). To date nobody has mounted the sort of investigative initiative needed to drag the sewage into the light in the way that, say, the P-I has relentlessly gone after the King County Sheriff’s Office. The material is undoubtably there, but it requires a commitment from the management that hasn’t been forthcoming, ever, because at the top our local dailies and TV stations are part of the same local elite. Even if they don’t play golf together with the Port of Seattle and its “friends,” how ever would they face them at the parties?
Editorially, the Times and P-I (especially the Times, not surprisingly) have favored business-backed Port commissioners and candidates and not reform-minded candidates. That and the lack of public education (i.e., media coverage) are a major part of the reason why the Port has been bad news for years, if not decades. They’re not named in Sonntag’s report, but they’re still culpable.
So where now? Sonntag’s report at minimum legitimizes and in all probability forces more media coverage (though look for the damage control efforts to begin soon as well). Sonntag’s report recommends several steps be taken in the state legislature; legislators are already talking about the need for more oversight. Relatively new Port CEO Tay Yoshitani came in last year, replacing the relentlessly corrupt (and well-compensated for it) Mic Dinsmore, promising a changed culture. There’s no time like the present. The same applies for the two newly elected commissioners, the business-backed Bill Bryant (who narrowly ousted reform leader Alec Fisken, a result that probably wouldn’t be repeated now) and Gael Tarleton, who ran as a reform candidate but whose own potential for cronyism has been widely questioned. We’ll be watching.
It’s only a shame that Sonntag’s report was released a few days before Christmas, when news is generally slow and not as many people are paying attention. The Port of Seattle deserves the widest possible scrutiny.
Thanks, Tim.
Gael was a Progressive Majority-endorsed candidate, and the fact that she received contributions from the employees of a firm where she worked for 12 years is hardly the hallmark of potential crookedness.
why, how could this be????
in the land of democrat run government for over 40 years! i thought there would be a utopia! you guys PROMISED a utopia.
okay…..your comment that it is the paper’s fault or reporter’s faults somehow is so silly as to be well….ridiculous.
truly…..isn’t your governor [soon to be a non governor] more responsible for not doing anything about the corruption? what? you think she didn’t know? of course she did…..but i guess you weren’t at the capitol after the election fiasco or you would know that. those union thugs that she had holding signs for her and screaming obscenities at a group of young nuns [i have the photos if you are interested]….do you think they were there for FREE???
get a grip………your cluelessness about the reality of politics make for some interesting, if not fantasy based, comments on your part.
what you are trying to do here is akin to blaming the manufacturer of matches for an arsonist’s torch job……good try though.
Only Geov could write the headline and blog entry. Goldy’s fingers would turn into leprosy.
Ghost- The Port commissioners are independently elected. If there is fault, it lies with the Attorney General.
Oh yeah, he’s a Republican.
Interestingly, if you divide the $97.2 million by the number of people paying taxes to the port, you get almost the exact amount of the average homeowners’ port tax.
In other words, the port really does support itself, and we’re taxed to pay for the baksheesh portion of the port’s budget.
Just sell the goddam thing to China and be done with it.
The port should be shot. But if we can’t shoot it, we should drown it! If that doesn’t work, stop feeding it and let it starve.
960 was unnecessary. That same year, the Legislature pass “performance audits” that would have allowed this audit.
Does anyone really believe a new port director and musical chairs at the port commission will change the culture of cronyism and corruption? Nothing will change until the legislature TAKES AWAY THE MONEY fueling all of this by REVOKING THE PORT’S TAXING AUTHORITY. If they need money, let them go to the legislature for it! But STOP allowing them to PICK TAXPAYERS’ POCKETS! There’s no way for taxpayers to know they’re being robbed because the port’s operations are opaque and carefully guarded from public scrutiny. The port staff are like cockroaches living under the kitchen sink: The only way to get rid of them is to STOP FEEDING THEM!!
@7 Isn’t it funny how Eyman’s one initiative that’s any good was plagiarized from the Democrats?
@2 “isn’t your governor [soon to be a non governor]”
My, you DO have an ambitious Christmas Wish List, don’t you?
(snicker)
What do ya think, guys, should we tell her the truth about Santa Claus?
(snort) (chortle)
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Geov,
My comment is off topic, but I would ask that you leave it for Puddybud to see. Thanks, Carl.
Puddy,
I thought I answered you about my health. I must be mistaken I have an ejection fraction of 25 to 30%. Normal is 55 to 60%. I am doing well considering. I just don’t run or lift anything heavy repeatedly. At some point, I hope they are wrong, I will become a candidate for a heart transplant. Not sure what the political take is on a transplant, but it freaks me out to think I might be put in the position of hoping someone who matches would die. Not sure how I really feel about that.
As for my comment, take it with a grain of salt. I was just tryin’ to get a rise out of you.
I meant it the first time and more this time….
Merry Christmas to you and yours!!
His excellency, the Honorable Mr. Eyeman, has saved me thousands of dollars since I moved to this state 10 years ago. When I first moved here in 1997 and went to register my then new car, I nearly fainted when the clerk at the DOL office said “that’ll be $795 to register your car”. I just turned around and walked away and kept my out of state plates until His Excellency put I-695 on the ballot. Thank you Your Honor, I look forward to voting for your next initiative to lower my taxes.
The same thing happened in Bellingham, and probably happens wherever there’s a port district. Giving port districts taxing authority was a lousy idea. Their governance is too opaque; they’re too easily captured by special interests; they’re uncontrollable. So they all turn into hotbeds of cronyism and corruption. Port districts work like identity theft: They give crooks the PIN code to your bank account. The legislature should take away their taxing authority and fold them all into a new state ports agency run by a statewide ports director appointed by the governor.
It might be worth repeating what Lloyd Hara pointed out at a DL session last year: A port commissioner’s pay is only $500 a month for what amounts to a full-time job running most of the time on information overload. Therefore people tend to run for the commission who fall into three categories:
(1.) Retirees with time on their hands. (Hara is one of these.)
(2.) People who are aware of the under-the-table stuff and are after a share of it.
(3.) Rich people who are out to make themselves and their rich friends richer.
@7: The Dems passed a performance audit bill to head off Eyman’s initiative, but it didn’t give the Auditor’s office either the authority or resources that I-900 (not 960) did. Sonntag was able to do a much more broad-based audit with the budget I-900 gave him. So yes, Eyman deserves the credit. Wasting taxpayer money should be an issue all political ideologies can agree on as being a bad thing.
Question for Geov:
Which media outlet brought Dinsmore’s golden parachute to light?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....070418.pdf.
Port incumbents went down in the most recent election. Think that story had anything to do with it?
Your snark about the P-I cutting the port a break is a steaming pile.
Time to make the port accountable. I don’t want my tax money going for sweetheart contracts and deals.
The point about the performance audits already being in place without Eyeman’s initiative is true – but still this initiative was the only one I thought about voting for on the merits alone (I didn’t, because Eyeman is still an admitted liar and I don’t help out crooked liars).
Still kudos to eyeman for this initiative. I am all for transparency in government and that is what we get with independent audits. Hopefully the new port commissioners will reform this mess of a port.
@11 Carl, e-mail me about transplants, c/o: editorial@eatthestate.org
@16 Your link doesn’t work, but it was comissioner Alec Fisken who brought the Dinsmore mess to light. Let’s assume the P-I did “break” that story (i.e., talk to Fisken about it). Then why did they not only endorse the other, pro-business incumbent (Bob Edwards) last time, but also endorse Fisken’s pro-business opponent?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....orted.html
In this case, “voting out the incumbents” meant canning the guy (Fisken) Dinsmore et al most wanted to get rid of. Which the P-I signed off on.
Meantime, name any other scandal in the last decade related to how the port has conducted business. There’s been some minor kerfluffle about a few things. Sweetheart office deals. A new terminal being torn down four years after it was built. Endless trade junkets on the taxpayer dime. But while these are all part of a much larger pattern, the P-I has been almost as resolute as the Times in looking the other way or, at best, not connecting the millions of dots arranged in a straight line. And if local media gave the Port the attention it deserves, commissioners and administrators would get a lot more scrutiny, and local voters wouldn’t be playing guessing games about who the good and bad guys are come election time.
Carl, I see. I hope they can do something for you. We’ll put you on our prayer list. It will probably be the only prayer list you are on as liberals don’t pray to God.
Sometimes I am not sure when you are just trying to get my goat and other times when you are deadly serious.
Anyway Merry Christmas again to you.
Geov,
Email sent.
Thank you for your concern. I really am touched.
Carl
Puddy,
It is a misconception on your part that all liberals don’t believe. Some believe in God, some in a higher, unnamed power. I am Jewish. I acknowledge the existence of the God of David. I am also guessing that not all Conservatives are devout, some must wander off the reservation.
Thank you for your prayers. Please remember those who are even less fortunate than I, pray for them too. When/if the day comes that they are going to take the heart that God gave me out of my chest and give me another, I promise that I will be begging and pleading for all the prayers and well wishing I can get. After all, to quote any old famous Jewish guy you can name, “It coydn’t hurt”.
Time for the Legislators to pull the taxing authority from the Port and while their at it do the same with King Co.
Yeah, george, and how do you propose to pay for cops, courtd and jails?
Liberals….er….Progressives, that is,…ought to be the real junkyard dogs when it comes to fraud by government. The libertarians and conservatives really don’t give a rat’s ass if government is discredited. It’s just another excuse to limit it.
If Progressives really think that government is the solution…not the problem, they ought to be tougher on corruption in government than anyone else.
Carl: My conception of liberals is based on what prowls this site. If what you say is true, then most liberals who prowl or… is it grovel here are not mainstream?
Geov:
Quit digging, your hole will be too deep to escape. The P-I has an entire web page devoted to port fraud, and it published a three-day series about it last year:
“An examination of deals the Port of Seattle has brokered to develop the central waterfront shows a history of sweetheart deals that have been very lucrative for a select few businesses.”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/port/
@19…PB…
Not the only prayer list…he’s on mine, too, and I left a message to that effect on one of the other threads where he posted in re his health condition.
It’s in the nature of the American spirit to root for the underdog who’s in a fight for his life. On that score, politics is irrelevent.
Merry Christmas, Carl, and best wishes.
The Piper
Piper,
Not the underdog yet, not fighting for life yet. I am in denial and try to ignore it. I can walk talk pretty much all I want. I do nap when I am worn though.
The best to you and yours.
Merry Christmas.
Puddy,
The views expressed here, on both sides, are at the extreme ends of the scale. I think the real balance looks something like this:
20% Extreme left, 20% Extreme right, and 60% somewhere in the middle. These are the folks who truly control the voting.
Geov,
I have your email and will be reading what you sent to me tomorrow. I really appreciate the counsel and information.
Thank you,
Carl
re 24: It’s the highly placed businessmen in the community who are fleecing the taxpayers that is the real problem. Get this kind of scum out of government and you will see good government.
You blame the government for the thieves and crooks who steal from it — and you.
You are a dupe.
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuupe!!!
Re 13
Roger Rabbit has a very good idea. Take away port districts taxing authority and fold them all into a new state ports agency run by a statewide ports director appointed by the governor. Now, are there any state legislators actually reading this and listening?
The Port of Seattle happens to be the one major state or local government entity in the area that is controlled by REPUBLICANS. Four out of five commissioners on the outgoing board were either admitted REPUBLICANS or endorsed by the King County REPUBLICAN Party and prominent REPUBLICANS. And the same can be said about four out of five commissioners that will be sitting on the port commissioner after the first of the year.
I say consolidate the Port of Seattle into King County government — especially since they have the same boundaries and taxing area. Let King County use the tax revenues currently received by the Port of Seattle for any lawful government purpose. Put the port under solid Democratic control, and we won’t see such huge waste of tax money and subsidy of big business. Maybe some of the $80 million (next year’s tax bite) of property taxes can be spent for human needs, not for subsidy of shipping interests.
Taking the tax payer for a ride.
The County Council raises taxes for mental health courts, About a year ago the voters passed a tax increase for Veterans mental health. This time they raised taxes with out a vote.
The foot ferries, this is the states job, but the taxing authority was given to the Counties and along with the flood control/levies allowing property tax increases, again with out a vote.
Then the council authorized a 25-cent increase in the cost of a Metro bus ride, after the public voted in a tax increase last year to up service. The rider ship will go down.
Looks like their not done. $50.00 tax added to cremations what a joke. They may end up with a lot unclaimed bodies.
The Seattle Port Commission has is buying the rail corridor from BNSF for $103 million.
The Port has no business buying the rail property when they are collecting property taxes. What does this purchase have to do with the Port/Airport anyway. Next they want to buy the Space Needle for their offices. The port has a open credit card.
Time for the Legislators to pull the taxing authority from the Port and while their at it do the same with the Counties.
Richard: I can see two Progressives and three Republicans.
Carl: I counted 18 righties and 62 lefties.
Most of the lefties here are of the Rujax!/helpless loocie (TM) variety. I think it’s more 38% extreme left 35% center 28% extreme right.
Carl: Merry Christmas.
To the extreme haters and even to Goldy:
A Very Very Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year.
Carl, what holiday has a tree?