OLYMPIA — The ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee said Wednesday she wants to begin asking questions about the graving yard pullout at the March 14 meeting of the Transportation Audit Performance Board.
The questions Rep. Bev Woods of Kingston wants to ask are within the board’s jurisdiction, she said.
Woods wants both a performance audit and fiscal audit of the Department of Transportation, which Dec. 21 pulled out of the Port Angeles graving yard project after $58.8 million was spent.
“We need to know the remaining costs and what can be salvaged to get a final price tag,” Woods said in an interview with Peninsula Daily News.
“We also must know how to mitigate those costs.”
Committee criteria
The audit would be based on House Transportation Committee criteria, she said.
Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald said his department is preparing a detailed report on the graving yard project, halted after hundreds of Klallam burials were found on the 22.5-acre waterfront property.
The report will have eight chapters from how the project started to how it ended, MacDonald said.
And the Transportation Performance Audit Board will get a copy the report, he added.
The audit board’s March 14 meeting will precede the Transportation Commission’s March 15-16 monthly session.
All meetings will be in the state capital.
Created in 2003
The Legislature created the Transportation Performance Audit Board in 2003 “to help better understand how the state’s transportation agencies are performing through the use of performance measure reviews and performance audits,” according to the board’s Internet site.
The board is comprised of 11 members:
* Five citizen members with private sector expertise in transportation-related disciplines who are appointed by the governor.
* One at-large member who is also appointed by the governor.
* Four legislators, including two each from the House Transportation Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee.
* The Legislative Auditor, who serves as an ex-officio member.
