Watching Our Water Ways

When I wrote my recent progress report on the Puget Sound Partnership, my story included little more than brief quotes and snippits of information from a variety of informed people. It is somewhat rewarding to have a blog where I can bring you more complete impressions of the people I interviewed. Here is the fifth in a series of expanded reports from those interviews.

Puget Sound may be suffering ecologically at this point in history, but the Puget Sound Partnership would do best by explaining in a positive way how things can be improved, said state Rep. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island.

“Don’t spend your time trying to bum people out,” she told me when I asked her to offer some advice to the partnership. “Focus on bringing people together to make it better. We all want more fish, more birds, more parks. How do we engage people to make it happen? I would say to them, ‘stay creative, stay positive and think local.’”

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When I wrote my recent progress report on the Puget Sound Partnership, my story included little more than brief quotes and snippits of information from a variety of informed people. It is somewhat rewarding to have a blog where I can bring you more complete impressions of the people I interviewed. Here is the fourth in a series of expanded reports from those interviews.

State Sen. Phil Rockefeller is closely associated with the unique structure of the Puget Sound Partnership, with its three governing panels and a carrot-and-stick approach that does not rely on regulatory authority.

Rockefeller grew up in New York and graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. After active duty in the Air Force, he moved to Washington state and served in the legal department of the Weyerhaeuser Company.

In 1967, Rockefeller took a staff job with Congress , serving with the House Committee on Education and Labor. From there, he went to the executive branch in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, returning to Washington state with the federal agency in 1970. His positions included regional commissioner for the U.S. Office of Education and regional administrator for the Office of Student Financial Assistance.

Phil worked as an education aide for Gov. John Spellman from 1981 to 1984, then returned to the U.S. Department of Education until his retirement in 1994.

Rockefeller served in the state House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005 and then was elected to the Senate, where he is serving his second term. He chairs the Environment, Water and Energy Committee.

After creation of the partnership in 2007, Phil was appointed to serve as the Democratic senator on the Ecosystem Coordination Board. (The Republican senator position was recently filled by Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island.)

Phil told me in our interview that he still supports the idea behind the Puget Sound Partnership, which is that good things can happen if smart people work together.

“I still believe it’s a good model,” he said. “It focuses on collaboration. We should not have a super agency that does everything.”

In my review of the partnership, I did not focus on public education, saving that for another story. But Sen. Rockefeller says an informed public is an important key to success:

“To be successful, the public needs to understand the challenges and the priorities as well as the progress and any issues that have arisen in trying to make progress. The only way this can succeed is if the public is well informed. It’s a huge task to do the outreach.

“It is a challenge, in part, because of the budget situation. When you talk about organized outreach, some people want to chop that off. I can understand that. But if they do, they need to find other ways to communicate with the public.”

Rockefeller is more sensitive than most when it comes to the structure of the partnership. After all, he has explained it time and again. As I quoted him in my story:

“To this day, critics of the partnership complain that it is another regulatory agency. I’m tired of hearing people trash the partnership when it has no such power.”

Rockefeller did say he is looking forward to seeing the performance audit at the end of the year by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, which could be followed by a legislative discussion about how to revise the structure and function of the partnership.

“I think it may be time to do a legislative review to see if we’ve given them more than they can chew. It is a huge task we have given them. Maybe we can simplify things in some way now that we have an Action Agenda.”

It’s worth pointing out that the original legislation suggested that the Puget Sound Partnership would identify “partners,” which would be governments, agencies and organizations that prove they can get the job done. Partners would have a leg up on getting funding for their projects.

The legislation also includes a process for identifying governments and agencies failing to carry out their responsibilities. An appeals process is included to make sure that such groups are treated fairly.

Some of these finer tools provided to the partnership have not yet been employed. I expect they will make their way into the light of day in the next year or so or else be refined or eliminated during the legislative review.

Phil said last year’s audit by the Washington State Auditor’s Office, along with stories surrounding it, was a setback for the credibility of the partnership.

“I think it suffered a bit in the closing months of the previous director (David Dicks), because of some issues raised in association with his actions. But they were more personal than institutional. I think the agency has taken steps to correct the flaws and defects that came out of that.”

In the end, he said, the audit process did the correct job of bringing problems out into the light and getting them corrected. The partnership is now back on track, he said, and is producing solid information needed for the restoration of the Puget Sound ecosystem.

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Now this is a coincidence. When I wrote my recent progress report on the Puget Sound Partnership, my story included little more than brief quotes and snippits of information from a variety of informed people. That’s why I began this series called “The PSP Interviews.” I was preparing to write up this interview with Gerry O’Keefe this weekend when I learned that Gov. Chris Gregoire had named him as the permanent director of the Puget Sound Partnership on Friday.

Gerry O’Keefe’s first impressions of the Puget Sound region came shortly after he began graduate school work at the University of Washington in 1984.

“Some of my first memories are of riding the #44 bus across 45th Street and looking out the window and seeing the mountains,” he said.

O’Keefe worked in the state budget office from 1989 to 1997 and then became engaged in budget issues at the Washington Department of Ecology. Before he left Ecology in 2008, he had tackled major water-resource discussions focused on the Columbia River. Coming up with an overall agreement on water resources required him to bring together diverse interests, including local government, business owners and tribes.

In 2008, O’Keefe went to work for the Grant County Public Utility District, where he oversaw a $1-billion environmental program, largely an effort to mitigate for the effects of dams on salmon populations.

“I like to be oriented around solutions and trying to help people get their money’s worth,” O’Keefe told me.
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When I wrote my recent progress report on the Puget Sound Partnership, my story included little more than brief quotes and snippits of information from a variety of informed people. It is somewhat rewarding to have a blog where I can bring you more complete impressions of the people I interviewed. Here is the second in a series of expanded reports from those interviews.

Dave Herrera, one of two vice chairmen of the Ecosystem Coordination Board, is one of three tribal representatives on the 27-member board. The other tribal reps are David Trout of the Nisqually Tribe and Randy Kinley of the Lummi Nation.

Herrera currently serves as “fisheries policy representative” for the Skokomish Tribe. His career started with the tribe as a hatcheries technician in 1975 following the landmark Boldt Decision. He was 18. He worked as fisheries manager from 1979 to 1982 before leaving tribal employment. Dave later worked for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and Point No Point Treaty Council before returning to the tribe in 1996, where he has remained one of the tribe’s top fisheries managers.

Dave is a member of the Skokomish Tribe. His mother grew up on the Skokomish Reservation. His father was in the military, so Dave moved around with his family at a young age. He spent many of his early years in Tacoma.

Herrera has been an excellent spokesman for the Skokomish Tribe and tribes in general. For the Puget Sound Partnership story, I interviewed him by phone while he was in Washington, D.C., working to advance salmon restoration. Unfortunately, I could not fit his comments into my final story, but I’m now pleased to report his views on the partnership.

“It is fair to say,” Dave told me, “that the tribal representatives would like to see things moving faster than they are.”
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When I wrote my recent progress report on the Puget Sound Partnership, my story included little more than brief quotes and snippits of information from a variety of informed people. It is somewhat rewarding to have a blog where I can bring you more complete impressions of the people I interviewed. Here is the first in a series of expanded reports from those interviews.

Martha Kongsgaard took over as chairwoman of the Puget Sound Partnership in July of last year, when Bill Ruckelshaus retired from the position. Martha previously was vice chairwoman. See news release, July 20.

Martha Kongsgaard

Although I had interviewed Ruckelshaus many times over the years, this was the first major interview I conducted with Kongsgaard, best known as the founder of the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation. The foundation supports various nonprofit environmental, social justice and arts organizations throughout the Northwest. She has served on boards and committees of Earthjustice, Islandwood, the Future of the Law Institute and Friends of the Methow.

Martha grew up in Napa, Calif., where her family raised cattle and operated vineyards. In 1988, she married Peter Goldman and collaborated with him to establish the foundation that carries their names.

In our interview, Kongsgaard said a lot of frustration has been expressed around the goal of cleaning up Puget Sound by 2020. While that may be a goal to “agitate around,” the effort to protect and restore Puget Sound will be ongoing, no matter how much is accomplished by 2020, she said.
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We haven’t heard much from the Puget Sound Partnership for a while — unless you count the state auditor’s report last year. I thought it was about time to provide a progress report, including a discussion about whether this relatively new agency still holds support among legislators and other officials.

This was the concept behind my rather lengthy report in Sunday’s Kitsap Sun.

Frankly, I expected to hear more people express opposition to the concept of creating an agency with three distinct branches yet no regulatory authority. In establishing the partnership, the Legislature expected the agency to stand above the fray and wield the power of persuasion and scientific reasoning in promoting projects to restore the Puget Sound ecosystem.

Several people I interviewed mentioned “growing pains” in reference to the partnership, and many expressed optimism that the organization has been learning and is prepared to lead the way.

In the end, it seemed that the people who best understood the functions of the Puget Sound Partnership were the strongest supporters — although many supporters were disappointed that the partnership hadn’t moved faster in issuing some of its reports. But there was also recognition that the management systems being set up were not required by the enabling legislation and were taking time to develop. Many believed that these decision-making tools would provide a solid foundation for future decisions.
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UPDATE: Nov. 19
Readers may be interested in this commentary from Rep. Dave Upthegrove published Wednesday in the online Seattle PI. Upthegrove, a Democrat from Des Moines, was one of the principal authors of the legislation that created the Puget Sound Partnership.

In his statement, Upthegrove was complimentary of David Dicks:

During Dicks’ tenure at the helm of this new agency, he distinguished himself as a strong leader who was able to corral diverse interests to unite for a common goal: a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

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David Dicks will leave his post as executive director for the Puget Sound Partnership at the beginning of December to take a new position at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment. Check out my story in today’s Kitsap Sun.

To maintain David’s expertise on the partnership, Gov. Chris Gregoire has appointed him to the Puget Sound Leadership Council, the governing body of the organization.

From my perspective, David Dicks has been great to work with the past three years. Whenever I’ve had questions about something, he has taken time to explain things at great length. And his staffers were available at a moment’s notice. Even when the partnership ran into financial-management troubles with the State Auditor’s Office, David stepped up and explained how the problems occurred and what had been done to correct them.

Were all the answers about the audit complete and satisfactory? It’s hard to judge. But, as Sen. Phil Rockefeller told me yesterday, “David went through some tough times, and I think he emerged wiser and smarter. It’s a new day and a new ball game there now.”

I’m not sure David realized in 2007 what pressures he would be under when he took this high-profile job as the son of a U.S. congressman. It has been impossible for anyone to disprove the notion that he only got the job because he was Norm Dicks’ son.

His standing apart from his father was not helped by the fact that Norm was bringing big dollars into the state for Puget Sound restoration — even though Norm was doing that long before his son came on board and would have done that in any case.

David Dicks became the target for those who dislike his father’s politics as well as those who believe the Puget Sound Partnership is a waste of time and money.

The question remains: Given these circumstances, was it ever a good idea to appoint David Dicks to lead this new agency?
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Hood Canal Coordinating Council is undertaking an effort to bring average residents into the discussion about how to preserve the Hood Canal ecosystem.

While Hood Canal is becoming known for its low-oxygen problem and occasional fish kills, it’s good to remember that the canal remains famous for its shrimp, oysters and crabs. Furthermore, history tells us that the canal once abounded in sealife, including all kinds of salmon and bottomfish.

Can the canal ever come close to its heyday? I don’t know, but plenty of people would like to give it a try. (By the way, if you want to argue that the problems are caused entirely by over-fishing, we’ll need to discuss individual species — including those that aren’t harvested at all.)

The underlying premise of the Hood Canal Integrated Watershed Management Plan is that people can find ways to benefit from a healthy ecosystem, that natural processes — including the survival of plants and animals — can continue without wrecking the lifestyles of humans. Check out my story in the Kitsap Sun Oct. 26 for an overview of this project.

The vision for this approach is articulated in a document called “Development of Ecological and Socioeconomic Targets” (PDF 60 kb). The vision section begins with a short, positive statement:

Humans benefit from and coexist sustainably with a healthy Hood Canal.

The document goes on to elaborate on the vision within various goals, consistent with goals of the Puget Sound Partnership:
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In some ways, the recession we are going through has been very good for Puget Sound, at least if we’re talking about ecosystem restoration.

Gov. Chris Gregoire spies an eagle flying over Oakland Bay during Friday’s media tour.
Kitsap Sun photo by Larry Steagall

In an effort to stimulate the economy and create jobs, Congress appropriated lots of money for projects that were ready or nearly ready to be built. The Puget Sound Partnership lists 614 projects with a price tag of $460 million since 2008. An estimated 15,640 jobs were created in the process, according to the PSP.

But the recession also helped another way. It turns out that when restoration and public-works projects were put out to bid, most of them came in well under their original estimates. Contractors apparently needed the work so badly that they were willing to cut their profit margins and compete hard for the available work. That freed up money for additional projects.

On Friday, Gov. Chris Gregoire led a media tour to some of the projects being built with special federal and state appropriations. One was the Belfair sewage treatment plant, designed to remove nitrogen from Hood Canal to address the low-oxygen problem. Her message was that Puget Sound restoration must not be placed on the back burner until the recession is over.
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KUOW reporter John Ryan’s hard-hitting series about Puget Sound Partnership concluded today with a look at the findings of the Washington State Auditor’s Office. Today’s piece, like the entire series, emphasizes the mix of state business and personal connections of Executive Director David Dicks and his father, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks.

The first story focuses on a “whistle-blower” who brought allegations of impropriety to the attention of the state auditor; the second piece addresses David Dicks’ use of a state car; and the third deals with perceived conflicts of interest resulting from the senior Dicks funneling money to the Puget Sound Partnership.

No matter what you think of the Puget Sound Partnership, the series provides some important insights into the organization. I’m occupied by another project at the moment, but I’ll try to keep tabs on this issue and see how it plays out.

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