WSF weirds out yet again
Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - November 18, 2008Last week we saw the fiasco over bids for the new Island Home-class ferries, and it was a beaut. The state estimated $95.9 million for a matched set while Todd Shipyard submitted a bid of $124.5 for the pair.
Sheesh...with numbers like these, why not get new ferries down at the rent-to-own place?
Now, however, word comes from consultant Kathy Scanlon of the Cedar River Group, in a presentation to the ferry financing group of the Joint Legislative Transportation Committee, that not only should the state go ahead with two Island Homes, it should do four while, at the same time, deep-sixing any new 144-car boats for at least 10 years.
Read about it in the Kitsap Sun: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/nov/17/consultant-recommends-changing-ferry-building/
Admittedly, Scanlon did recommend opening up bidding to out-of-state shipyards, an idea that was received by some members of the legislature in a manner akin to swallowing large shards of broken glass. Still, however, she's juicing a boat design that has more negative baggage associated with it than...well...than...
OK, OK, OK...let's just say that it sets new standards for negative baggage.
Rep. Larry Seaquist, D - Gig Harbor, is quoted as blaming the excessively high bids not on more expensive raw materials and labor, but on the design of the boat itself. In the Sun article, he says, "It (opening up the bidding) suggests that our yards are inefficient and pay too much...It's simply not true. The problem is that designers inside the ferry system are designing boats that cost too much."
Mulling over that statement for several moments reveals just how pregnant with non-sequiturs it is.
Change the design all you want, but the fact remains that local-only bids will still reflect local-only wages and raw material prices. Well, duh!
Why not let a couple out-of-staters in just to compare prices? Or is the in-state-only crowd too chicken to take up the challenge? Do they have to get permission from their contributors in organized labor first?
Cheesy beyond belief.
And tossing the 144-car boats down the stairs is reminiscent of a scene from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" The only thing missing is the wheelchair.
What happened to that design being the future of the WSF fleet? Instead, it's to be supplanted by the dicey 64-car Island Home-class. Rumor has it that in some foreign languages, the word for Island Home is Edsel.
While we're at it...since Kathy Scanlon and Cedar River Group, not the legislature or folks at WSF, seem to be making all the decisions for the Ferry System, why not cut out the middlemen/women and give the whole business to them? After all, they sold the state on the Island Home design in the first place (after being sold on it themselves by a select few at WSF - a very select few).
After direction from the Washington Legislature in 2001 and again in 2003 to get cracking and build some boats, the people are left with this. Frankly, the whole sorry mess makes Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere look farsighted, statesmanlike, and prudent by comparison.
Here's a thought: Maybe instead of trying to rehab a fundamentally unsound house by painting the bathroom cabinets and putting in new lightbulbs, it's time to raze the place and start a fresh - under new, private ownership.
Can't wait to see what tomorrow's paper brings.
The Piper
Thoughts? Add Comment -
Una Noche said on Nov 18 2008 at 9:01am
Ah, private ownership. I don't know if I can imagine a time and a place when WSF bureaucrats and labor unions will ever allow their cash cow to go away to a more efficient future.
But I've been wrong before.
NWconservative said on Nov 18 2008 at 1:17pm
I'm a member of the union, and I'm here to help you.
Glitchus said on Nov 19 2008 at 11:57am
Dear Christine could turn the the WSF over to her Native American buddies who in turn could run them as floating casinos...at least they might turn out to be profitable, and maybe even efficient.