Port CEO reflects on his first 14 months

Port of Seattle Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani recently reflected at a luncheon held by the Transportation Club of Seattle on the trials, tribulations and triumphs that marked his first 14 months in office.

Yoshitani runs the Seattle seaport, Sea-Tac Airport and a large real estate portfolio including Fishermen's Terminal and Shilshole Bay Marina, while reporting to a board of five part-time commissioners elected to set policy and authorize financial decisions and contracts crafted by a staff of 1,700 employees.

On his term thus far:

"It would be an understatement to say it's been interesting ... it has been the most difficult experience in the many years I've spent running ports. It's been like juggling a bunch of glass balls, trying hard to keep all of the balls from cracking. ... It's been like driving a runaway Mack truck downhill in the dark with a bunch of backseat drivers shouting conflicting directions -- you can just imagine who those might be -- and having the state auditor riding shotgun."

On port commissioners:

"I have good relationships with each commissioner on an individual basis, but they were quite frankly dysfunctional as a team when I first arrived. The new commission works well together; we are starting to have problems, but I am confident they will be worked out."

On the Port of Seattle as he found it:

"The seaport was in a real dogfight, and the real estate portfolio was subordinate to the seaport and airport divisions and scattered throughout the organization." Later, he added, "I also inherited an excellent working relationship with labor. ...

"When I got here, it looked like I had to do a few course corrections, put it into cruise control, and then focusing on pushing the port's agenda forward on providing social benefits -- economic vitality, environmental stewardship and social responsibility. ... I am just now approaching the point where I can literally come up for air."

On the port's standing in the community:

"I was quite surprised at the deeply rooted anger and distrust of the port, much of which comes from the long, drawn-out battle over the third runway. ... I overheard someone say, 'Why would I believe the port, they just embezzled $97 million?' " (That was a reference to the $97.3 million of waste that the state auditor said he identified, a figure Yoshitani disputes.)

On public scrutiny of the port:

"I've never experienced the level of media scrutiny that I've seen here in Seattle. We have a saying at the port: 'It is what it is.' That's the environment we live in, and we have to deal with it."

On Sea-Tac Airport's holiday forest:

"I've heard that not everybody likes our Christmas trees" -- a birch forest that replaced the airport's traditionally festooned Christmas trees -- "but I can tell you that you're going to get used to seeing them because we spent a lot of money on those trees" -- around $300,000 -- "and we're going to get the amortization out of them."

On the Port of Seattle Police Department's e-mail scandal:

"I had some people demand that I fire 30 to 40 officers. We have a very different port police department than we had a year ago; it is still not perfect, but I am very pleased. Police Chief Colleen Wilson is a breath of fresh air."

On former Port CEO Mic Dinsmore's sweetened -- and scuttled -- retirement package:

"What was never covered was that the system worked ... payments were never made, and the commissioners voted against it in public session."

On the loss of Tokyo-based NYK Line to the Port of Tacoma:

"That was personally devastating to me, because I've had a long and personal relationship with NYK Line over the past 20 years, except the last two or three."

On the state auditor's damning review of the port's construction practices:

"The state audit was the mother of all issues. ... There were strong allegations of waste and fraud ... staff was devastated, there was a strong feeling of being persecuted, and morale plummeted ... worst of all, I had customers who were wondering if they could continue to trust us. Down in Olympia, people kept piling on, legislators kept piling on, and the state auditor's contract auditor kept on lobbing grenades into our backyard."

On the port's response to the audit:

"We've formed a chief procurement office and appointed Nora Huey as its chief." (Huey is a lawyer who has been specializing in procurement and construction management at King County and once oversaw construction contract mediation for the King County Prosecutor's Office.) "The audit's 51 recommendations generated 141 specific action steps, which we've posted online." (portseattle.org/news/Accountability.shtml.) "It boggles my mind that anyone can say we're not being transparent in our response."

On the port staff:

"You're always going to have a few bad apples that are doing things that you don't want them to be doing, but the staff is, on the whole, excellent and very hardworking."

On China Shipping, the seaport's newest tenant and customer:

"China Shipping is the fastest-growing carrier in the world ... they are going to overtake COSCO (the No.1 Chinese carrier). ..."

On the port's cruise business:

"The cruise business is off the charts, but it is not a profitable business for the port. ... The arrival of each ship brings $1.4 million of economic benefit to the region."

On Fishermen's Terminal:

"We are the homeport for the North Pacific fleet ... we'll keep subsidizing it, because it's the right thing to do."

On the port's future:

The year 2011 will be the Port of Seattle's 100-year anniversary ... we'll be rolling out the Century Agenda -- it sounds catchy but is substantive -- to look forward for the next quarter century. We'll be forming community advisory panels ... that will give us guidelines."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Transportation Club of Seattle