No ferry hearings, key lawmakers say

Published 11:09 pm Thursday, January 10, 2008

State lawmakers will not be conducting hearings anytime soon into whether ferry system employees should be punished for their actions preceding the November decision to pull the Steel Electric vessels from service.

The leaders of the Senate and House transportation committees said they will not use time during the upcoming session to figure out why lawmakers were not kept fully informed of the deteriorating condition of the 80-year-old boats.

Meanwhile, more problems are coming from below decks within the state’s ferry fleet. Key state transportation leaders on Thursday were told that hull repairs must be made swiftly on four other vessels.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, and Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, said there is not enough time to probe during the short 60-day session that starts Monday.

“I think there’s been incompetence, no question about it. Has there been fraud? No,” Haugen said. “We know bad decisions were made. I don’t think there was criminal behavior or deliberate action to mislead us.”

Haugen in December said some people should lose their jobs for allowing the ferries, which were the oldest operating in the nation, to remain in use despite significant hull problems.

The ships were yanked from service Nov. 20, leaving the Keystone-Port Townsend route without vehicle ferry service.

Haugen said the time must be used to focus on other pressing transportation issues such as getting new car ferries into service.

“I don’t feel I have to fire somebody,” Haugen said. “Right now, I’m more interested in getting a boat back on that run.”

Steve Reinmuth, chief of staff at the state transportation department and acting director of Washington State Ferries, said he’s glad the legislative focus appears to be on the future.

People in the ferry system learned some important lessons from what happened, including how critical it is to move quickly when vessel replacement plans run into trouble, he said.

Nobody in the ferry system withheld information about the condition of the vessels, he said, adding that questions built over time as discoveries of new troubles emerged.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, who represents Port Townsend, said she still wants legislative hearings.

“We need to look into how we got to this point. I think people sincerely thought things were OK,” she said of the Steel Electrics.

Once she saw the ferries out of the water at dry dock, “I thought, ‘My God, how did we keep saying these things are OK?’ “

Kessler said it is incumbent upon legislators, Gov. Chris Gregoire and new State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond to investigate.

Clibborn said she that if workers did anything wrong, it was in trying too hard to keep the aging vessels operating. They did right by initiating closer hull examinations in the fall, which revealed more severe damage than had been previously known, she said.

Effort needs to be focused on the future of the ferry system, not past problems, former transportation secretary Doug MacDonald said.

“There isn’t any question if you had a do-over everybody would have done something differently,” he said. “That includes not only people in (the transportation department) and the ferry system, and I would be one of those people. It would also include every member of the Legislature.”

Money to build new ferries has been available since 2003. Gregoire wants to steer $100 million to construct three 54-car ferries to run on the Keystone-Port Townsend route. Those funds will come from money previously earmarked for a terminal project in Mukilteo and a contract to build 144-car ferries.

More challenges arrived Thursday, when legislators were told the Coast Guard will not allow the Rhododendron back in service until corroded steel in its hull can be repaired or replaced. Launched in 1947, it is the state’s oldest operating ferry.

The vessel already is tied up at Eagle Harbor and will be headed to dry dock soon, said Traci Brewer-Rogstad, deputy executive director at the ferry system.

The state also has been given 120 days to make hull repairs to the Kaleetan (1967), Tillikum (1959) and the Evergreen State (1954). The Evergreen State, which now provides service within the San Juan Islands, is scheduled to head to the shipyard next week. It is to be replaced by the smaller Hiyu.

Hull work or additional inspection also is planned for the Spokane (1972), Yakima (1967), Kitsap (1980), Walla Walla (1973), Cathlamet (1981) and Chelan (1981), although the Coast Guard said that can wait until the vessels’ next scheduled dry docking, said Paul Brodeur, director of vessel maintenance and preservation.

The additional ferry repair work, along with planned maintenance, has ferry officials scrambling for dry dock space on Puget Sound. Sending the boats elsewhere doesn’t appear to be an option, Brodeur told lawmakers.

“We are very tight on dry-dock capacity. This is going to be a real challenge,” he said.