It was during a 2009 meeting of the commissioners when CEO, Jeff Bishop wistfully reminded the board of the days when the International Port of Coos Bay was regarded as the world’s largest timber exporter. Without verifying the truth of this claim it would be easy enough to point a finger at that period in time as a direct cause of the South Coast’s economic downfall today. Timber was cut and harvested faster than mother nature could replace it and the prosperity and largesse enjoyed by those earlier generations is now being paid for by high poverty and unemployment rates.

Also, in 2009, Bishop, who took the reins in 2005, reminded the commissioners of the Port’s intent to act as a developer and as an area economic development agency with a goal toward creating jobs. To that end Bishop has explored working with OIMB (Oregon Institute of Marine Biology) to exploit their local presence in Charleston to help local businesses. More famously, the Port has taken an aggressive development role on two very divisive local issues, both promising jobs.

Jordan Cove Energy Partners, a Canadian firm, wants to site an import LNG terminal on the North Spit that requires an accompanying 234 mile 36″ pipeline taking private property easements via eminent domain. The Port has also advocated, albeit passively, on behalf of Oregon Resources, an Australian owned strip mining operation with a processing facility on the upper bay near Bunker Hill. Both of these moves have forced increased scrutiny upon the Port and how it spends public money and makes its decisions.

The Port is actively pursuing the development of a container dock and because it can’t run an import or export facility without one, is valiantly trying to resurrect the rickety Coos Bay Line, abandoned by RailAmerica in 2008, to connect the bay to Class I railroads sixty miles away. As a consequence of the railroad project and associated stimulus and grant monies, Bishop acknowledged the Port has doubled its revenue in the last five years necessitating a new auditor.

Despite the increased investment in the Port, unemployment has continued to rise in Coos County. The Port hasn’t created any local jobs yet but has managed to spread its treasure, as much as $4 million, to lobbyists like Ken Messerle and Steve Marks as well as numerous consulting and engineering firms for various economic feasibility studies.

The Port should be applauded for its efforts to bring in jobs but it has to be noted that companies and consultants the Port chooses to work with clearly hold the working man, the very people being promised jobs, in contempt.

During a presentation to the Port in October, 2008, Don Breazeale and Associates referred to longshoremen has ‘militant labor’. Highlighting the benefits of a container dock on the North Spit, DBA presented the following list of benefits.

DBA listed the following as potential advantages which apply to this project:
• Low cost land available for terminal development
• Forty five minutes from deep water to berth
• One day closer sailing from Far East than ports in Southern California
• Carriers will be able to eliminate one vessel from a string and fuel savings on that alone would be $150,000 per sailing a day.
• No accessorial charges such as those being levied in California which could escalate charges to approximately $400-$500 per container.
• Landside property available on dock intermodal which would possibly allow operator to stage longer trains.
• An opportunity to create collaborative relationship with BNSF and UPRR which may lead to access to northern and southern tiers provided it creates an opportunity for both Class I railroads to derive a benefit from such a collaborative approach
• Less militant labor anticipated
• No congestion
• A unique opportunity to create a secure system consistent with the aims of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Patrol.

Jordan Cove pitchman, Bob Braddock, showed his disdain for the common worker when he made this presentation about running a direct high voltage transmission line through Glasgow.

Problem: Nearest direct interconnection would require 6 miles of 115 KV transmission line through a residential area full of doctors and attorneys – Not a good idea

His solution was to move north a bit to Hauser where the po’ folk, as in the working class live and run the line through there.

Then there is ORC who demands a $2.5 million tax abatement in exchange for paying a family wage of $45,000 to a few workers while their top five executives take in more than $640,000 a year in salaries and benefits.

These are the Port’s chosen business partners, people who hold most of the county citizens in contempt.

These examples, and there are more, pale beside the behavior of the commissioners themselves toward citizens at public meetings. They do allow public comment, (although at an October 16, 2008 meetng, they arbitrarily decided to refuse public comment), but do not consider it their job to answer questions or provide any feedback to the public. The Port of Coos Bay Mission states, according to Bishop, … “The Port will help build a diversified, healthy, stable regional economy through prudent management of its assets, by advocacy for infrastructure improvements and collaboration with other public and private entities.”

The commission, under the guidance of Jeff Bishop, disdains any public input in this herculean effort to stabilize the local economy, instead looking outside the community at great expense to the public. Bishop appears to have the commission so mesmerized, as someone once observed, that he alone is driving the development efforts and the receipt and use of millions in federal funds on his pet projects.

During public meetings, commissioners rarely, if ever, discuss the ‘action items’ amongst themselves and almost always vote unanimously for whatever pitch Bishop presents. The commission leaves the public in the dark as to why they concur an action is “prudent management of its assets” while spending money ‘like a drunken sailor’ to quote another Port observer.

Bishop is a smart guy but a lot of highly educated smart people are seriously questioning his guidance and unhealthy influence on a seemingly flaccid, compliant commission. The Port of Coos Bay has become a funnel through which dollars siphoned from the state and federal treasuries flow into foreign private hands.
More to come in later posts