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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MAy 18, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
GUEST COLUMN
Selling off assets won’t sustain Port
C
urrent management at the Port of
Astoria has suggested selling off
taxpayer-owned and supported
assets. An advisory committee tasked
with helping management address port
finances has come to a similar conclu-
sion, suggesting what could be insol-
vency if the Port does not redirect its
efforts and address its deficiencies.
Before selling stake-
holder assets — build-
ings, not the land — the
Port should consider
what a sale of an asset
might look like in the
future. Selling to a buyer
without stipulating con-
BILL
tinuity with Port and city
COOK
future planning efforts is
potentially fraught with
disappointment later on. Selling of any
taxpayer-owned asset should be consis-
tent with what is best for all four cor-
ners of the Port district. At a minimum,
the sale should be widely advertised in
local, regional, and national real estate
magazines and related trade publica-
tions, both online and in print.
It is unlikely that serious developers
are even aware that this port is consider-
ing selling publicly owned assets, which
is quite rare. So reaching out to the wid-
est audience and vetting potential pur-
chasers against the Port’s strategic plan
and in cooperation with community
interests is a better recipe for success
than a first-come, first-sold scenario.
Discussions abound in the commu-
nity about selling off the former Red
Lion complex at the West Mooring
Basin and the marina at the East Moor-
ing Basin. In the case of the East Basin,
because commitments were made to
stakeholders in Clatsop County and our
state and national representatives in
return for their dedication to help, the
Port was able to garner more than $23
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
The Port of Astoria’s West Mooring Basin.
million to restore the breakwater and
floats to protect fishing vessels and pro-
vide public access to the waterfront.
The public access onto the structure is a
unique exception and one we as a com-
munity need to protect. The loss of that
unique access to the Columbia River
affects us all, as we are seeing more and
more large complex development along
the waterfront. Selling of any asset
should be aggressively vetted to realize
the best possible developer(s) working
with us, the communities. This holds
true for the Red Lion complex, likely
the most visible asset of the public and
like East Basin, should be well-consid-
ered for what will eventually replace the
aging buildings now in place.
I urge you to attend Port meetings
and voice your concerns. Insist on pub-
lic hearings to have this conversation.
Ask the commission to move slowly
and cautiously, because once sold, and
without prudent input for planning, we
live with whatever may come, good or
bad.
We continue to hear that deferred
maintenance is an anchor dragging the
Port down, yet all ports are faced with
keeping abreast of what needs fixing
and will continue to. Like your house,
if the roof leaks, you find the ability and
resources to plug the leak or you are
faced with watching your house fall.
Preventing this type of failure is where
a manager enlists competent staff to
oversee the organization’s assets, and
engages a cohesive commission to work
with staff, stakeholders and tenants to
monitor progress or failure. The Port’s
strategic plan, adopted in 2010, provides
the guidance and framework for annu-
ally reviewing the Port’s capital assets.
And the plan is fluid; by definition it is
a document that requires updates and
changes as situations change.
It is difficult to understand how the
Port could have gotten into this situa-
tion, if the Port had been following their
2010 strategic plan, revisiting it at least
yearly and reviewing with stakeholders.
Could the problems such as deferred
maintenance, loss of revenues and loss
of grants have resulted in a less-severe
situation? It is essential that a public
agency such as the Port engage with its
tenants and stakeholders frequently. It is
a requirement for funding via Business
Oregon, the agency that is positioned
to assist the Port when compliant with
an approved and updated strategic plan.
Public participation and outreach is vital
when asking those same stakeholders
for more financial assistance.
Selling off assets as a way out won’t
sustain the agency. Nor will it address
the Port’s other significant problem,
that of management and commission-
ers working out of the public eye and
not communicating with tenants and
stakeholders.
Businessdictionary.com defines man-
agement as interlocking functions of
creating corporate policy and organiz-
ing, planning, controlling, and direct-
ing an organization’s resources in order
to achieve the objectives of that policy.
For the Port of Astoria to move forward
it is essential management and the com-
mission understand that and separate
duties. Commissioners set the policy;
management carries out same on a day-
to-day schedule. If ongoing operations
are struggling, actions should be taken
immediately and publicly to address the
problems. As it is, we are seeing infor-
mation withheld by management that if
shared may have resulted in something
positive, not a cry for help.
Bill Cook is a former deputy director
of the Port of Astoria.
LETTERS
Dams are killing salmon
o confuse you, dam proponents,
including some in Congress, tout
the Columbia Basins Snake River per-
dam juvenile salmon survival rate as if
it applied accumulatively to the entire
waterway.
The Corps of Engineers cites a per-
dam survival rate trending toward 95 per-
cent, which may be true, but is deceptively
used. Here’s why: The anti-salmon crowd
fails to tell you that accumulated dam-by-
dam losses through all eight dams leaves
only 66 percent survival, and doesn’t
account for losses occurring in the dams’
reservoirs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s report does. In 2018,
NOAA reported a Snake River juvenile
spring-summer chinook survival rate —
from the head of slack water (near Lewis-
ton, Idaho) to the Bonneville Dam’s tail-
race (the lowest tailrace) — at just 38
percent. NOAA also reported a long-term
average of just 49 percent.
However, none of the above rates
include “delayed mortality.” These losses
occur between Bonneville and the ocean,
and result from stress and harms juveniles
suffer as they pass through the eight-dam
and reservoir obstacle course. Researchers
estimate delayed mortality losses of 36 to
76 percent.
Therefore, including, as we must,
delayed mortality, in 2018 the total Snake
River juvenile salmon survival rate ranged
between 24 to 9 percent. These figures tell
the sad, whole-truth story.
BORG HENDRICKSON
Moscow, Idaho
T
Hunsinger for
Port commission
ho is a Port Commissioner? Do
the commissioners realize they are
elected by the people, and are there to rep-
resent those who pay taxes? If they did,
they would realize their director is making
poor choices that will affect the port nega-
tively for years to come.
Earth to Port: Your balance sheet is
non-sustainable, and where is your strate-
gic plan you have been working on for the
past three years? Unreal.
It’s sad Commissioner Robert “Steve”
Stevens is running unopposed. It would
not have been difficult for someone with
a small amount of critical thought and
inquiry to win; which is in stark contrast to
Commissioner Stevens’ “let sleeping dogs
lie” campaign.
Are you aware the Port is entertain-
ing selling the East Mooring Basin to fund
short-term debt? Anyone who wants to sell
Port (your) assets to fund short-term debt
W
is selling you down the river.
The current Port director has been mis-
managing the Port for years. Due to fis-
cal and managerial mismanagement, the
Port has lost all credibility at the local,
state and federal level. It’s inexcusable and
embarrassing.
Commissioner Bill Hunsinger is on the
right path. I have personally sat down with
both Commissioner Hunsinger and Com-
missioner Stevens within the past few
months to inquire about their approach
to solving a big problem. Commissioner
Hunsinger gets it. Commissioner Stevens’
view is myopic, at best.
If you want change and a chance at fix-
ing the Port, vote for Bill Hunsinger, and
don’t vote for Commissioner Stevens.
GLENN TAGGART
Port Commissioner, 1993-2006
Astoria
Trump doing a great job
n response to the letter to the editor
“Time for courage” (The Astorian, May
9), I could only add that after two whole
years and millions of dollars spent inves-
tigating to try and remove a duly elected
president of the U.S., the writer simply
can’t let it go. The left is so obsessed with
President Donald Trump — in that they
hate him — that they are willing to ignore
I
the obvious: “No collusion.”
Hillary Clinton and her cohorts make
a deal with Russia, giving them control
of vital weapons-grade uranium, she has
hundreds of illegal emails, and no charges
are even suggested, and little concern is
shown by the leftist press.
Leaders in the FBI, the CIA and other
government agencies use their offices
and positions of power to try and oust
Trump, but the writer and others with sim-
ilar beliefs conclude that Trump must go
because he doesn’t fit their ideas of what a
president should look like.
Well, he has done what many of us
wanted our president to do. He got the
economy back on track, he stands up for
America on the world scene and he doesn’t
promote what traditional Americans con-
sider as evil.
Say what you like, hate him if you
must, but be aware that millions of Amer-
icans feel that he is doing a great job and
are going to vote for him again.
CARL YATES
Seaside
Oser for school board
am voting for David Oser in his quest
to continue serving as a valued mem-
ber of the Astoria School District Board,
and I hope that you will consider doing so,
I
as well.
David Oser’s total commitment to our
students, their safety and the improve-
ments to our aging facilities was proven to
me by his leadership role in the very suc-
cessful passage of the Astoria School Dis-
trict’s bond measure in our last election.
Working with David in this very pos-
itive outcome left no doubt in my mind
that David is the best candidate for the
school board position. His commitment
to our kids’ education, our facilities, his
very strong background in financial man-
agement and his tremendous leadership
skills give him the ideal tools needed for
the Astoria School District to reach their
goals.
Please join me in voting for David Oser
for the Astoria School Board.
SKIP HAUKE
Astoria
Wisdom out to sea
s I watched the ship traffic on the
river, a 600-foot vessel from the Wis-
dom Line went by. On the side of the ship,
in 20-foot high letters: Wisdom.
I thought to myself, “there goes wis-
dom, out to sea — probably won’t be back
for a while.”
JIM HALLAUX
Astoria
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