The Port of Vancouver is a publicly funded public agency pursuing a public trust. It’s offensive that the commissioners and administration seem to be conniving at keeping the public ignorant.
I have served on a state agency the past 10 years; there we understand and accept that we live in a fishbowl. The port, however, acts as if the public live underground, in the dark. This problem is so persistent, so apparently rooted in the port’s flawed culture, that I don’t believe that the voting public has any alternative but to replace all the commissioners so that a new board can select a different CEO, who will manage the way a public trust should be managed.
I question whether decisions reached in meetings and processes that frustrate and circumvent the law should be permitted to stand; it may be appropriate to restart the process so that the issues can be debated in the light of day.
This issue of transparency has nothing to do with oil or coal trains. It has nothing to do with progress, jobs, or economic growth. It has to do with following the law of the state of Washington, which mandates open meetings. Our state enjoys a deserved reputation for having relatively clean government. Let’s make sure that our own agency, here in our own community, toes the line and plays by the rules of the game.
