New Port Of Seattle Rule: No More Tummy Rubs

Welcome back to the Port of Seattle Roast, already in progress. Yesterday the Port released its response to a hilariously detailed audit commissioned by State Auditor Brian Sonntag, which "agrees with 37 of the audit's 49 recommendations," reports the Seattle Times.

For instance, the Port will immediately cease informal ways of resolving disagreements with contractors, known as "tummy rubs."

The state audit detailed a case in which a Port construction manager wrote a contractor "let's figure that out [project cost] via tummy rub in lieu of you all documenting what is undocumentable." The Port manager and contractor in that case disagreed about the price of one task. The manager offered $54,500 and the contractor countered with $62,000. The manager wrote back saying, "If it starts with a '5' we're there." They settled on $59,999.

We love that bid negotiation is described as a "disagreement." We also love the "meet in the middle" part of this negotiation, where the contractor dropped the estimate by $2,001 and the Port manager raised theirs by $5,499. Lastly, we love this whole "undocumentable" concept. We're totally gonna use that with our clients.

We literally have tears in our eyes reading this stuff. Admittedly, we're pretending the Port manager sounds like Gilbert Gottfried, which adds tremendously.

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By MvB in News on January 31, 2008 10:25 AM

Comments [rss]

MvB

That's Seattlest: unfair and unwarranted criticism since 200-whatever.

(Fair and balanced was already taken.)

Thanks for that link to Yoshitani's letter. It turned out to be interesting reading. I know Yoshitani is walking a tightrope right now, but I think it's telling that while he's publicly "defending" these practices as part of an earlier git-r-done culture, he's also tightening up on informal procedures.

I also like the Port-Commission-approved smack. Holla for our watchdog commissioners!

Veritas non sequitor

It is simply unfair and unwarranted for Seattlest and the Times to criticize the Port for using the tummy rub method of negotiating change orders.

According to Port CEO Tay Yoshitani, "the Port’s use of tummy rubbing is consistent with best industry practices and supported by our airline partners, whose dollars pay a significant portion of Sea-Tac’s redevelopment. Major airports, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington Dulles, LAX, San Francisco and San Diego, utilize tummy rubbing in similar ways. The Port Commission originally approved this contracting approach and also re-approved it each year." [See the CEO's complete "Letter to the Community" at http://www.portseattle.org/about/organization/ceomessage.shtml .]