Memo To Port Of Seattle: You're All Fired Except For Lloyd
The Port of Seattle has made the pages of both local dailies the last few days. Knowing the Port, they're feting the PR department.
Only it isn't good news: in the Seattle Times, the headline is Port fine with 30 percent drop in earnings, while the P-I's reads Port hires auditor at twice the price of state office. The Port's history of independence from reality (and oversight) regularly results in backslapping based on exceeding the comparable performance of a band of aging, diseased hamsters. Says the Times, a bit querulously:
The Port, by contrast, compares itself to budget forecasts that are nine months old at this point. So staff could legitimately say it beat the budget, because the Port budget called for earnings to drop 56 percent in the first half. It also was possible for the airport division to say it put in a "very strong performance," even though its net income fell 31 percent.
Perhaps realizing that persistent allegations of cronyism and backscratching, and multimillion-dollar gaffes had led to an accountability gap, commission President Pat Davis made it clear she stands for business as usual, appointing "senior" commissioner Bob Edwards to lead the audit committee, rather than Lloyd Hara, who was actually pushing for an audit. The P-I quotes her as saying Hara "needs to get a little experience under his belt."
Hara was Seattle's city treasurer for more than a dozen years and, previously, King County auditor. But Davis is probably right: when you're aiming for 30% drops in earnings, that's absolutely not the kind of experience you're looking for. Bob Edwards, in contrast, brings this kind of fiscal austerity to the table:
Earlier this year, Commissioner Bob Edwards accompanied three senior port executives on an "International Study Mission" to Dublin and Belfast... The port picked up Edwards' $5,685 "complete package," with eight nights at four-star hotels. It spent an additional $2,845 to give him a wider seat in business class on Scandinavian Airlines.
That last is thanks to Joel Connelly, who had more to say on the subject -- when it comes to the Port and mismanagement, there's a seemingly inexhaustible supply of anecdotes. Unfortunately, no one's paying them for that.
