Harbor-Works Being Reviewed By State Again
The State Auditor’s Office is again planning to review whether Harbor-Works was created illegally.
According to spokeswoman Mindy Chambers, the Auditor’s Office has received new information which might change their previous conclusion that had cleared the City and Port of Port Angeles of any wrongdoing.
Port Angeles residents Shirley Nixon and Norma Turner, who filed the earlier complaint about Harbor-Works, have provided the new information which has caused the State Auditor’s Office to re-examine the issue.
They’re alleging that the city and port both violated the state Open Public Meetings Act when Harbor-Works was created in May of 2008.
According to spokeswoman Mindy Chambers, the Auditor’s Office has received new information which might change their previous conclusion that had cleared the City and Port of Port Angeles of any wrongdoing.
Port Angeles residents Shirley Nixon and Norma Turner, who filed the earlier complaint about Harbor-Works, have provided the new information which has caused the State Auditor’s Office to re-examine the issue.
They’re alleging that the city and port both violated the state Open Public Meetings Act when Harbor-Works was created in May of 2008.
Labels: Harbor-Works, Mindy Chambers, Norma Turner, Shirley Nixon, State Auditor’s Office, state Open Public Meetings Act
posted by Tom Harper at 8:26 PM
21 Comments:
If it's found to have been formed illegally, do they have to pay back the umpteen gazillion dollars they've borrowed from everyone?
Kudos to Shirley and Norma, for the work they have done to expose how Harbor Works was created illegally.
I hope the State Auditor's Office makes Harbor works dissolve.
Will the State Auditor please do their job this time, and not turn a blind eye to pertinent information that was turned over to them?
Well, as much as I agree with the above posts, and think HarborWorks is a total scam, I'm not holding my breath about it being dissolved. As was stated in the article, the Auditors' Office has no enforcement powers, and it is up to the city council and the Port of PA to dissolve what they created.
Are YOU holding your breath?
The following would be laughable, if it were not such an indictment of the leadership in Port Angeles, and the obvious behind-the-scenes dealings it reveals:
( these are quotes from todays' PDN)
"In the interest of open government and communication with other council members, if you had such a concern, why not bring it to the attention of all the council members?" Rogers asked, before quickly reiterating, "I repeat: Why not?"
"Braun told Kidd that any such letters should had gone through him, as mayor, first."
They sound SO sincere, and concerned, right?
But then we read more:
"Rogers was the sole representative of the City Council in discussions with the port on creating Harbor-Works, although most of her colleagues were unaware of her involvement while that work was being done.
Only Braun has said that he was informed of her role at the time.
But Rogers had been apparently assigned to that role before it was brought to Braun's attention.
In a May 5, 2008 e-mail to then-City Manager Mark Madsen, Rogers wrote:
"Have you mentioned the PDA Charter meeting to the Mayor? I need to have concurrence with him about me being assigned to this? If he comes into City Hall this am, maybe you both call me on my cell and we could get his post approval."
That message was sent after, according to an earlier e-mail from Madsen, that Rogers was invited to a April 30, 2008 joint city-port staff meeting on developing Harbor-Works' charter.
The e-mail invitation was not sent to the other City Council members."
OH! Gee Karen, where was that "interest in open government" when you were obviously secretly working to create HarborWorks WITHOUT ANY notice to your fellow council members. Gee Gary, why didn't you demand that " this go through you, the mayor, first"!?
Much less the public.
As we may remember, the HarborWorks docs were presented to the other council members "an hour" before they were to VOTE on it!!
This doesn't excuse the council for proceeding, although they WERE told there was "urgency" in its' approval/passage, and there was no time to wait.. or even for some of the council members to even READ what they were voting on.
Potentially the biggest project in Port Angeles, and its' planning gets done in secret.
Why do people not trust the local government?
we have no reason to trust the government -- state, county, local, or federal. It's because there is a history of LIES, and deceit, and forever trying to "pull the wool" over our eyes.
I'm sick of being lied to. My health insurance provider lies. My credit card company lies. My bank lies. My city government lies...
I'm sick as hell of it all.
The world is one big lie. Thanks so much local city council members....too bad you couldn't rise above it and do something right.
Harborworks is a scam, and we all know it.
So SO glad Karen Rogers is going away. I think she is poison to the healthy functioning of our city and its interests.
Some of the new candidates look promising.
Hip fraking HOORAY for the two women who managed to sniff out what the PDN wouldn't
Hope the Auditor's office does the right thing this time.
Remember Wendy Pugnetti - the former spokesperson for Rayonier in PA?
Her husband works for the state auditor's office. Wonder if he has any influence on how they handled this the first time.
Sure hope the Auditor's office can prove a firewall exists to prevent conflict of interest.
Norma Turner is a nutcase that wants to see the Rayonier property turned over to the underworked, over-government welfared tribe. So keep bad-mouthing Harborworks, and another source of good tax revenue for this area will go down the crapper of allowing the tribe to build a taxpayer-funded worthless, crappy "museum."
Why the Auditors' Office, if they have no powers? Where are the TEETH in all this? Clearly things involving real estate and BIG MONEY are being done by public officials in secret.
Send them to jail!
Rex sez:
"So keep bad-mouthing Harborworks, and another source of good tax revenue for this area will go down the crapper..."
Hey, Rex! "..Bad-mouthing HarborWorks.."? Since when is pointing out the secret dealings of public officials, that is being investigated by the State, " bad-mouthing"?
I would say it is the clearly questionable activities of the city's leadership that keep screwing things up in Port Angeles. It is "bad-mouthing" that has kept businesses from locating in Port Angeles. It isn't "bad-mouthing" that has kept the Rayonier property vacant for the last 10 years.
If you really want to make things better in Port Angeles, you have to first figure out why things HAVEN'T been working for the last however many years you want to count back.
It hasn't been for a lack of developable land, and a bunch of folks willing to wheel and deal to get their money!
Yaaaayyy for Shirley and Norma. Figures that it takes women to show some balls in this town.
Anonymous-
At least Harborworks may finally get the ball rolling to DO something with the property besides giving it to the lazy indians so they can build a worthless museum on it, or build another park that brings absolutely NO JOBS and NO tax revenue for the city!
do something?
Oh yeah, the city/powers that be visions are so bright. Lets see, they took OUT a railroad track that ran from here to Port Townsend (wouldn't that have been sweet!). They've invested $$ in a business incubator that should be renamed the master-incubator (minus the incu). They've invested in all kinds of foundations and groups that are all run by the same few people, that benefit a few, not all.
What exactly IS the vision for the old mill site? Condos....like we need more vacant housing. A crappy shopping mall. Maybe Walmart? If anyone really wanted to come in and build, a let's say, world class resort or a large corporation wanted to relocate and build a large campus....you already know what would happen...the city, the Harbor-Works would find a reason or a way to tell them to take a hike. They always do!
Plus, how do we have any assurance at all that the oversight of the hazardous waste clean up will even happen with HarborWorks involved? Doesn't this limit the liability of Rayonier, or absolve them of all the damage they've done?
Something stinks.....and someone will get rich, but our public coffers will end up depleted from this charade.
Rex, I'd respectfully disagree about putting a park on the Rayonier site. (Unless you mean the entire thing as a park, in which case I'd agree.) I think greenspace scattered throughout a town is a draw, and provides some sort of psychological relief from concrete lots and brick and mortar stores... and, at least in Port Angeles, empty lots and gaping holes throughout the entire town.
But that's if it's done well. The city pier, Francis St park, the memorial park on Lincoln and the Discovery Trail are all parks I think are done well... except they're at the edge of town. Someone wants to bike the Discovery Trail or go to the pier, they really don't need to go into downtown, except past Harbor Town and the Gateway. (West of the City Pier, the Discovery Trail becomes a mess.) Francis St and the Memorial Park aren't anywhere near downtown. Even the Estuary, which I just don't get as a park, is on the edge of downtown, in an area that doesn't get used much.
Now if there was greenspace that cut through a combination of residential and commercial-residential, maybe a staggered path or a trail where people could jog, bike or walk around the jut like at Greenlake or Alki, then I think that would work perfectly, draw people in, and keep people there. Even a Native museum or Timbertown would be good, if it were scattered around a mixed-use environment.
I just don't know if that would work in Port Angeles. I'm getting more pessimistic about this place every day. Hell, no one listens to the people around here anyway.
"Rex said...
Anonymous-
At least Harborworks may finally get the ball rolling to DO something with the property ...."
Well, Rex, the city leadership is certainly jeopardizing any POSSIBLE successes by engaging in potentially illegal and unethical activities. After 10 years, why rush into failure?
It hasn't been "the lazy indians" that have caused Gottschalk to move away, along with all the other businesses and residents in the Port Angeles area. It hasn't been " the lazy indians" that have squandered the city's resources on failed projects.
Someone posted parts of a court transcript a few weeks ago, where the city was saying how revenues have been declining for the last 3 or 4 years, and they haven't had enough money to pave the streets, etc. Clearly, the city leadership is inept, and can't do things right, even during the best of economic times.
So, now they are squandering huge sums of money on the most questionable piece of property in the area, instead of helping the existing businesses survive and prosper.
And you think they are going to suddenly do now, what they haven't been able to do, and that is to create economic success in Port Angeles? What's different now? From what I can see, it is the same players, playing the same secret games.
"Hell, no one listens to the people around here anyway."
Huh? What? Sorry, I wasn't listening to you.
"Hell, no one listens to the people around here anyway."
Huh? What? Sorry, I wasn't listening to you.
7:17 PM, September 19, 2009
Aren't you waiting for the HarborWorks Director to respond to this thread? Clearly he is reading these posts.
Guess he just selectively replies to the ones that suit his purposes.
he can read??? No...no way.
As for following this blog..I really doubt it.
"he can read??? No...no way.
As for following this blog..I really doubt it."
I assumed that because he responded "point by point" to the other thread " HarborWorks Forum for October 8th", that he was following the conversations here. Maybe his bosses told him only to respond to the other one. You know how paid flunkies are.
yeah, laughing all the way to the bank for doing busy work and following a BLOG that has maybe 100 people who read it, 5 who post.
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