OLYMPIA — Gov. Christine Gregoire now plans to release a proposal for investigating the closure of the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard project in Port Angeles and the loss of $58.8 million.
That was the word from state Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, following a extended meeting with the governor on Friday, a day after her spokesman said the governor was dropping discussions about an investigative task force.
“The governor very much is going to look into what in the world happened and how did we get there,” Kessler said.
In addition, state Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, and the state House Transportation Committee asked the Transportation Performance Audit Board to investigate the graving yard controversy.
Also, companion bills instroduced in the state Senate and House of Representatives would make Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald’s position a Cabinet seat subject to hiring and firing by the governor.
Kessler and Gregoire met after Gregoire spokesman Jerry Gilliland on Thursday said that the governor had backed away from the possibility of naming a task force and was referring the issue to the state Department of Transportation, which managed the project, and the state Transportation Commission, which oversees the agency.
The governor — in an interview published Jan. 28 in the Peninsula Daily News in which she noted that “with $59 million lost, clearly taxpayers are entitled to some answers” — said she would approach state legislators about forming a task force to investigate the closing of graving yard.
But the North Olympic Peninsula’s three legislators said Friday that Gregoire never contacted them.
Gilliland told the PDN that instead of a task force he understood that Transportation would hold a public meeting in Port Angeles.
But Transportation officials told the PDN that they had no such plans.
Friday meeting
“I did visit with Gov. Gregoire for quite a while [on Friday] and talked about the graving yard in great detail,” said Kessler.
“I got a message from the governor’s office late Friday afternoon saying the plan will be ready on Monday.”
Kessler said she discouraged the governor from proposing a large public meeting, which has the potential to turn into a tribal-bashing session.
Kessler proposed continuing instead with broad-based private meetings with legislators, state Transportation officials, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, city of Port Angeles and other agencies, similar to one held Wednesday in Olympia.
Kessler, along with Buck and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, expressed surprise after Gregoire backed away from the Jan. 28 statement saying she would contact them.
The governor did not talk with Kessler, Hargrove or Buck before Friday.
“The governor certainly is planning to proceed with some process but a huge public meeting would be unruly,” said Kessler.
“I said a smaller more controlled meeting would continue the process begun Wednesday night,” she said.
Kessler said some of the questions that any investigation must answer include how the project went as far as it did, why some agencies or officials who could have raised red flags about the project site weren’t consulted — and why state and local officials were left out of negotiations that followed the archaeological discoveries.
New facilitator?
Kessler also suggested Gregoire find another facilitator to replace Tim Thompson, a former aide to Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, who, she said, has “some baggage from previous issues such as the Hoh River.”
“The governor has someone in mind,” Kessler said.
“She’s actually been very responsive on this. She didn’t realize that was a problem.”
Thompson has been hired by Transportation to work with the Lower Elwha tribe to determine the future of the graving yard site.
Kessler said she supports the House Transportation Committee’s request to have the Transportation Performance Audit Board investigate the graving yard situation.
“I’m all for that. I want to get to the bottom of this, too. We’ve audited DOT before, that’s not new.
“It’s part of this ongoing investigation of how to avoid this situation and who’s responsible.”
Gregoire also strongly reiterated her support — stated to the Peninsula Daily News a week earlier — for relocating the graving yard project in Clallam or Jefferson counties, Kessler said.
“Sending the project elsewhere was not the governor’s understanding at all.”
She told MacDonald she wanted it on the North Olympic Peninsula if at all possible, Kessler added.
Another investigation
Following the governor’s statement that she intended to pursue a more public-meetings-based approach run by Transportation officials and the State Transportation Commission, Buck and the state House Transportation Committee asked the Transportation Performance Audit Board to investigate the graving yard situation.
“It absolutely surprised everyone,” said Buck.
“This is the second time they have made a unilateral decision without talking to us about it. It’s getting old.
“It’s not saying much about cooperative relations between the branches of state government.
“Now it’s up to Transportation Performance Audit Board, which is separate from Transportation Commission, to tell us what they are going to about it.”