Minutes Exhibit A Port
Commission Regular Meeting
of May 24, 2016

May 23, 2016
To-The Port Commissioners,(Tom Albro, Stephanie Bowman, John Creighton, Fred Frelleman, Courtney
Gregiore)
One of the topics that you have been working on is communications with the public-how to improve
that. Your website shows that you have been working on this as part of your Strategic Planning. And
positive communication with the public is a serious problem for the Port of Seattle.
The major portion of your problem with your communications is that you hide and conceal how to
contact not only the Port Commissioners but also !he staff of the Port. As an example; when citizens call
into the Port answering service, the staff member answering the phone has no idea ofhow to contact or
who to refer the call to. This suggests that there is no major directory of phone numbers and the staff
members who do specific tasks. As a result, the person ahswering the phones can't refer the caller to
the correct staff member. Another example is; when you put out publications that lists what staff
members are responsible for a program/issue, the Port fails to list a phone number or email address the
staff member can be reached at. A call to the Port to find out more information from the responsible
staff member does little good because the person answering the phone can't find the phone no. or
email address for that staff member.
Even the task of how to get this letter to you was a dilemma for me. The Port website shows no phone
numbers of emails addresses to contact the Commissioners at. Afpublicly elected officials, your
business phone numbers and addresses should be readily available to the public.
This meeting that you are having today was presented in a confused fashion on your website. The Port
website sites indicated that you were having conflicting meetings at the same time-one in Woodinville
and one at Sea Tac Airport
On March 24, 2016, I attended a Port held meeting at Sea Tac City Hall. I put comments and a Public
Information Request in the Comment Box provided by the Port. No Port Staff member has ever followed
up with me on my comments or bothered to pass my Public Information Request on to the appropriate
department or staffmember.
Again on April 11, 2016, I attended another public meeting sponsored by the Port. And again, I put a
comments and notice that I had filed a Public Information Request in the comment box. As ofthe date
of writing this letter to all of you, no one from the Port has contacted me or acknowledged that I made a
Public Information Request. This leads me to believe that no one from the Port even bothers to read the
citizen comments that it solicits at its meetings. This lack of follow through by your staff speaks volumes
about the problems with your public communications problems
Please have some staff member contact me about my Public Information Request. I can get reached at
16collingham@gmail.com
Thank you for referring my request on to the appropriate staff member.
Respectfully,
c. Edgar
Cc Clerk for the Commission