Port of Seattle Commission Meeting January 23, 2024: No line jumping

Commissioners express Port’s true feelings on Port Package Update programs and HB2103/SB5955

I understand that there are failed packages out there. I don’t doubt it. But the reality is that they don’t get to jump the line if there are houses out there that never got packages to begin with. So before we address the latter problem we need to make sure that we’ve done everything we possibly can for those homes who have not been, and those facilities that have not been addressed.

Background

Since HB2103/SB5955  dropped in Olympia, there has been confusion as to the Port’s position on these two Port Package Update bills.

In public, the Port has expressed interest in a Port Package Update program, similar to the SFO Replacement Initiative, since 2019, going as far supporting HB2315, which removed the State roadblock on providing secondary payments to homeowners.

But after passionate testimony from the public in Olympia on January 16, the Port testified hard against both bills.

Afterwards, they then submitted their input to the Fiscal Analysis (Section IV B) saying that the cost of the program would not be $867,000 in the first year (as the bill clearly states) but rather $1,000,000,000–their hyper-inflated cost to replacing every existing system.

The response from both staff and insiders was that their opposition was something of a negotiating tactic and that long-suffering residents should remain patient and see what kind of ‘deal’ might emerge.

The January 23 Meeting

But today’s Port of Seattle Commission meeting laid bare the Port’s true feelings regarding airport communities and their Port Package program.

Public Comment: Port Package Updates

0:22:40 JC Harris (on behalf of SeaTacNoise.Info) provides the following public comment:

Local Government Legislative Agenda (2024)

The main item on the agenda for us was the Port’s 2024 Local Legislative Agenda. This is where staff outlines the efforts the Port is making to achieve the broad policy goals of the Port known as the Century Agenda. (Memo) (Presentation) Don’t try to make sense of each broad ‘Goal’. Each often contain a mish-mash of policy ideas. But at several points, the notion of airport impacts and sound insulation was referenced.

1:34:37 Local Govt. Relations Dave Kaplan mentions that the SAMP Draft EIS is due by the end of 2024.

1:37:00 Century Agenda Goal #4 (Greenest Port In America) mentions several major efforts, especially Duwamish River, but makes no mention of airport communities.

1:40:20 Century Agenda Goal #5 (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) mentions conducting a survey of “failed” Port Packages (their air quotes) by Q3 2024 ahead of new Part 150. If true, this would be good news because the last Part 150 took seven years to complete.

1:43:16 Century Agenda Goal #6 (Be a highly effective public agency) Mentions other environmental concerns including North SeaTac Park and the Land Stewardship Program in March, and the Accelerated Sound Insulation Program from February 25, 2020. (The ASIP is the Port’s effort to complete a series of 123 single family homes, 900 apartments and fifteen religious buildings never attempted from the 1996 mandate.)

Misinformed and disingenuous?

But the real action begins with Commissioner comments after the presentation, particularly two comments from Commissioner Sam Cho in apparently oblique reference to Mr. Harris’ earlier public comment.

1:45:00

I want to uh turn our attention to a topic that was brought up earlier today uh and is a topic of discussion in the state legislature. And that is our sound mitigation program. I think there are some leaders who are disingenuous about this topic when they insinuate that the Port is not doing its part on sound mitigation. Could you please for the public, and to educate those leaders who may be misinformed and are disingenuous, tell us what we’re doing on sound mitigation. What efforts are underway and maybe even talk about some of the challenges that we face when it comes to sound mitigation.

1:50:45

I just want to recap. 9,400 homes seven places of worship, 10 out of 15 schools. It actually sounds like we’re doing a lot. And I just want to emphasize that you know if we could insulate every home we would but there’s a process here there are priorities and those who are close to the airport I think or affected the most you know as we would say disproportionately impacted by the noise of the airport should get priority. I understand that there are failed packages out there. I don’t doubt it. But the reality is that they don’t get to jump the line if there are houses out there that never got packages to begin with. So before we address the latter problem we need to make sure that we’ve done everything we possibly can for those homes who have not been and those facilities that have not been addressed. So I really want to make sure that the public is not misled and that whatever is happening down in Olympia is based on facts and not based on conjecture or or hypothesis. But the fact is that we are working as fast as we possibly can with the resources that we have within the letter of law to address these issues and when the time comes we will address the issues that are secondary. Thank you. And I think I would just want to emphasize that is very much a part of our part 150 process and having a methodical and clear process for the presumed fail packages is really important and that will be rolling out this year.

1:52:27 Commission President Hamdi Mohamed states that “for the record we have not taken a position on HB2103.”

1:53:20 Commissioner Felleman asks for confirmation that the Port’s own assessment of Port Packages would be completed in Q3 2024. He is informed that, in fact, the assessment is “not as easy as you might think” and will actually begin in Q3 2024. He is given no description of what the program will look like, or firm end date, but hopefully 2025.

Analysis: It’s about sincerity

Just to be clear, every word of Mr. Harris’ comment is 100% accurate. But one needs to listen carefully to hear that the staff and the commissioners are not responding to any of those facts. When you have no good argument and the issue is complex, your best (and only) strategy is to obfuscate and accuse the other side of ‘misinformation’.

• Commissioner Cho’s statement contains too many of those obfuscations to address in a short article. But one thing he is clear about is his position that the Port should complete every project still left from the 1996 mandate before moving on to updates. Which means no earlier than 2027?!
• If not for Commissioner Felleman’s questioning, any observer would think that the Port would be completing an assessment of all Port Packages as early as June, 2024. Now, we know it’s at least another year off–and that is not to get to any repairs. That’s just completing some, as yet undefined, ‘assessment’. No one mentioned the minor detail that San Francisco has a larger inventory of sound insulation systems, and yet, has had a working program for years. SFO simply sent out postcards, put up a web page, asked people to apply, and takes applications first come first serve with the funds they have. If we were sincere, we would simply do that.
• As to Commission President Mohamed saying that the Port has not come out against HB2103? The Port Commission doesn’t have to come out against anything. They simply have to listen to their staff recommendation in private, and stay mum, while their trained lobbyists work quietly behind the scenes to kill any bill they are told is objectionable. What they tell lawmakers or even their own Port Commissioners may not be what the public hears. And by having access to bill materials (like Fiscal Analysis) they obtain a huge advantage to the decision making process in ways that are impossible to refute. In short, the Port’s lobbyists always get the last word.

For the Port, both electeds and staff, the incentives have always made it easy to delay action on any sound insulation, either first time or updates. The topic is complex, Port Commissioners are faced with a blizzard of issues, and as in most governments, Port Commissioners come and go every few years and thus never get a chance to learn how terrible the program really is.. But more fundamentally, the longer the Port delays, the less money it has to pay. And for any corporation? Their responsibility is to their customers: the aviation industry, not to those pesky residents who have no seat at the table.

HB2103 is a great bill.  It took courage for Sen. Keiser and Rep. Orwall to propose a bill which provides for Port Package updates using the Port’s own money (or rather, our own money–a one percent sliver of the Property Tax Levy.) The objections made by their lobbyists are completely disingenuous. But until we have Port Commissioners who have that same courage–who are willing to do something their staff does not pre-approve, we will continue to have this fight.

And a fight it has become. The Port may have misplayed this. First of all, the optics are terrible. There is nothing in HB2103 that various Port Commissioners have not proposed. By speaking so harshly and on camera, the Commission betrayed a lack of sincerity the public always suspected but avoided speaking openly about–hoping to give the Port at least some benefit of the doubt. That doubt is now gone.

Perhaps even more importantly, opposition to HB2103 puts the lie to the notion that the Port supports a second airport. As we’ve said for years, as with Port Packages, it is in the Port’s financial interest to delay a second airport as long as possible. If the Port really wanted a second airport, they would be moving heaven and earth to treat us, much better–as they were supposed to after the Sea-Tac Communities Plan. Because the first thing other communities mention when considering whether or not to support another airport in their town is this:

“After watching what you go through? No thanks.”

You can never sell another community on a commercial airport within 100 miles until you treat us better. HB2103 and SB5955 are the chance to do that.

That’s the irony: every aspect of HB2103 is something the Port could already do voluntarily. If they’d sincerely wanted to, they already would have. And that is why these bills are so necessary.