OLYMPIA — Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, joined Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, on Friday in blasting the Transportation Commission for its abandonment of the Port Angeles graving yard project.
“Apparently we are ‘chopped liver,’ as Buck said,” Kessler said.
“They don’t understand how they get most of their funding. You need state money to get federal money.”
She said she wishes all three 24th District legislators, including Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, could have attended last Wednesday’s Transportation Commission meeting — where Buck appeared, representing all three and making the “chopped liver” remark.
“I wonder what the response would have been then,” she said.
Buck did tell the Transportation Commission and Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald during the legislator and public comment session of Wednesday’s meeting to “make no mistake,” he was speaking for the entire 24th District delegation.
Buck, Kessler and Hargrove represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
Buck told the Transportation Commission the board should have consulted legislators before abandoning the Port Angeles graving yard project at a cost to this point of $58.8 million.
Transportation Commission Chairman Dale Stedman responded that DOT was being told by the state’s congressional delegation to abandon the site, to which Buck replied:
“What are we? Chopped liver?”
Blend of money sources
Kessler said that although federal money was used on the project, so was state money.
State legislators should have been consulted before the project was abandoned, she said.
“We provide the money and, if necessary, the taxes. If they are concerned, they should consult with us. You do have to know who to talk to,” she said.
But the real key will be the investigation of events surrounding Transportation’s decision to abandon the project, since that affects the entire state, Kessler said.
The Transportation Performance Audit Board has been asked to investigate.
Transportation is preparing an eight-chapter report that outlines how the project began, progressed and ended.
Kessler said the bill, HB 1642, to make the transportation chairman a gubernatorial appointee is gaining a lot of momentum.
“It’s not just from us, but also transportation committee chairman Ed Murray [D-Seattle], who is from probably the most liberal district in the state,” she said.
Murray, the bill’s sponsor, said the Senate’s companion bill, SB 5513, already has had a hearing.
SB 5513 is scheduled for a public hearing and executive session in the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 22.
The House passed a similar bill with a bipartisan vote two years ago and he thinks the interest is still there to make MacDonald’s position appointed by the governor, Murray said.
“I’m hopeful anyway,” he said.
The transportation secretary currently is hired and fired by the Transportation Commission, which is appointed by the governor.
Access to governor
Kessler said that arrangement is “unmanageable,” so she is going to support HB 1642.
At least legislators have some access to the governor versus the Transportation Commission, she said.
“I have my issues with MacDonald regarding this project, but there seems to be a detachment about the Legislature’s role in transportation,” Kessler said.
Hargrove said he heard that Wednesday’s Transportation Commission meeting was “pretty good.”
“I’m sure we’ve got the governor’s attention and Congress’ attention, too,” he said.
Nothing more has happened on the longer term issue of existing archaeological sites and future discoveries, Hargrove said.
“But where the work will be done and how to get the bridge fixed is the focus,” he said.
One possibility is building the anchors in Port Angeles and the pontoons at a Mats Mats quarry site in Jefferson County, Hargrove said.
