Ferry Advisory Committee Changes Removed From Bill
February 9th, 2010 by ed friedrichAnn Erickson, chairwoman of the Bremerton Ferry Advisory
Committee, e-mailed a letter to the editor on Jan. 29 lamenting
changes to the ferry advisory committees contained within Senate
Bill 6109. Much changed between then and when the letter ran in the
paper on Feb. 6. All mention of the committees was removed from the
bill, according to Chris Mulick, spokesman for the Senate
Democrats.
“I’m told that the ferry bill doesn’t do anything to impact the
Ferry Advisory Committee,” he wrote on Feb. 1. “That’s not to say
that won’t change. but as of this moment in time, there is no
impact. Or so I’m told.”
The bill is a hodgepodge of all things ferries. That had included
the FAC changes. Erickson was upset that it would have eliminated
the direct relationship between the FACs and Washington State
Ferries. Instead, the FACs would work through local
governments.
It would have eliminated the semi-annual public meetings. WSF would
have meet with local governments instead. It would have eliminated
the FAC executive council, comprising the chairs of each FAC. They
meet every other month with WSF. And it would have required local
officials to serve on FACs and constrain who local officials could
assign to the FACs.
This makes little sense because the FACs have been doing a good job
of working with the ferry system and local governments already have
too much to do and wouldn’t have been eager to carry out another
responsibility.
The bill remains alive in the Senate, without the FAC stuff.
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