BREAKING: San Juan County Council Agrees to Phone Governor Jay Inslee – Will Ask Gov to Declare State of Emergency in WSF Service in San Juans

In a San Juan County Council “workshop meeting” this morning, the Council agreed that the deteriorated quality of the services of Washington State Ferries — especially the inter-island service — has now risen to a “state of emergency.”

The word “emergency” was uttered 10 times during the approximately 40-minute-long discussion.

No vote was taken, but there appeared to be complete consensus among all three Council Representatives: Jane Fuller, Chair (Residency District 3), Cindy Wolf (Residency District 2), and Christine Minney (Residency District 1). Wolf and Minney delegated a phone call from the County to the Governor to be placed by Chairperson Fuller.

Fuller said in the meeting that the condition of WSF inter-island service has sunk to the point that she chooses not to appeal to WSF management or the 40th legislative district delegation, Senator Liz Lovelett, and State Representatives Alex Ramel or Debra Lekanoff. Fuller proposed calling the Governor direct in hopes the Governor will declare an emergency and unlock funds from sources other than the WSF budget.

“This is beyond a conversation with John Vezina (WSF Director of Planning). It’s far beyond Hadley Rodero (WSF Deputy Director of Planning, Customer and Government Relations). It’s, and I would dare to say, it’s beyond Steve Nevey (Assistant Secretary for WSF),” Fuller stated.

Cindy Wolf said the reason for bypassing the legislative district with a request for emergency declaration is that this request will be a function of the Council’s executive role, not legislative.

“Executive to executive,” said Wolf.

Fuller believes the State has ample resources to help. “I’m not necessarily saying WSF has the resources, but the State does,” Fuller said.

Fuller told her colleagues that she made the decision to put the discussion topic on today’s agenda last week.

Fuller said she has two ideas to start the discussion of what an emergency response might look like:

• Secure seed funding from the State to stand-up an inter-island passenger-only service now, “something more than Tom Bridge can do on his own,” and
• She also intends to ask about the status of a $100,000 fund that is meant to reimburse hotel bills for customers stranded at the end of service.

Fuller also seemed to secure the agreement of her colleagues in convening a panel of local stakeholders for a summit on ferries. She seems focused on quantifying the pain and damages to Countians and County businesses.

Council representative Wolf summed up her support for the direct appeal to the Governor saying, “The problems of the last month are beyond the pale.”

Council representative Minney said the County was ready to ask the Governor to declare ferry service here in a state of emergency in 2021 at the depths of Covid, but she noted at that time they felt the request should go through State Rep. Ramel. Said Minney, “It’s been a handful of years, but, this part of the conversation isn’t new, and it’s very frustrating to be here now, two and a half years later, having the exact same conversation and not honestly knowing what we can do to move the needle.”