By Bob Williams
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation is calling on legislators to take action now on the ferry problems in Washington.
To the best of our knowledge, as many as 14 ferries developed significant problems within just a few months. On Nov. 18, 2007, Rep. Lynn Kessler was assured by the governor that the four Steel-Electrics serving the Port Townsend-Keystone route were safe. Two days later, all four were pulled out of service permanently for safety reasons.
Since then, the media has been full of reports that other ferries in the system need emergency repairs, primarily because significant portions of their hulls are damaged and the vessels’ safety is in question. The Kitsap Sun reported that the Yakima was moved from a run serving the San Juan Islands to the Seattle-Bremerton route because of safety concerns. The problems are so large with the Yakima that maintenance crews are checking it every four hours!
Legislators were kept in the dark about the actual condition of the ferries, but now is the time to exercise legislative oversight and improve the entire transportation system, including the ferries. What can you do?
We urge the following actions:
• Request a U.S. Governmental Accountability Office audit of the Coast Guard inspection program.
How could so many problems have arisen in such a short period of time? Did the Coast Guard endanger public safety prior to this, or is everyone overreacting now? The Steel-Electrics were out of compliance with federal regulations since 1956, but were allowed to operate for another 51 years before being pulled from service.
• Launch an independent, outside investigation into the ferry system.
The investigation should concentrate on the ferry maintenance and replacement policy. EFF requested the governor to order this kind of investigation, but she is satisfied that DOT can do one itself. That was not her position in 2000 when she, as Attorney General, along with State Auditor Brian Sonntag and the Washington State Patrol requested such an investigation of serious wrongdoing in the ferry system. Gov. Gary Locke refused. Instead, the Transportation Commission did its own limited investigation that ignored many of the serious allegations.
• Demand that the chairs on the legislature’s transportation committees hold public hearings on:
The four transportation performance audits that have been released and which were requested by the transportation committees as part of the agreement for raising the gas tax several years ago;
The Sound Transit performance audit;
The Port of Seattle performance audit, which identified $97.2 million in unnecessary spending and triggered a federal criminal investigation;
Why the ferry system has not taken effective corrective action on more than 40 audits and whistleblower investigations since 1998;
Why the ferry system cannot account for its revenues and has failed 21 consecutive financial audits;
Why WSF and the governor continued to assure legislators and the public that the Steel-Electrics were safe when internal memos indicated that since June 23, 2007, DOT knew they were not and was concerned the Coast Guard might shut them down just prior to the Fourth of July;
Why DOT did not have any plans to replace the Steel-Electrics in its 16-year long range plan, even though it knew of the problems with the 80-year-old boats;
Why DOT and the governor requested $100 million to build three new ferries to replace the Steel Electrics, when Pierce County paid $11.2 million for a similar vessel in 2007;
Why nobody was laid-off when the Steel-Electrics were taken off line. The acting director of the ferry system told EFF that more people (not fewer) were needed for the one passenger-only ferry that replaced the Steel-Electrics. How can that be?
All of these are serious issues that demand active legislative intervention. The cost to taxpayers is enormous.
Bob Williams is president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative, non-profit research group based in Olympia.
