mikerol
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Below you will find a letter of mine to the editor of the Seattle Times, far too long, also in specifics ever to be published of course, but possibly of interest to, and by no means the extent of my knowledge.

"I became acquainted with the races for Port Commissioner through friendship with a candidate, Mr. Dan Becraft, who had to withdraw for reasons of conflict of interest between his employer, Smith Barney, a second underwriter for some Port of Seattle bonds. Once somewhat involved I decided to pursue my interest by delving into the abilities of the sitting commissioners, of the CEO of the Port of Seattle, Mic Dinsmore; and of some grave misjudgments on their part; and some possible extraordinary conflicts and insider dealing. I am by no means done with my perusal of this matter. But meanwhile I find your endorsement of Pat Davis truly amazing! You apply the standard of interests that certain candidates represent by for opting for Lloyd Hara for position # 3 [as do I, also because he can devote himself exclusively to the considerable task at hand] but fail to look at the interests that have been backing Patricia Davis. No mention of Mr. Jack Jolley's ten years in London and New York as a stellar bond trader or the fact that he was assistant treasurer at Microsoft or that he is not beholden to anyone and is in a position to devote his capacities full time to the considerable task of bring the Port of Seattle up to snuff. Why the omission I might ask when you provide sufficient ample data, for a standard news paper, to provide the voter with some guidance??.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion

"The incumbent in Position 4, Pat Davis, has been on the job since the 1980s and takes a strong institutional view. Her principal opponent, Jack Jolley, attacks on so many fronts he stretches credulity. He's a former bond salesman and Microsoft treasury employee who is on solid ground on finance and tends to wing it on everything else. He, too, can learn, but there is little case for jettisoning the incumbent. She's smart, she has the background and she works well with commissioners and staff. Stick with Davis."

herewith the link to the financial disclosures of the several candidates:

http://hera.pdc.wa.gov/wx/

and Patricia Davis in particular:

http://www.pdc.wa.gov/servlet/ContribServlet?

total of $ 122,910 as of 8/21/05
1] Davis has been the decisive vote on the Port's major boondoggles the past several years. What I find mind-boggling is that this entity, after all these years, continues to need tax subsidies from King County. No other port in the nation except that of Tacoma [!] does. The State Auditor says that they can collect more property taxes for airport construction; however their collections have sky-rocketed from $30 million to $75 million; at the Democratic Party's endorsement meeting a few weeks ago, Ms. Davis lied to the effect that the tax rate had diminished! I have seen her at a variety of democratic party events at legislative districts; she mouths platitudes, surfs from one platitude to another the way she has from one committee to another. Davis, judging by her campaign contributions, would seem to be a fit galleon figure on one of the cruise ships calling on the port here; she is the tail that is wagged by the Carrix Corporation, a.k.a. SSA Marine. The only way she can be regarded as smart is in cozening up to interest that do not necessarily coincide with those of the people of Seattle and King County.

2] The Port carries a huge debt load which it needs to service. The Fitch bond rating is
A + but only because the entity has the backing of King County and the City
of Seattle. Actually, the Port of Seattle, once you start delving into its
many aspects turns into a veritable mare's nest, and no one hereabouts is
willing to sort the morass out or, even, is able to take the requisite hard
look at these complexities. It appears definitely to be ill-managed.
During the current commissioners' latest term in office the long term public
debt owed by the Port has gone from $2.9 Billion to $4.8 Billion (2004
Audit).

3] The leasing of the cruise ship terminals at a rate that will never repay the hundreds of millions it cost to build the terminals... did that come about by accident, or is there collusion, corruption rife among the commissioners, SSA Marine, Dinsmore, in this and numerous other instances, such as the giveaway of 18 one million dollar cranes to SSA Marine, with the loss of union jobs. Many of these decisions are made in closed "executive" session. E.g.

Commissioners Paige Miller Chair and President Bob Edwards Lawrence T. Molloy Alex Fisken Patricia Davis Seattle, Washington 98111 Chief Executive Officer M.R. Dinsmore P.O. Box 1209 www.

portseattle.org 206.728.3000 APPROVED MINUTES COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 14, 2004 The Port of Seattle Commission met in a regular meeting at 12:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 14, 2004 in the Commission Chambers, Per 69, 2711 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA. Commissioners Davis, Edwards, Fisken , Miller, and Molloy were present. 1. CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting was called to order at 12:00 p.m . by Paige Miller, Chair and President. 2. EXECUTIVE SESSION The meeting was immediately recessed to an executive session for approximately one hour and ten minutes to discuss labor, real estate, and legal matters, and reconvened to public session. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Davis moved approval of the minutes of the special meeting of October 14, 2004, without reading into the record. Motion carried. (Commissioners Edwards and Molloy were not in attendance at the subject meeting.) 4. SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS a. PRESENTATION BY SSA MARINE Presentation Document: Computer slide presentation entitled, "SSA Marine, a Carrix Enterprise". M. R. Dinsmore, Chief Executive Officer, referenced the December 4, 2004 staff presentation on cargo growth projections and introduced John Hemingway.

4] The sale of a parcel of land with a ware-house to an insider who within a year turned around and sold it at a ten million dollar profit; the leasing of space at port facilities at rates favorable to insiders.

5 ] Some of the Ports interest's are far too much aligned with those
of the Carrix Corporation/ a.k.a . SSA Marine, once known as Stevedores of
America [the infamous sale of 18 million dollar cranes to SSA!] which enjoys
a peculiar unhappy relationship with the unions; the port uses non-union
labor for trucking landfill for the construction of the third runway
[overloaded trucks that are hard on the public roads] supplied by a source whom the news papers here are only too glad to berate when it is involved in strip clubs; the Port incurs fines from the State for pollution, etc. Now the Port is asking for $
450,000,000 in new long term public bonds. If a new set of commissioners
will prevail in changing this state of affairs, so much the better; but it
appears that this state of affairs is of nearly a hundred year's standing!

I have followed the race closely so far, attended half a dozen democratic legislative district meetings, and been in touch with all the commissioners. Sitting commissioner Fisken replied in this fashion to an inquiry of mine:

On 8/10/05, Alec Fisken wrote:

I agree with most of your complaints about how the port operates (and have more of my own). Seems to me it could be fixed, though, if we changed from elected commissioners to appointed (some mix of gubernatorial, county, etc). Like most big ports. Alec Fisken

Dan Becraft, a friend and candidate who had to drop out of the race for reasons of conflict of interest, has conveyed to me that Port C.E.O. Mr. Dinsmore blames the commissioners for the Port's ills! So Fisken's opinion is shared by the C.E.O. whom the commissioners employ! Ms. Davis is in the pocket of the charming C.E.O. Dinsmore, who however when asked why the port's performance has been so deleterious... turns around and blames, guess who: the commissioners. There's a story there for the writing in Mr. Dinsmore's ascendancy and performance as C.E.O of the Port of Seattle, of the interests of the Carrix Corporation [a.k.a. SSA Marine, Stevedores of America, a major continuous campaign contributor to Ms. Davis campaign] in the deleterious status quo. There used to be yellow journalism, and there once was a film called "I am Curious Yellow", the case of the Seattle Time's the case is one of "I am Curiously Uncurious Yellow Callow."