Notes
Executive summary of the Special Investigative Committee report commissioned by the Seattle Port Commission on January 22, 2008, following the State Auditor’s 2007 Performance Audit. Chaired by Commissioner Bill Bryant with Commissioner Gael Tarleton; legal counsel Mike McKay led the investigation. The team conducted over 75 interviews, reviewed 250,000 pages of documents, and searched 300 gigabytes of electronic data. Found ten incidents of fraud in Port of Seattle contracting practices including: leaking internal estimates to third runway contract bidders, falsely representing a $2 million cost reduction as $9.4 million, pre-payments to third runway contractors, steering contracts to preferred vendors, breaking large contracts into smaller subcontracts to avoid competition requirements and Commission oversight, manipulating professional services agreements, and steering work to a preferred minority consultant. Also found four policy/law violations without fraud, seven State Auditor findings unsubstantiated by facts (including the Parsons Program Management Support Consultant agreement growing from $3.5 million to $120 million), and an ethics violation by CEO Mic Dinsmore involving McBee Strategic Consulting and a paid internship for his daughter. Briefed U.S. Department of Justice in November.