ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS
MAYTOWN
The Issue:
At the time Maytown was purchased the Port’s Tide Flat intermodal train capacity was booked solid. Any delay in on‑time departures was backing up train traffic headed for the Port all the way back into the Midwest. Trains needed a place to pull over and wait. Maytown was an ideal location to temporarily park a large number of trains. The concept was sound but the contractual arrangements with the Port of Olympia and Thurston County was botched by unrealistic trust in both agencies. They did not honor their promises and negotiated one‑sided agreements to the determent and embarrassment of the Port. One of these agreements now limits the Port’s only option is to sell the property; it cannot be leased without Thurston County permission.
To be fair, there was no other alternative site because all sites in Pierce County that were large enough were all located on the higher elevation plateaus above Puget Sound. Freight trains that needed temporary parking space could not make that climb.
Solution:
The 745 acres of property is zoned for gravel mining. Few gravel mining companies want to purchase property, especially if there are NIMBY (not in my backyard) neighbors. As this is being written there is no buyer interest except for way too low a price. With Thurston County support there may be interest in leasing the property for gravel mining.
I would offer the NIMBY neighbors and Thurston County two choices.
1) Let the Port lease to a gravel company on the understanding that once the mine is complete the excavation is allowed to flood and create a public recreational lake owned by a land trust or Thurston County.
OR ELSE
2) Expect the Port to look for a buyer that needs a site like Maytown to build one or as many as four new nuclear power plants. Supplemental solar power generation could be built on all suitable roofs and open land between and around the power plant buildings. Maytown is an ideal site for such an energy producing facility and it could be as attractive as the California’s San Onofre Nuclear Plant which on 84 acres produces 20 percent of the Southern California’s electrical energy. Maytown would need more than 84 acres per unit because it would need cooling with well water or cooling towers rather than the Pacific Ocean that San Onofre has for cooling water.
JOBS
The issue:
Jobs are good. Every politician favors jobs. What they omit is that they don’t want to be responsible for paying for jobs they wish they could create. Construction jobs that last about two years make for bragging rights but are not the type of jobs the port commissioners should be bragging about, especially if they have been paid by taxpayers and produce no meaningful long term results.
Solution:
I prefer to concentrate on projects that will produce long term results. Most such projects will create permanent jobs. Some suggestions are discussed below but this subject is never ending and needs constant attention by Staff and Management. Anyone, Port or Public, might have a valid suggestion for projects that create jobs.
NYK
The Issue:
Best I can tell the APMT solution is not yet a done deal. The final arrangement with NYK is not clear but it is clear that the Port is not a party to the deal between APMT and NYK.
It is also clear that longshore jobs lost from the Maersk move to Seattle may be restored with the NYK move to Tacoma.
Solution:
NYK is gone as a Port asset. There is no further solution possible.
TIM FARRELL’S REPLACEMENT
The Issue:
Tim has resigned and new Executive Director will be hired by the new Commission.
Solution:
I anticipated this issue when I answered a question for the TNT Voter’s Pamphlet. Here were my requirements at that time.
Manage Staff, Contracts, and Port Services as Commissioners deem best for County Residents Concentrate on projects that create local jobs and support local businesses
PROPERTY TAX
The Issue:
Most major American ports contribute to the community rather than take from the Community. The time when the Port of Tacoma actually needs a subsidy should be over. If not, why not. What was all the expansion with borrowed money supposed to do?
Solution:
Phase out this tax subsidy as the General Obligation Bonds are retired. In the meantime stop taking more than is needed to make the interest payments.
THE BAD ECONOMY
The Issue:
We all know this one. It’s bad and may get worse. America lacking energy independence and a sound dollar is not well prepared to survive as a World Power.
Solution:
99% of the solution is beyond the means of any or all port commissioners in America to make the Economy better. I have already suggested a way to make most of Washington State energy independent using nuclear power generated on Port property. That could also take place at other ports to make all of our costal regions energy independent.
Our Port lacks legally available funding capacity to do much that would help the local economy. Additional funding may become available from Federal Grants or by Voter approval of additional property tax. The challenge now is to keep the Port viable rather than be a benefactor of others.
DUE DILIGENCE
The Issue:
The bad economy plus some major blunders have made it clear that the Port Commission has been lax about performing due diligence review of staff proposals. I believe is has been mostly a result of no Commissioners had the training, knowledge, or experience to perform a competent due diligence review until Don Johnson joined the group. Since then things have gone better but what had been done already was beyond correcting.
Solution:
Any time the Commission is unsure and realizes it lacks the ability to perform a proper due diligence study they can always retain an expert to advise them independent of the experts that the Staff uses. A better solution is for the voters to look harder at candidate’s qualifications before voting. Anyone visiting this Web site is doing just that.
PORT SECURITY
The Issue:
Port security is just that. Protect the Port from criminals and vandals. It is not atomic bomb security. Ports are vital functions but so are numerous other facilities that are equally vital yet get no DHS funding because Congress equates port security to nuclear security.
Our enemies have promised to dwarf the 9/11 destruction and they always attempted to do whatever they threaten to do. Improvised atomic bombs that are assembled in the US using smuggled fissile materials are certain to be used sooner or later to destroy one or more American cities.
None on the inspection now being done has any chance of detecting fissile material that has been concealed by experts to prevent detection.
Solution:
Provide nuclear inspection of all import containers, including empty ones, before they can disappear into our hinterland. Container and autos are the obvious and preferred means to successful smuggling.
NUCLEAR SECURITY
The Issue:
Current DHS inspections are easily defeated by anyone smart enough to know how to build improvised atomic bombs.
Solution:
Install the one and only technology that has been designed to detect concealed fissile material no matter how well it is concealed. This technology was developed at the Idaho National Lab and has been ready for implementation for over 4 years. It will add a day to just‑in‑time deliveries but that is OK if the delay is included in the just-in-time scheduling. It will double Longshore jobs and the cost of processing containers through a port but that cost is trivial for the ultimate retail customer. The inspection surcharge will double port income.
For competitive reasons this cannot be a unilateral action by one or a few ports. It must be all and must be ordered by DHS.
NEW BUSINESS
The Issue:
The Port has become overly committed and dependent on containers as the only major source of income. Unless a lot of East Coast investors are wrong there will be a major portion of the traditional West Coast container business going to East Coast port and never returning.
Solution:
We must find and attract new business for our idle land, preferably but not necessarily marine related. Ideas for new business may come from anywhere including the lowest level Port employee or a foreign Port representative. The Commission’s job is to seek suggestions and follow through with doing whatever is needed to attract promising businesses to lease our idle. My suggestion is Nuclear Power and lots of it. That is a water related industry because readily available cooling water saves the expense of giant air cooling towers.
TERMINAL AUTOMATION
The Issue:
Factors favoring automated transport of containers between cranes and backland stacks are too strong to ignore. Already APMT has an automated terminal in Norfolk, VA. That is one reason Maersk is leaving the Northwest and going to the East Coast. It is clear that terminal automation is the next step in the continuing evolution of the Container Industry that fist started less than 50 years ago.
Solution:
Terminal Operators who lease Port property and our ILWU Local 23 want automation. Operators want it because it reduces costs. Longshore wants it because it offers equipment maintenance jobs and Longshore clerical work that is better paying and more enjoyable work than traditional Longshore work.
So why hasn’t happened? Simple lack of mutual trust is the reason. Terminal Operators don’t trust the ILWU to provide enough skilled mechanics and the ILWU doesn’t trust management not to export the clerical work. Tacoma’s past record for labor and management cooperation can once again be used to put Tacoma as a leader in new technology. My role as a Port Commissioner will be to bring the two sides together for their mutual benefit.
I will recommend that the existing ILWU crane driver school be combined with a small prototype automated terminal complete with a dockside crane to test the automation productivity and train mechanics and clerks as well as crane drivers.
AIR QUALITY
The Issue:
Most of Tacoma’s air quality problems are from burning wood. The Port’s contribution to poor air quality comes from ships cleaning their stacks during nights when the smoke is not visible and from diesel engines on trucks, locomotives, and terminal equipment.
Solution:
Monitor ship emission and impose fines when such emissions are illegal. Switch from diesel to electric as mush as possible if and when sufficient electrical energy is available. That will never happen until America adopts nuclear power as the only affordable source of sufficient power.
WATER QUALITY:
The Issue:
The Port does not contribute much to poor water quality except is add its share to storm drain pollution.
Solution:
By EPA’s rules our drinking water contains excessive pollution to be discharged into a storm drain. That’s silly and sets and impossible standard. The Port must be and is prepared to deal quickly with accidental spills. Filtering storm water is possible but of little use unless all the surrounding communities also filter their storm drainage.
I do not consider the Port to be a significant contributor to poor water quality.
TIDE FLAT UTILITIES, STORM DRAINS, STREETS, FIRE PROTECTION, POLICE, AND PROPERTY TAX
The Issue:
Tacoma taxpayers bear the full cost for city services for the Tide Flats. Most major ports take fiscal responsibility for such expenses. Tacoma’s subsidy gives the Port a competitive advantage over ports that pay their own way. Is receiving such a subsidy a true measure of port success? I believe it isn’t.
Solution:
Initially the surplus County Property tax could be paid to Tacoma as a means of spreading these expenses in a more equitable fashion to all of Pierce County. As soon as possible the Port’s profit goals should be revised to consider Tide Flat expenses as a necessary part of the Port’s budget.
OPENNESS
The Issue:
The Port has long been justifiably criticized for making decisions in secret and not fully explaining the decisions that they do reveal to the Public.
Solution:
Knock it off. Be open and honest and let the chips fall without regard for being reelected. Everyone makes mistakes. Admit it and learn from it. Don’t deny or conceal it.
ECONOMIC ENGINE
The Issue:
When the Port was an Operating Port rather than a Landlord Port its claims to be a local and regional Economic Engine were valid. As a landlord such claims are as groundless as if Russell Company’s landlord claimed to be the Economic Engine rather than the Russell Company.
Solution:
Be realistic and honest. Times and events change. Either start new enterprises that need Port employees and also require services and goods from local businesses or give up the Economic Engine claims as past history. The Port has total assets of $1.28 Billion and net assets (after deducting liabilities) of $463 million. Its annual rate of return on assets is near zero. That’s a gross underachievement. I will support more profitable uses of existing land not already under a long term lease. For the most part these long tem leases must have a low rate of return or the Port is spending too much money.
SMALL BUSINESS
The Issue:
Port Commissioners talk a lot about helping local small business but ask around and it’s not true. I know from talking about this subject with others and especially know from my own experience. There is no program to invite all qualified local small businesses to bid or submit qualifications for contracts. Instead it has been customary to hand pick from a few favorites or, more often, seek more expensive companies that are located outside of Pierce County and preferably outside of the Puget Sound. One result is that local potential talented individuals and companies do not gain the experience and staff to develop their full potential and thereby provide superior service to the Port at much less expense.
Solution:
Proactively give locals priority over non‑locals. Most Port Authorities go further than that to exclude non‑locals completely. In my engineering business that has been a double hurdle where I am excluded from the same areas where favored competitors for Port of Tacoma contracts are located.
I do not favor excluding any qualified individuals or companies but I do favor an edge to locals when equally or better qualified than non‑locals. As a Commissioner I will be keeping track of contract awards with the intent to prevent anyone from becoming a Port favorite when there are other choices both local and non‑local.