PULL THE PLUG ON FACs? State legislature considering suspension of WSF ferry advisory committees for 2 years — or forever

Ferry activists and local leaders reading the recently-passed State Senate transportation budget (ESSB 5161) were shocked to find a major policy shift proposed on page 105 of the 260-page bill. Section 720 of the bill details the make-up of Washington State Ferries ferry advisory committees.

In a two-line addition at the end of Section 720, the Senate added, “This section has no force or effect during the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium.” The effect of that change would be to disable ferry advisory committees for at least two years, beginning July 1 of this year.

A Senate budget summary makes it even clearer. It reads, “$75 thousand for a study at the Evans School of Public Policy to recommend updates to WSF customer engagement systems. Pending results of the study, ferry advisory committee activities are suspended for the duration of the 2025-27 biennium.”

In a new SanJuans.Today video interview (right), Amy Drayer, the leader of the Vashon Island-based Fix Our Ferries coalition, asks, “Why?”

• Why close down the ferry advisory committees? What’s wrong with them?
• Why close them before a study that could lead to better methods of public accountability?
• Why spend $75,000 to study public feedback when the state is in the middle of a $15 billion budget crisis?
• Where was this idea vetted in public? Was this idea discussed in a Senate public hearing?
• Is advisory committee input no longer needed? Are legislators suggesting all of WSF’s problems are solved now?

SanJuans.Today is researching the history of this bill to see when and where public testimony was taken that established problems or deficiencies with WSF’s ferry advisory committees. More to come.