These past months have been about one priority: accelerating job recovery.

• Container terminals at the seaport are some of the busiest in the nation with the fastest rate of export and import recovery sustained every month since August 2009 - giving hundreds of jobs to the members of the labor unions who work the docks.

• Repair of the oldest runway at Sea-Tac will put 600 more people to work.
• Operating the rental car facility at Sea-Tac International Airport depends on dozens of companies and nearly 600 people a month, giving local economies a real boost.
• The cruise terminals at Pier 91 and Pier 66 will have 220-plus ships, each one of them needing food, mechanical work, linens, flowers, and fuel -- bringing $1.9 million into the local economy each time a ship comes into shore.
• Maintenance and repair projects will help dozens of people in the building trades start working again - they've had 35% unemployment in the recession.
• The fishing fleet at Fisherman's Terminal continues to be a bulwark of the local economy, with more than 5,000 jobs and average wages of $55,000 to $70,000 annually.
• 22,000 people work at Sea-Tac International Airport every day. These jobs are the mainstay of our diverse families and communities in southwest King County. The companies operating the airport concessions alone employ thousands of workers, the large majority of whom have minority and immigrant backgrounds.

   

   

Sustainable and inclusive economic recovery includes environmental leadership.

We have to keep people and goods moving while doing all we can to create healthier places to work and live:  we must reduce air pollution, greenhouse gases, fuel consumption, energy use, and solid waste and groundwater contaminants. 

The airlines and airport vendors have joined the campaign to benefit our communities with: airport-wide recycling and composting programs, biofuels for newly designed jet engines, underground fueling for jets at the gates, a unique stormwater system that captures de-icing fluids and other runway run-off, and a new effort to pipe already air-conditioned ("pre-conditioned") air into airplanes during passenger boarding.

Down on the Elliott Bay waterfront, Fisherman's Terminal (Pier 91), and Shilshole Bay Marina, the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy - adopted by the Commission in 2008 - is in full swing. Cleaner fuels, electric shorepower hookups, and cleaner trucks to move freight are working for you. Our partners in this unique strategy, the Port of Tacoma and Port of Metro Vancouver, B.C., have a 7-year plan to reduce harmful diesel and other air emissions from Puget Sound's communities.

Together with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, State Department of Ecology, and Cascade Sierra Solutions, the Port of Seattle is committed to cleaning up our air. In addition to the Clean Trucks initiative I talked about in the last Port Log, there are other clean air initiatives at waterfront facilities. These include: anti-idling programs near the terminals, free truck parking on Port facilities to reduce diesel truck vehicle miles travelled and make neighborhoods safer, conversion of on-dock vehicles to electric power, an at-berth clean fuels program for container ships, shore-power hook ups for cruise ships to save fuel and reduce emissions, and electrical hook-ups for boats moored at Shilshole.

Accountability and public trust are key to a sustainable Port

I volunteered for my second stint on the Commission Audit Committee last January, this time serving as chair.  We hold monthly public Audit Committee meetings, enforce Port policies for competitive contracting, monitor lease payments to the Port; ensuring compliance with state and federal laws; recovering more than $4 million in past-due payments to the Port; and making internal and external audits and their findings accessible to the public at all times.

Check out www.portseattle.org/commission for audit committee materials.

As we emerge from this terrible recession and the worst global trade collapse in 60 years, your port is on course to support a sustainable economic recovery:

• More than $30 million has been cut from Port operating budgets, 118 positions have been eliminated, and every employee took 2 weeks of unpaid furloughs in 2009, resulting in positive balance sheets two years in a row.
• For the first time in decades King County property owners are seeing a 3% cut in their 2010 Port taxes to $73.6 million from 2008 and 2009 levels at $75.9 million. 
• The Commission approved a 5-year tax levy plan through 2014 to allocate nearly $40 million for future Lower Duwamish River clean-up and viaduct removal.
• The 2010 annual budget requires container and cruise ship operations to be self-sustaining as of this year following a 10-year facilities modernization program.

Job recovery, economic stability, and environmental leadership: this is what serving the public interest means. Many thanks for welcoming me into your communities during these difficult times.

I look forward to continuing to serve as a Port Commissioner as we continue to navigate these issues. 

You can contact me or make a contribution to my reelection campaign at www.voteforgael.org.