By Richard Walker
The Journal
Alex MacLeod is no longer on the San Juan Ferry Advisory Committee, but a standoff of sorts still exists between him and the San Juan County Council.
County Council Chairman Howie Rosenfeld said Wednesday that he believes MacLeod could be reappointed to the committee if he “expresses some contriteness over his behavior.” Rosenfeld added that he’s only speaking for himself and not for the entire council.
MacLeod today said that he doesn’t know what he’s being asked to apologize for. “I feel really bad, having putting in four years of hard work, that the council stripped me of my ability to represent the interests of the community. I don’t really know how to respond. As far as I’m concerned, until he tells me who said what about me, there’s no way for me to respond.”
MacLeod and committee member Ed Sutton were called before the County Council Jan. 28 after the committee convened a meeting that had not been advertised in advance and continued to meet after being asked by Rosenfeld to reschedule.
MacLeod took responsibility for not advertising the meeting, adding that he decided to continue to meet because of crises within the state ferry system that threaten to impact the San Juans. Sutton apologized for obscene e-mails his wrote in response to a request for information from the County Council.
But the council removed MacLeod for allegedly acting belligerent or hostile toward WSF and state officials, saying his attitude had harmed San Juans’ relationship with other decision-makers. The council declined to identify the people making the allegation.
“The council has a responsibility as great as mine to be forthcoming to me regarding the evidence they’re relying on, that I have damaged the county. If they’re not willing to say who (is making the allegation), there’s no way I can respond to it,” MacLeod said.
“To make accusations and not be able to back them up is McCarthyism. It’s very aggressive.”
Tuesday, the council received a petition from islanders calling for MacLeod to be reinstated. In a written statement, Ferry Advisory Committee member Robert deGavre said the process by which MacLeod was “examined” by the council Jan. 29 was “demeaning.”
“This public interrogation should never have happened. If the council was concerned about Alex’s performance as chair of the FAC, then it should have discussed this with him in an informal setting when the allegations first became known to the council.
“I am also troubled by the failure of the council to document its charges against Alex. What he said and to whom has never been made public. Unspecified accusations by nameless persons is too reminiscent of military tribunals where the accusers are faceless.”
MacLeod has admitted using strong language to criticize the management of WSF and the state for what he feels has been a slow response to the crisis. In a guest column published in the Dec. 26 Seattle Times, of which he is former managing editor, MacLeod called the transportation secretary’s decision to pull all Steel Electric-class ferries out of service after hull pitting was found on one of them “Dramatic. Decisive. Dumb.”
MacLeod wrote that the crisis was a created one and had “all the earmarks of a political charade,” citing a statement made by State Transportation Commissioner Bob Distler to the press that “It takes an emergency like this to get the Legislature moving … “
MacLeod also criticized the Legislature for failing to provide the ferry system “with a reliable, sustainable source of funding after taking away the motor-vehicle excise tax.”
DeGavre said MacLeod is on “a very solid factual foundation.”
“The council has yet to grasp the full extent of the crisis facing our county. WSF is literally running out of ferries,” deGavre wrote.
“The latest casualty is the Hiyu which was scheduled to be our interisland boat from early February to mid-June. Last week, a worker rapping on its hull with a hammer punched a hole through it. Now the Hiyu’s availability is uncertain. We could be faced with a reduction in the number of ferries serving our islands as WSF juggles mandatory dry-dock schedules and down-Sound requirements among its decreasing fleet of boats. If that were to happen, the impact on our islands would be incalculable.”
Rosenfeld said the issue of the petitions calling for MacLeod’s reinstatement will be discussed at the County Council’s Monday staff meeting. “It’s more up to him than up to us,” Rosenfeld said.
“We hate to lose his expertise, but he has to give a little bit. He didn’t give an iota at the public session. He was completely intransigent. He apologized for forgetting to publicly post a notice of the meeting, but that’s a minor thing in the scope of problems.
“We all wanted to salvage this thing. We weren’t trying to get him, we were trying to deal with a situation we found alarming.”
MacLeod and his wife, Kathy Williams, will likely not be in the San Juans on Monday. MacLeod said he and his wife planned to leave on vacation “to someplace warm” Saturday.
Notebook … County Council Chairman Howie Rosenfeld, Councilman Rich Peterson, Councilman Kevin Ranker and County Administrator Pete Rose are in Olympia discussing San Juan issues with legislators.
Rosenfeld said Wednesday that there is a proposal to allow BC Ferries to serve the Sidney-Anacortes run, freeing up a Washington state ferry to serve the San Juans. However, without an exemption to a federal law, the BC ferry could not stop in Friday Harbor. That means, all San Juan Island residents bound for Sidney would have to go to Anacortes first.
Legislators are also pushing to begin ferry construction as soon as possible. Rosenfeld said the money the Legislature set aside in 2003 for construction of four ferries — $298 million — over a 10-year period will only fund three ferries today.
