Every Thurston County taxpayer supports the Port of Olympia. The port is supposed to support all of Thurston County. It has three commissioners and for many years it has been run for the benefit of local builders and the well connected. The port continues to raise our taxes because of their mismanagement.

Port Commissioner E.J. Zita pressed for accountability as the commissioners often bought into big projects without due analysis, thus costing us taxpayers interest for years, with little or no return. We are still paying interest on the $5 million invested in the Big Blue Crane, which somehow isn’t shown in the budget. To break even, it would need to be used over 1,000 hours a year, but is used about 10 to 20 hours.

Amy Evans and her firm Kidder-Matthews, earned $1.57 million in commission from the port (taxpayers) for brokering the Panattoni deal which is for 200 acres of flood-prone, forested land to build an Amazon type warehouse with all the semi trucks that it would bring to our local roads. No fee has been paid to Amy at this time.

Zita endorses Joel Hansen who was born and raised here, and Bob Iyall who is a Nisqually Tribe elder who oversees the day-to-day management of all enterprises owned by the Nisqually Indian Tribe including the Red Wind Casino. They are both interested in better financial management, more commitment to environmental sustainability at the port and helping build local business. Please join me in voting for Joel Hansen and Bob Iyall.

Madeline Bishop, Olympia