More Money for Harbor-Works?
Harbor-Works Public Development Authority is planning to ask for an additional $1 million. They want a loan of $500,000 from the Port of Port Angeles and from the City of Port Angeles.
They’re also anticipating a $200,000 grant from the Department of Ecology.
The City and the Port have each loaned $150,000 already to Harbor-Works for startup costs. The Harbor-Works budget includes $277,200 for administration, $185,000 for projects, $100,000 for reserves and $174,000 for legal.
They’re using the law firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, which specializes in tribal issues.
They’re also anticipating a $200,000 grant from the Department of Ecology.
The City and the Port have each loaned $150,000 already to Harbor-Works for startup costs. The Harbor-Works budget includes $277,200 for administration, $185,000 for projects, $100,000 for reserves and $174,000 for legal.
They’re using the law firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, which specializes in tribal issues.
Labels: Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, Harbor-Works Department of Ecology, Harbor-Works loan Port of Port Angeles, Harbor-Works Public Development Authority
posted by Tom Harper at 2:32 PM
8 Comments:
I could barely read that article... "Lincoln said, he said, Lincoln said, he said, Lincoln said..."
"I have a reputation for not spending a single dollar that doesn't need spent," he said.
"need spent"?
I really wish the PDN would do a bit of investigative reporting, or at least use more than one source. The article is about a loan; how will that loan be repaid? Where will the city get the money for this?
At least it does talk about the Tribe, but do they have anything to say about this? How will this affect our NOAA bid? Lincoln says the HarborWorks budget will get more difficult to predict as time goes on. Why? What difficulties does he foresee? Is there likely to be a huge spike in budget? Who will pay for that? How? He stopped the legal fees; great. Will that come back to bite us later? He says the tribe could claim the land. How likely is that to happen? What will happen to the entire project if it does?
The article goes on to talk about how the budget is broken down. In fact, quite a lot of the article is about that. Is this relevant enough to devote that much space to it?
The article starts by mentioning a meeting. Is the article just bullet points from that meeting? It sure seems like it. It reads more like a Power Point presentation with some quotes thrown in.
I'll stop here before I turn to the PDN web site. Sorry to turn this into a critique of the PDN. I just have a lot of questions about this and I'm not getting answers.
Harbor Works should never have been created in the first place. Just when you think you have seen it all.....
Let's see. By pushing the other ancient village site as an appropriate place for the state to build the " Graving Dock", the PDN tells us the taxpayers footed the $90 million to bail out the city/state. Port Angeles got $7.5 million for "economic development" (plus other monies for "lost jobs" and such), so now they are using that money to push the state (Dept of Ecology and other public/taxpayer grant funding entities) into a similar situation, again. Looks like a bit of a pattern!
"They’re using the law firm of Gordon Thomas Honeywell LLP, which specializes in tribal issues."
Here is a quote from their website:
"In the Puyallup Indian Land and Jurisdictional Claims Settlement, one of the largest Indian settlements in the country, the Resource Strategies Group served as the lead negotiator representing Pierce County, the Port of Tacoma, the cities of Tacoma, Fife and Puyallup, and private landowners and businesses. Spanning six years, this complex, multi-party effort required identification of the key issues and claims to be resolved, legal and historical research, strategic and policy planning, and the involvement and commitment of all affected parties. The negotiations resulted in a comprehensive $162 million settlement package approved and funded by the U.S. Congress, the Washington State legislature, local governments, and private parties, in exchange for the Puyallup Indian Tribe's agreement to relinquish claims to large expanses of land in the Tacoma area. Key to this success was our ability to build and maintain relationships, understand the needs of each party, and develop creative solutions throughout the process."
Where did the HarborWorks Exec Dir. come from? Not Tacoma, was it?
So, what kind of "settlement package" do you think has been planned for, and who will be the primary beneficiaries? Who do you think the "private landowners and businesses" are that this law firm will be representing?
I smells a rat ...
Maybe they should just call it "The Trough for the Special Few", or, "Money for Nothing, and..."
Remember that $7.5 mill the state gave the city for " economic development" after the Graving Dock fiasco/scam? According to todays' PDN, it is now down to $6 mill. "Myers said any additional loans from the city would come from the same fund. About $6 million is left in the fund, he said." Perfect!
They got a "loan" a few months ago for $300,000 from the City and the Port, and now they are back again, asking for more "loans".
"Lincoln said the goal is to pay back all of the loans through development of the property.." What if the property cannot be developed?
Remember Orville Campbells' statements in the PDN a few months back? "Archaeological research must be conducted, a final cleanup plan must be written and an economic analysis conducted, Campbell said.
"All we are doing is going through this whole thing to determine whether or not this whole thing is feasible or not," Campbell said." "No one can say it's developable or not developable until we've done all that..." (PDN Feb 8th '09)
Now, I think it would serve the taxpayers well to do the thorough archaeological surveys FIRST, BEFORE vast amounts of money is spent. Kinda like doing a thorough home inspection before one buys a house.
But, that assumes that what the public is being told, is true. "Harbor-Works board Chairman Orville Campbell said he could not answer how confident he is that the site can be developed." But Lincoln is asking for additional millions saying the loans will be paid back by developments on the property. Maybe they should get their stories straight before talking to reporters.
A rat? I think there is more than a rat at play, here..
A loan? Who is going to pay the loan back? Is Harbor Works a money making thing?
Actually, if you paid attention to the breakdown of what the money is for more than half of it goes to administrating and legal fees.
Those administrators think they deserve big wages, don't you know. What I want to know is what Jeff Lincoln is getting paid for 'serving us'.
Well, that's a good question Anon 6:58. Poking around on the Harbor-Works website, I can't find an itemized budget (oh, there's a surprise *rolls eyes*), but I did find a Power Point presentation with this tidbit...
"- $300,000 is approximately one man-year of labor for a
senior level engineer or environmental project manager
- Our costs will include testing, evaluation, data analysis,
cost estimating, etc., as well as appraisals by senior staff
that can cost as much as $200/hour"
It does say administrative costs are budgeted at $277,200 for 2009, and $354,900 for 2010.
$200/hour... Wow, I am in the wrong business. I can understand spending some upfront costs on legal fees, to make sure this is all handled properly and won't fall apart at the end. And I'd understand paying archaeologists and specialists in ecological cleanup to evaluate the site and find out exactly what needs to be done. But... still... wow.
Wow $200 bucks buys a lot of hookers in this town.....so the question remains, what would you do with 25 $8.00 toothless meth hags?
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