That Vision Thing
David Ammonds, writing for the AP, ticks off some of the challenges facing David Moseley, the new Assistant Secretary for ferries at WSDOT:
He faces a mountain of problems, including an aging fleet, tight finances, cranky riders, occasional labor unrest, critical state audits and the ferry system’s reputation for being something of a rogue agency.
The question I have to ask, again, is why WSF, the "nation's largest ferry system" has been allowed to become so unmoored (pun intended) from WSDOT. It says to me that WSDOT lacks a clear vision. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to find a mission or vision statement anywhere on WSDOT's website. Compare that to Oregon DOT and CalTrans, where the mission, vision, and values are up there for all to see.
To be fair, I did finally stumble across the WSDOT vision. It was buried on page 6 of a PDF of a draft workforce assessment from 2006, which I found on page 4 of the results of a search on WSDOT's own website for the phrase "mission statement." Here it is:
Keep people and businesses moving by operating and improving the state’s transportation system which is vital to taxpayers and to communities.
It's not horrible, but it's pretty bad. Do communities not pay taxes? Why the need to call out taxpayers separately? It smacks of some last minute pander to anti-tax activists, and it's not even a well-written sentence. Compare it, again, to ODOT:
To provide a safe, efficient transportation system that supports economic opportunity and livable communities for Oregonians.
Much better: safety, efficiency, economic opportunity, livability.
Now, you might say, "Frank, who gives a crap about this stuff? It's just focus group consultant-babble b.s." But this stuff matters. It's important for an organization to have a vision, something to cohere around. Not just in the public sector, but in business as well. Ask Jack Welch.
Furthermore, down in Olympia this month we're seriously considering building a whole new regional transit agency to take over where WSDOT has failed to deliver. Wouldn't it behoove us to first consider why this happened, so the new RTC doesn't suffer the same fate? Sure, I-695 sucked, and it's clear the agency is still scrambling to replace the lost MVET funds. But maybe the fact that WSDOT has not had a clear vision for a multi-modal transportation system that truly improves the lives and opportunities of the citizens of the state is partly to blame as well.
On the bright side, the Governor seems to be (belatedly) coming around to this reality. Paula Hammond grasps the idea that WSF needs to be brought in closer to the rest of the agency. And Moseley seems to be well-respected as a manager.
In the meantime, WSDOT needs to align its mission and vision, and permeate that vision down the chain to all employees. Getting it up on the website might be a good first step.
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I think that part of the reason that WSF is separated from WSDOT is because that WSF operates as a business in that it collects revenues from charging for use of transportation whereas WSDOT collects revenues mainly from broad taxes not directly linked to how people use their transportation system.
Well, not exactly. The ferry system always requires large subsidies from the general fund.
The people who actually run the ferries are in an entirely different class of employment, being licensed mariners or inland boatmen people.
Then there's the demand by the communities served for the continuation of service, and that includes a lot of tourist business that may not be located very close to the terminals.
From what I've seen, the ferry system has reciprocated this love with a lot of nepotism, hiring mainly from the communities that defend the service so loudly. Fortunately, it hasn't taken a lot of skill to run the boats, but I did wonder, when I saw that an Anderson from Poulsbo had headed the system for years, just how it had survived. And now we learn that, in a sense, it didn't.
Of course, there's also the probability that more control by the DOT would translate into even worse ferries. It is a cross we bear.