SEATTLE — As Washington lawmakers look for ways to trim spending by billions of dollars, they may find some ideas in an unlikely place: the troubled state ferry system.
Plagued in 2007 by questions about weak leadership, millions of dollars spent on plans that bore no fruit and doubts about the safety of an aging fleet, ferry officials found themselves being ordered to chart a new course.
That’s led to some big financial savings, said David Moseley, the assistant state transportation secretary who took over as Washington State Ferries chief in February 2008.
The ferry system now is on track to spend about $25 million less on consultants than it did in the previous two-year budget period, and is studying options to reduce spending even more, officials said.
Moseley has been doing a “superb job,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who heads the powerful Senate Transportation Committee.
“The department has made huge progress,” Haugen said “Can they do better? Yes. But there has been a total change in how the ferry system does business.”
During the 2005-07 biennium, about $44.8 million was spent on ferry system consultants. About three-fourths of that money went to people who were designing and planning expensive upgrades to terminals in Edmonds, Mukilteo, Whidbey Island and elsewhere, records show.
Many of the consultants, although employed by private companies, worked from desks and at ferry system headquarters in Seattle.
That’s changing.
Ferry officials expect to end the 2007-09 budget period having spent about $19.8 million on consultants, said Jean Baker, deputy chief of finance and administration for the ferry system.
Overall, that is more than a 50 percent reduction in consultant spending. The biggest cuts are in terminal projects, where money for consultants has been shrunk to one-fourth the previous level.
There are now 27 on-site consultants at the ferry system. That’s half as many who worked there in 2005. Those who remain are being scrutinized carefully to make certain the skills they bring are critical, and not somehow available elsewhere in the ferry system.
Of the 45 consulting contracts the ferry system still has on the books, nearly a dozen have been inactive for at least six months.
“We are keeping what we need to keep the fleet going,” Baker said.
Time was that people whose work revolves around ferry system terminals filled two floors in the Seattle office building that houses ferry system headquarters. Enough on-site consultants have seen ferry jobs disappear that terminal workers now fit into a single floor. The emptied office space is being sublet to transportation planners working on the Highway 520 bridge project, said Marta Coursey, communications director for the ferry system.
The changes reflect a renewed focus on making sure the ferry system has the boats it needs to continue to operate.
“It’s all vessels, vessels, vessels now,” Coursey said.
Concerns about the ferry system caught widespread attention in November 2007.
That’s when Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, then only months in the job, ordered the four oldest ferries in the fleet pulled from service. She said there were too many concerns about the Steel Electric-class vessels, particularly related to the integrity of their then-80-year-old hulls.
Hull corrosion problems were found on other vessels, too, triggering emergency repairs and forcing service reductions. State lawmakers responded in part by stepping up efforts to scrutinize ferry system spending.
They were particularly critical that millions of dollars were spent designing new terminals while the aging fleet received far less attention.
Ferry officials now are recommending construction of five new boats: three Island Home-style vessels that would carry 64 cars each, and two bigger ferries capable of carrying 144 vehicles each. Although the ferry system has legislative approval and money to begin building some of those boats, shipyards have yet to begin cutting steel.
Herald Writer Jerry Cornfield contributed to this report.
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