Something Borrowed...

...with permission, from the Port O Call. For the full, unedited version, visit Port O Call's website. Thanks to Dale Wilson for letting me reprint this here.

Port Angeles Economy is the way it is because 2 dozen are happy the way it is

Port Angeles’ economy is the way it is because a certain cadre of people want it just the way it is. These few people, probably less than two dozen, have situated themselves at certain pinch-points within the larger economy and are thereby able to control the levers of power, influence and funding.

These two dozen people are satisfied that the economy has remained stagnant long after surrounding communities have begun to claw out of the great recession. These two dozen people have rebuffed economic development plans presented to the community. Microsoft sought to purchase an old hotel and remodel it for offices. That project was thwarted for no apparent reason. Adventure Zip Line Tours sought to locate here and create 200 jobs. That project was stymied and those jobs went to northern California.

These two dozen people are satisfied with the City Council spending taxpayers into hundreds of millions of dollars in debt so long as no new jobs are created. 

These two dozen people are satisfied with the high school failing to graduate 30 percent of the students who start classes each year. 

These two dozen people have been so successful for so long they no longer have the need to hide their plans. They operate in plain sight and the taxpayers pay for their destructive plans.

Every year, for the past ten years, the City Council has handed over hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars ostensibly intended for economic development to Russ Veenema, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. When pressed, everyone would agree this is actually for tourist development--but no one is pressing.

The Chamber of Commerce is not an evil organization. However, its executive director acts much like a cancer on the local economy. Veenema has hand-picked an executive board of acolytes who pretend to make decisions for the organization. In actuality, Veenema and a few behind the scenes individuals make the decisions and carry out the plans.

In this way the city gets to pretend they are doing something--spending money for economic development. The Chamber gets to pretend they are doing something--spending money for economic development. The Council is appeased because they can tell taxpayers they are doing all they can by presenting money to Russ Veenema.

Russ displays a year's worth of brochures from the Visitor Center.


In the ten years the City Council has handed over money to Russ Veenema, they have never audited the books to see how the money is being spent. The contract between the city and the Chamber requires quarterly audits to be sure the money is being spent appropriately. Instead, once a year, about the time for the next check to be written, Russ comes to the City Council, quotes a few statistics gleaned from state reports, assures the Council all last year’s money was spent appropriately and now it’s time to cough up some more.

This has been the process for the past ten years. Councils come and go but the cancer remains. The way a cancer works is it robs surrounding tissue of nutrients and resources. The way Veenema works is to rob the local economy of any of the funds allegedly intended for economic development. 

With the millions of dollars already given over to Veenema, the needle on economic prosperity for most citizens has not moved one whit. Some of the owners of various tourist properties are doing pretty well. However, most of their employees are still making near minimum wage. 

For many years these local elites have had it pretty much their way. They have co-opted the local bankers, the media, and the independent business organizations.

Recently, Tim Smith came out of retirement to personally recruit the so called Port Angeles United. This “Big Tent” organization was supposed to gather all the “stakeholders” from throughout the peninsula and hammer out a unified, peninsula-wide plan for economic development. The plan was based on the fact there are now more than two dozen separate entities in existence whose reason for being is to improve economic development locally. Within these two dozen organizations, more than $5 million is spent annually. Most of this is spent on salaries, benefits, and rents for the organizations. Hardly any is left over for real job creation efforts. The elites like it that way.

Port Angeles United has had superficial meetings in public for a couple months now. In between the “official” meetings, put on for the media, are the real meetings where the media was not allowed and here the plans take shape.

At the fifth, and what was supposed to be the final meeting of Port Angeles United there appeared a local attorney, Pat Irwin. He was there to help guide the committee toward its next phase, which is to design and build yet another economic development entity which is streamlined to receive city tax money without all the fuss of Russ having to come to the City Council with hat in hand once a year. Most likely the new and improved economic development entity will be more like an appendage attached as closely as possible to the city’s treasury so that there won’t be as many opportunities for the media or other snoops to actually see where tax money is going.

 

Webmaster of the Internets, Tim Smith!



The ambition of Tim, Russ, Jim Haguewood and Karen Rogers is to not only create a new entity but also destroy existing business groups. For several meetings they’ve discussed the dissolution of the Port Angeles Downtown Association and the Port Angeles Business Association. Fortunately PADA’s charter will not allow their being absorbed into Port Angeles United. There is a clamor to dissolve PABA into PAU. PABA’s program chairman, Andrew May threw PABA under the bus at the most recent Port Angeles United meeting.

Historically, Chambers of Commerce have been staunchly business minded organizations. Normally they have contempt for “government give-aways.” Not so locally. The local COC would dry up and wither away were it not for the millions of dollars it has received from taxpayers over the past ten years. For the past ten years its reason d’etre has been to receive and spend taxpayer dollars. Support of local businesses is almost non-existent.

As a member of the local Chamber, I’ve yet to receive a call from anyone associated with it asking me what the Chamber can do to help grow my business. At least three/fifths of the Chamber’s budget comes from the Port Angeles City Council plying them with tax money.

The question is: Has your business/economic life improved in the past ten years due to efforts by the local COC? If not, then ask the second question: How better might the city have invested those millions of dollars given to the Chamber? The options are many. We could have improved Civic Field so there wouldn’t be huge pools of water on the field when ball games are played there. They could invest in training for first line service personnel to provide a more warm and fuzzy experience for visitors who stay overnight. They could provide charging stations for electric vehicles who cannot now visit for fear of running out of battery while on the peninsula. They could establish yacht races in the harbor. This would bring a very moneyed elite to visit. Some may own companies which they might consider moving here if the climate was more inviting. 

They could spend it this way if the City Council would quit giving it to the ones least likely to do anything meaningful with it.