No accountability for lack of action

Published 4:46 pm Thursday, November 29, 2007

Regarding the Tuesday letter, “State’s timing seems suspect,” about the ferries:

The writer is absolutely right when it comes to Washington state playing politics with election issues. It has been that way for years. Before retiring, I worked for the state for over 30 years. During those years of service I learned that politics has always played a part, spinning issues in any direction that suits politicians the most.

Now the Nichols Brothers say their company could deliver a 54-car boat within a year for the Keystone route.

If they can now build a ferry to fix the problem for the Keystone route, why in the world didn’t the state have them build the ferry several years ago when the Legislature passed funding for the ferries and set aside money to do so?

The answer is that the “politicians” of the ferry system had a different idea, which was to build bigger ferries. Even knowing there was an ongoing problem with the old ferries, they got a free pass from the Coast Guard.

If this were a cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers to and from different parts of the world, would the Coast Guard have given them a free pass?

So who pulled the strings to allow it to happen here? And was your life and the lives of our local community members seriously taken in to consideration at any time?

It has always been my hope that the citizens would come to realize that state and local government will always spin their web, hoping that we the public won’t catch on to what they are doing.

As citizens of this state seriously affected by their decisions, we need to hold our officials accountable for (in this case) their lack of action.

Why is it no one is held accountable for such costly and potentially hazardous blunders?

Mike Hansen