||| FROM ALEX MACLEOD for SALISH CURRENT |||
It was with certain bemusement that residents of the San Juan Islands greeted news last week that Congress was tossing $4.8 million to Washington State Ferries to upgrade the passenger cabins of ferries that otherwise should be retired and which too often fail to sail for mechanical reasons.
In a way, it fits perfectly with the reality that WSF won’t see a new ferry until at least 2027 and, given WSF’s performance over the past decade, even that is decidedly optimistic. Meanwhile, the fleet, with three boats already at or very near their retirement dates and nine of 21 regarded as unreliable, will continue to be plagued by mechanical problems that keep them tied up, sometimes for just a day, other times for weeks.
But what continues to plague service in the San Juans is not having sufficient crew required by the Coast Guard. This represents a massive management failure of WSF leadership to prepare for the wave of retirements of captains, mates and senior engineers. That failure, and then the failure to take timely steps to recover, have led to thousands of missed sailings that continue almost unabated, especially in the San Juans.
If there’s one thing an organization should know it’s the ages of its employees. There is no mystery, especially with a robust state pension system, when people will retire. There was going to be a wave of key retirements beginning around 2020. Knowing those positions require several years of training, testing and on-the-job experience to obtain necessary Coast Guard licenses, steps should have been taken beginning in about 2015 to insure adequate crewing.
That didn’t happen, and then the problem was exacerbated when the pandemic vaccination requirement caused more key ferry staff to leave. Still, management didn’t change its entry-level hiring, or its policies to support staff in the licensing process, for more than two years, ensuring the crewing problems will be with us for at least several more years.
And exactly who is “management “? Is it the director? Is it the operations boss? Is it the maintenance boss?
Let’s look at the people directing this whole show.
How about the legislature? Maybe it is the governor? Have they been stepping up and tsking responsibility?
Clearly it is the overpaid, under-performing Rubstello that has failed to manage the WSF effectively. But it’s not like that’s a big secret, which means the Governor is also to blame for not stepping in and replacing her. It’s LONG past time for new management at WSF.
They’re all Democrats. Right from the governor’s office all the way down to the WSF. The state is too busy trying to house a drug addicted homeless population that only wants drugs and not a home. In all reality that’s just the cover. It’s really a Democrat money laundering scheme. The homeless business has become a big profit center for those on the left. They’ve destroyed San Francisco and gotten Rich doing it.
The ongoing collapse of WSF is directly attributable to Governor Jay Inslee’s egomaniacal promotion of climate change hysteria to burnish his green credentials.
Most people don’t remember his quixotic presidential campaign of 2020. He’s leaving now to let the taxpayers deal with the consequences of his ambition.
See: https://the-pipeline.org/electric-ferries-and-other-fairytales/
People also don’t remember that Tim Eyman, Huckster/Grifter extraordinaire suckered the state into voting to make all car registration, whether you drive a new Mercedes or an old Buick, cost the public the same fee, appx. $30.00. That led to a huge de-funding of the Ferry system, and we saw it coming at the time.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-car-tab-price-cut-remains-on-hold-so-full-bills-due
PS, Eyman is certainly not a Democrat, not that it matters anymore..
This problem has absolutely nothing to do with political affiliation. I’m familiar with both Democrats and Republicans who are examples of the Peter Principal…. They are in over their heads.
Get a life, and come up with some cogent solutions, rather than just trashing those you don’t agree with.
Patty Rubstello is more of a cheerleader than a manager as Assistant Secretary, WSF. Nobody in their right mind would want that assignment since it’s a near impossibility to manage that organization because so much of it is dependent issues that can’t be controlled. Between the one shipyard in Washington State that could build a ferry being sold to East Coast interests and focusing on more lucrative military projects, a “build it in Washington for the jobs” mindset of the legislature, and dealing with anywhere from 12 to 16 unions depending on which WSF staff member provides the number, it’s a management position from hell. I suspect applications to replace Rubstello would be scant.
Crew staffing should not be an issue … target staffing is 1,148, and there are currently 1,074 currently qualified currently on board. That’s 93.5% of full target staffing, and that target is for operating 19 vessels, the normal summer schedule. They are presently operating only 14 or 15 vessels, only 79% of a full schedule. Crew shortages are not due to the Covid exodus, or retirements. Where the employees live is an issue (such as Friday Harbor) … but the seniority order crew replacements embedded in the union contracts is a major issue, but those contracts have to be honored and are unlikely to be changed. And then there apparently is the rumored lack of dedication to the ferry system by some of the crew employees … been told by three long time employees there currently is little personal dedication to the ferry system. That’s not to say there are not a significant number of employers who are willing to step up when crew replacements are needed, but it’s just a different era.
The main article that says WSF’s is considering a vessel reduction has not been mentioned in the SJC schedule rewrite epic. No clue who is behind that rumor.
The article says service reduction, not vessel reduction. And it is not a rumor. It was stated by the WSF employee running the san Juans on-time task force. She said the only way to improve on-time performance would be to reduce the number of sailings.
Michael Sjolin and Scott Hallquist- how you attribute this crisis to Democrats and not Eyman is really quite phenomenal and delusional. This crisis has taken decades to build and will take the same to resolve. Attributing to one political party or the other does not add any understanding to the issue or hope of resolution. Let’s focus on a solution.
WSF people in charge of maintaining ferries and staff are behind the 8 ball. When you took the ferries away from Black Ball in the 50s, you took over a great enterprise. Things were fine for you until people started retiring and no replacements were available. Plus old ferries from San Francisco were beyond their life and still plying the waters of Puget Sound. Newer ferries were plaged with many problems. So why not hire people and firms with real knowledge of boatbuilding and get marine sailors certified?
If 1/3 of the ferry boats are out of service, why is there a staffing problem? There should be lots of crew members surplus right now. If the ferry system let attrition decimate their crew base to the point where they couldn’t staff repaired or replacement boats if and when they come back online, they aren’t fit to run the system. The legislature needs to overhaul the ferry system and bring accountability back.. I’m not holding my breath.
The voters passed the tab initiative five times. Maybe because they understand that a vehicle of similar weight has the same effect on the pavement structure regardless of the make or model. This has nothing to do with Eyman.
Yes, this is a democrat issue. Not one of the days of my 31 years with WSDOT changes that conclusion.
And Alex’s comment is correct. Removing over 13,000 sailings from the sailing schedule in one year helped their on time measure because they don’t compare it to a theoretical baseline full schedule. Did they hold a public meeting about that to get your input? How did their rigged on-time schedule help you? They don’t care.
For the record, the Eyman initiative was passed by nearly 60% of the electorate in 1999, 24 years ago.
Somehow the state managed to build 6 ferries since then, as well as building the King County light rail syatem. But remarkably, I-695 is cited every year to justify government failure and mismanagement of the state transportation network.
My opinion is the same as the Seattle Times editorial board (not exactly a conservative voice). See for yourself: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/was-ferry-system-is-broken-and-gov-inslee-must-right-the-ship/
Speaking of Eyman.. do NOT sign any of the initiative petitions going round. they’re all his. He has done enough to bankrupt the state and hamstring the legislature already. And, Mr. Halquist, I-695 and the one following it made it dirt cheap for the rich to get tabs and tabs for the poor skyrocketed- so the burden is on the backs of those who can’t afford new fancy plastic cars that are death traps. It’s ‘reverse graduated tabs’ now. And it’s obscene. Eyman misrepresented himself, and continues to do so, and everything he has ever done has been to rob from the middle class and poor to find more tax loopholes for the rich and thus enrich them even further. He even embezzled $200 K of his campaign money. That scoundrel should be in prison, yet continues to enrich himself and other ultra rich people and rob from those who are carrying the tax burden so yes, of course he gets things passed by voters too dumb to stop and THINK about what his initiatives really mean.
As for the ferries; this is an unpopular view but, oh well!
The old boats are sturdier and more reliable than the computerized cheap pieces of trash being built today that cost a fortune and no one can fix. Computerized everything is a disaster because now you need specialist technocrats to fix anything.
All-electrification is just as dirty and polluting as combustion engines when one stops to think on how lithium ion batteries are made (by mining the hell out of developing countries still rich in resources), and how explosive/flammable they are. I’ll stick with a combustion engine or a hybrid. I’d rather see the money go toward fixing their engines, and forgetting the passenger cabins which are good enough now.
As for staffing the ferries, besides the retirements that were supposed to all happen at once, no one is copping to the elephant in the living room… C-19 and vaccine mandates – get jabbed and boosted, or be fired. Many took early retirement. So there was no time to prep for incoming staff training. Huge mistake that cost us all, and still almost no admitting that mistakes were made. Bad management wasn’t just from within WSF. What happened this last almost 4 years? Biggest land grab and wealth transfer in history (rob the poor to pay the rich – again) – 600 new billionaires! A huge grift is what all of this was, and is. All of this contributed to where we find ourselves, concerning WSF. Gov. Inslee won’t save anything or right the sinking ship he helped create. Finger-pointing at any particular political party totally misses the mark – look UP to the top of the pyramid.
As for focusing on solution… let’s hear some, since WSF has the monopoly and privatizing would only be affordable by the rich.
“Every time I’m out in the fleet, I learn so many new things about what it takes to keep our system running 24/7, 365 days a year!” Patty Rubstello
On the job training for the governors equity hire
Solutions?
Build bridges where feasible, which was WSF’s plan where they bought the ferry system in 1951. Prime example, the Vashon triangle route and Reston normally has four ferries. WSDOT has asked to build bridges twice on that route, but voters on Vashon have turned down both attempts.
Ferry qualified crewing is currently near an all time high.Yes, they lost some (128 reportedly) who refused to get vaccinated although they were in a public service job. But that is now history. Some ferries occasionally have have two crews assigned (not on the San Juan routes) to keep all the employees employed per union contracts.
And by the way, property taxes increases were up to 6% a year before Eyman. . He proved to be a criminal, but every property tax payer in this state have saved thousands of dollars in the last 20+ years in property taxes because of the 1% plus new construction limit. The idea was to make government more efficient with better technology. It hasn’t come close to destroying the state … but the legislature should have set 2% plus new construction when the Supreme Court threw out Eyman’s tax limitation initiative on a technicality. A state senate action last session to increase it to 3% + a year failed, but it’s only a matter of time the 1%+ increases since inflation has been higher that projected.
Washington State had seven new ferries constructed 2010-2018. Statistically, the fleet average age was at a system low when MV Elwha was retired in 2021.
The WSF system needs a NEW VISION that looks to the long term. Otherwise it will continue to be a slap-dash anachronism struggling to provide reliable service with over-size vessels and unreliable technology.
One of the primary challenges with crewing is intransigent unions. The claimed “worldwide lack of new mariners entering the profession” is dubious at best and isn’t really applicable anyway. Parking cars on a ferry doesn’t even remotely require the same skill set as a high seas sailor nor does it need the same level of training. The coast guard rules and the unions are a BIG part of the problem when it comes to maintaining ferry crews.