With a decision on where Boeing will build the 7E7 expected as soon as this month, tension was already high in Snohomish County. Now, with longtime Boeing veteran Phil Condit out as chairman and chief executive, replaced for the moment by former McDonnell Douglas chairman Harry Stonecipher, someone might want to put anxiety medication in the water.
But concern over what Condit’s resignation means to the 7E7 assembly siting probably overestimates the role emotion will play in the decision. Even if Condit were pulling for Everett (and don’t forget, it was on Condit’s watch that the company’s headquarters moved to Chicago), the company has been clear that its decision will be based on sound economics, not warm feelings.
That’s why Everett’s chances of landing the 7E7 may be no worse today than they were last week. And there’s every reason to believe that its bid is competitive. Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature made bold moves this year to improve the state’s business climate and offer Boeing an attractive incentive package. State, county, city and port officials have done what was necessary to push an important new pier toward reality. Lawmakers took a first step toward fixing traffic congestion.
Whether Boeing decides to assemble the 7E7 here or elsewhere, these moves reflect a positive turn for Washington, one that will make the state more attractive to other employers.
For the short term, the 767 tanker program means almost as much to us as the 7E7. The Pentagon’s controversial order for 100 of the Everett-built airplanes was thrown into jeopardy again last week with the firing of two high-level Boeing officials for ethical improprieties. Coming on the heels of a scandal involving the theft of trade secrets over rocket contracts, the tanker mess apparently became too much for Boeing’s board of directors to take. A board that has demanded greater financial accountability in recent years now is demanding ethical accountability as well. That, of course, is how it should be.
For Snohomish County, though, the sense of relative security that came from having a longtime Puget Sound resident at Boeing’s helm is gone. Alan Mulally, Boeing’s commercial airplanes boss, would make a fine CEO, but the board has decided to pull Stonecipher out of retirement to run things for the time being.
Stonecipher is reputed to be a tough, bottom-line guy who favors emphasizing the company’s space and military business over commercial airplane production. That might lead some to wonder whether the 7E7 program will even move forward now, but with all the progress that’s been made, a no-go appears all but unthinkable.
The question isn’t if, but where. And this region has done all it reasonably can do to make the answer Everett.
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