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.

Rayonier Mill, Harbor-Works PDA, Local Taxes, Public Input

I don’t have a firm opinion one way or the other on this; it’s a complicated contentious issue. Today’s PDN has an excellent letter to the editor that raises some important questions. The few other times I’ve reprinted a PDN letter, I’ve left out the author’s name. But the author of this letter, Norma Turner, has been active in local politics, and I’m assuming she would want her name used.

Here’s the entire letter:

The Peninsula Daily News’ series about Rayonier mill property from February 8th through 10th underscored why the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority chairman said it would take 12 to 18 months to complete “due diligence” on the site. Forbes Business Website defines due diligence as “the care a reasonable should take before entering into an agreement or a transaction with another party.”

The board approved completing the purchase and sale agreement by April 2009. (“Harbor-Works wants mill site by April. P.A. agency to use loans to buy Rayonier property,” Feb. 5th PDN.) How did eighteen months get reduced to three?

Harbor-Works is funded with local tax dollars — but spends it without customary public-purse safeguards. Every executive-level position has been filled without public advertisement, including one at $195 an hour and another at $125 an hour. Two weeks ago they decided to hire somebody who did not even apply for the position, relying instead on private conversations.

The total cost to taxpayers of acquiring the Rayonier site remains a huge unknown. Cost was one of several important issues never answered at the City Council/Port of Port Angeles meeting. PDA ownership of Rayonier’s property means a loss of at least $50,000 a year in property taxes. Responsibility for removing the pier, if it is removed, is estimated at $4 million by the State Department of Natural Resources, and the site cleanup costs cannot be determined until the extent of contamination is fully known and remedies are selected.

Rayonier’s aggregate market value is more than $3 billion. It’s 2007 annual financial report reports a “very good year,” with plans to raise stockholders’ dividend payments. Meanwhile, the state and local governments’ balance sheets are grim. Why are local tax dollars being spent on this project?

Purchase of Rayonier Mill Site

The Harbor-Works Public Development Authority might soon be purchasing the 75-acre site of the former Rayonier Mill.

Orville Campbell, board chairman of Harbor-Works, said a sale agreement with Rayonier Inc. would allow Harbor-Works to begin the due diligence process before they acquire the property. PCBs, dioxin, arsenic and other contaminants have accumulated during Rayonier Mill’s 68 years of operation.

Harbor-Works was created by the City of Port Angeles and the Port of Port Angeles to help direct the cleanup process and the future use of the site. Orville Campbell said he couldn’t estimate how long this process will take. “We'll have a decision point at the end of that about whether or not we go ahead with the acquisition and control of the property.”

According to Rayonier’s vice president of corporate affairs, Charles Hood, there's nothing definite about the sale; it was only discussed in “very general terms.” He said: “In my mind so far, acquisition of the property is nothing more than hypothetical at this point.”

If the Rayonier site is purchased and cleaned up, it would have great potential for some combination of retail-residential-office-industrial use. But in today’s PDN there was a letter warning that trying to develop the Rayonier site would be nothing but a “money pit.”

What do you think?