Where accountability is lacking

To listen to Republicans in the Legislature, there’s an accountability problem in state government.

It’s why majority Republicans and the one Democrat who caucuses with them ousted Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson on Friday by voting to reject her nomination for the post that she has held for three years. And it’s why Dan Pacholke, secretary of the Department of Corrections, sensing he might be next, resigned his post a day later. Pacholke was appointed to his office in October when Gov. Jay Inslee asked him to delay his retirement from the agency he had served for 33 years.

“I hope it helps meet your need for blood,” Pacholke wrote to a Republican senator, The Herald’s Jerry Cornfield reported Saturday.

Dramatic, sure, but not without reason to Democrats in Olympia who believe Peterson’s firing and the reported recent badgering of Pacholke before a joint committee meeting have more to do with election year politics than fixing problems in state government.

Pacholke inherited the mess involving a software failure that led to the state releasing more than 3,200 prisoners earlier than intended since 2002 because they were given time off for good behavior they were ineligible for. It was a problem that the agency was alerted to in 2012 during his predecessor’s tenure.

Like Pacholke, Peterson also inherited a problem-plagued agency. Among Transportation’s higher-profile struggles were delays on the Highway 520 floating bridge, the oft-stalled Highway 99 tunneling project in Seattle and most recently the high-occupancy toll lanes on I-405 between Lynnwood and Bellevue.

Only the I-405 toll lane delays occurred on Peterson’s watch, but the lanes were a project supported by Democrats and Republicans when pitched in 2011. Peterson’s department moved to fix problems with traffic delays after the lanes were first added late last year. Bus commuters and drivers were seeing shorter commutes in the morning, but drivers in northbound lanes are delayed near I-405’s bottleneck at Bothell during the evening commute. The construction of a direct-access interchange in Bothell might have solved the issue, but legislators didn’t include the funding in the transportation package passed last year.

What Peterson was responsible for was the quick response of her agency to restore two vital transportation links following the 2014 Oso landslide to rebuild Highway 530 and the replacement of the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River after a over-height truck caused its collapse in 2013.

Fishing for a reason to dismiss her, Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, went as far as calling Peterson “a racist” because the state Civil Rights Coalition sent a letter to the speaker of the House regarding concerns over agency policies on contracting with minority-owned businesses. That’s a long distance to travel even when you’re talking about transportation. Schoesler didn’t apologize but later said he regretted what he had said.

As well, Peterson was dismissed without being given an opportunity to defend her record, nor was she given the chance to resign or withdraw her nomination.

The high-profile dismissal could reflect poorly on the stability of the state’s transportation department and its projects, including the $16 billion package that Peterson help the Legislature assemble last year. The state is preparing to seek bonds to cover the first projects in that package, and the turmoil could be seen as a problem by investment firms and could result in higher interest costs for the state.

Including the departure of Kevin Quigley, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, itself in the process of reforms, the state’s three largest agencies will be left with interim chiefs for months. Finding permanent replacements may have to wait until after the November election. Even then the ranks of qualified applicants may be thinned by a reluctance to deal with the current turmoil here.

Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, made clear his intentions in a tweet after Peterson’s firing: “Note to other Inslee Appointees: Shape up, Do your job. Serve the people w/accountability. Or more heads are going to roll.”

Recall that the state Senate’s current plans would give itself two more years to fix funding of basic education for K-12 schools and end the reliance on local school levies. And remember the $100,000-a-day fine the state Supreme Court levied against the Legislature last year because it has failed to come up with an adequate plan.

That’s good advice, senator.

Talk to us

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Friday, June 9

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Phlebotomist Heather Evans preps JaNeen Aagaard a donation at Bloodworks NW Friday afternoon in Everett at July 3o, 2021.  (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Editorial: Get back in (or start) your habit of giving blood

The pandemic’s effects and fewer younger donors too often leave blood supplies dangerously low.

Lummi Tribal members Ellie Kinley, left, and Raynell Morris, president and vice president of the non-profit Sacred Lands Conservancy known as Sacred Sea, lead a prayer for the repatriation of southern resident orca Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut — who has lived and performed at the Miami Seaquarium for over 50 years — to her home waters of the Salish Sea at a gathering Sunday, March 20, 2022, at the sacred site of Cherry Point in Whatcom County, Wash.

The Bellingham Herald
Editorial: What it will require to bring Tokitae home

Bringing home the last captive orca requires expanded efforts to restore the killer whales’ habitat.

A map of the I-5/SR 529 Interchange project on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Set your muscle memory for work zone speed cameras

Starting next summer, not slowing down in highway work zones can result in a $500 fine.

Schwab: Hope for democracy among Trump’s challengers? If only

Somewhere in the multiverse, there’s a world where Republicans embrace sanity and science. This isn’t it.

Comment: One-time Biden accuser now in the ‘safe’ hands of Russia

Writers for The New York Times and others gave Tara Reade their credulity. Do they now regret it?

Comment: GOP field isn’t crazy to run against Trump, DeSantis

Those are the front-runners, but a lot can happen in the next year as the campaign presses on.

Comment: Supreme Court ruling hints at affirmative action outcome

The majority’s ruling against district maps in Alabama offers a look into two justices’ thinking.

Comment: Twitter is dead; Musk should bring on its replacement

Left with a devalued social media forum, Musk now needs to make wholesale changes to what it does.

Most Read