Port of Shelton Commissioner Tom Wallitner Submitted to Shelton Blog by John Cox
Mason County Progressive
At the Port of Shelton Commissioners' meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Tom Wallitner said this:
"No one mentioned the cost of them (ADAGE) producing electrical except John Dobson and Jay Hupp. They were concerned from the very beginning (whether) they would be able to compete in the electrical market even if they were able to build. They were the only two guys who voiced that opinion."Strange as it may seem, I don't remember it that way.
What I recall is that from the very beginning of the citizens' struggle against ADAGE, the high cost for the power ADAGE would produce was offered as one of numerous reasons why the proposed ADAGE incinerator was not a viable proposition. Over and over again, it was mentioned by concerned citizens.
Commissioner Wallitner says Dobson and Hupp were the only people he ever heard mention this bit of wisdom. I cannot prove otherwise, but if this is so, there is another problem that should be talked about.
How can it be that a Port Commissioner who was intimately involved in the ADAGE effort, never heard what those of us who opposed ADAGE so vociferously were saying from day one? Maybe Commissioner Wallitner just wasn't listening to us? Maybe he didn't want to consider that we might be right? Maybe he had a hard time listening to anything the "kooks" had to say?
Clearly this was not just a problem at the Port. The County Commissioners shared the same unwillingness to really listen to what we citizens had to say. Commissioner Tim Sheldon took every opportunity to belittle, insult and attempt to discredit our opinions when we expressed them at the County Commissioners' meetings. Being a little more laid back, Port Commissioner Wallitner apparently just ignored us.
This is a problem. How can citizens who don't have “connections” have confidence that they are being heard? How can we have confidence that we have some say in the future of our County, City, or Port? Why weren't we included in the ADAGE discussion from the beginning?
Another way to ask this is: how do citizens get to play a part in the decision making process when powerful special interests are intent on keeping them out?
Advisory ballots and citizen advisory committees are a couple of methods that can be used, but these methods can only work if elected officials are willing to use them.
It's our job to make it difficult for them to refuse.
Photo by Christine
I remember that this time last year Jim Gaston of Adage seemed very cozy in the Port offices. He had clearly been spending lots of time there, with free reign of the office space and access to unlimited coffee. He, an outside business man--in effect a lobbyist--had been fully embraced by the Port and had their ear, for many hours before we ever knew about the proposal. Whereas we citizens struggled to have any message considered, and were met with open disdain. Do they wonder why we felt we had to hold signs? And why we had to repeat our message in email, postal letters, letters to the editor, and in person at the meetings? We FELT we weren't being heard, and Mr. Wallitner has confirmed that.
ReplyDeleteRevisionism is the tool of choice among the guileless, the inattentive and the corrupt.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the only two guys besides EVERYONE ELSE!!!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I seem to remember the very first meeting of concerned citizens immediately following the Adage insane sales presentation warning how expensive the power would be and comparing it to near record low natural gas prices. Even the PUD #1 commissioners present agreed. Of course they had no intention of purchasing wholesale power from Adage for upwards of $0.10 a KWH either. Apparently Jay Hupp, who was in attendance, hadn't turned up his hearing aid that day. This appears to be a pattern with the selectively deaf Mr. Hupp. Everyone knows whatever Hupp said, puppy dog Wallitner was following right behind, tied to Hupp's apron strings. This went on for over a year. Jack Miles must have been frustrated beyond all. He was saying it couldn't work all along, but they fought him every inch of the way. Then there was the citizens attending every port meeting. These guys are so old and in the way they apparently couldn't see or hear their constituents telling them it couldn't work. Not to mention the former port commissioner that retired from Simpson who told everyone it couldn't work.
Of the three choices listed above I would add DEAF and SENILE. Although guileless could fit Wallitner, but it may be the result of senility. Maybe he was just paying too much attention trying to stay at Hupp's heel to notice anything else.
According to the latest KMAS and Journal articles that have been circulating since late March, the CONCERNED CITIZENS OF MASON COUNTY have indeed proven "The POWER OF THE CITIZENS!!!" (Regardless of what the County Commissioner(s) tell reporters.)
ReplyDeleteFunny how our County and Port Commissioners, including the Exec. Dir. of the Port, were SO Very Smug towards us for 6-8 months prior to ADAGE leaving.