By Jeff Noedel
Journal contributor
In 2024, candidate Bob Ferguson promised to make the problems with Washington State Ferries a priority. He promised change.
On Wednesday, Jan. 8, in appearances in Mukilteo and then in Clinton, Governor-elect Ferguson began to make good on his promise for change — the speed of change and the cost of change. Perhaps symbolically, the ferry-centered “listening session” was the first public meeting he held since winning the election in November.
He promised another ferry-themed listening session in the San Juans “later in the year.”
Back in the early months of the 2024 election, Ferguson signaled that the beleaguered state of WSF was a special priority for him. By putting ferries on his campaign website’s home page, he elevated the issue above other critical issues such as affordable housing and crime. Breaking from most Democrats in Olympia, Ferguson used words like “crisis” and “emergency” to describe the state of WSF service. On April 29 Ferguson even triggered the momentary ire of incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee when Inslee took a swipe at his fellow Democrat’s openness to building a few new diesel ferries if hybrid electrics took too long or cost too much to acquire promptly.
Referring to governor candidates calling for new diesel vessels, Inslee called diesel a “dirty, nasty old technology,” and the idea of ordering a new diesel vessel, “a brain-dead thing.”
During Ferguson’s Wednesday session at the Clinton Community Hall, attended by several dozen citizens and Whidbey Island leaders, the Governor-elect, in tennis shoes, acknowledged the brief dust-up with Inslee directly. He said, “I’ve had some differences with folks in my own party … including Gov. Inslee, who is a close friend of mine, you know, an ally.”
But Ferguson is keeping the idea of diesel ferries on the table. He said, “There’s a crisis, right? You have to make choices you wouldn’t otherwise normally make, right? [It’s] a front-burner issue. If you have a crisis, you need to act like it’s a crisis.”
Between the press conference in Mukilteo and the listening session in Clinton, Ferguson used the word “crisis” a dozen times.
Still, Ferguson made it clear that the hybrid electric vessels that are currently being bid on by three U.S. shipbuilders are the vastly preferred choice. Competitive bids for new boats are expected to arrive in May. New diesels may never be needed.
Regarding hybrid electric vessels, Ferguson reiterated, “Yes, we are going to be on a path while I’m governor to electrify that fleet. That is going to happen. That’s the priority. We’re going to do that. And everybody here supports that.”
The mere mention of diesel seemed to sit poorly with both activists in the Clinton audience as well as powerful State Senate Transportation Committee Chairperson Sen. Marko Llias (D-Mukilteo), who said with a principled chuckle, “I agree in part. I disagree in part with what the governor-elect said.”
An impressive contingent of lawmakers joined Ferguson and his staff at the listening session.
In attendance were State Sen. Llias, State Rep. Jake Fey, chair of the House Transportation Committee, State Rep. Dave Paul of the 10th district (which includes Whidbey Island) and vice-chair of the House Transportation Committee, and State Rep. Greg Nance of the 23rd district (Kitsap County) – all Democrats. Also present were Steve Nevey, assistant secretary of transportation and head of WSF, and John Vezina, director of planning for WSF.
The first audience member to address the state leaders was San Juan County Council member Jane Fuller of Lopez Island. She is laser-focused on saving a hard-earned win with the outgoing Inslee administration. In his suggested budget, Inslee slotted in a second year of San Juans’ weekend interisland service for next winter, a cost of $600,000 over three months. By maintaining weekend interisland service seven days a week, it is thought that it may be easier to attract WSF employees who live in the San Juans, and thus reduce the frequency of canceled interisland sailings due to lack of crew.
Ferguson responded to Fuller, “The investments proposed by Governor Inslee in his final budget support fund … My goal will be to increase that in the budget.”
Later, Fuller told the Journal, “I was really heartened to hear him say 100% behind what Gov. Inslee, put into his budget for ferries.” She also liked what she perceived to be a strong alignment between the Senate and House leaders present. And she commended “outside the box” problem ideas that are being put on the table.
One such new idea was floated by Sen. Llias, who spoke in favor of pausing the electrification process of the remaining two Jumbo Mark II class vessels which run on the flagship Bainbridge-Seattle route. Pulling a Jumbo Mark II to dock and convert it to hybrid proved to be an even bigger challenge than expected. Electrification of the Wenatchee went significantly over budget and blew past deadlines.
Said Llias, “We need to sort of be more eyes wide open and take a closer look at whether we move forward with those retrofits of those two vessels right away. … Let’s water-test [the Wenatchee]. Let’s kick the tires.”
Pulling a Jumbo Mark II from service for an extended time puts extra stress on the entire fleet. Postponing the electrification of the other two largest vessels could give WSF options, such as restoring service in one or more of the four routes still experiencing truncated service.
Jack Schwab, an Oak Harbor resident and member of Island County’s Ferry Advisory Committee, observed that Washington state analysis shows the need for 16 new ferries by 2040. But he said, “The Legislature just seems focused on committing to building one ferry per biennium after the first five. But to get 16, you have to build at least two every biennium after that. And then you’re still challenged.”
Schwab alluded to the challenges in relying on daily service of the Tillikum (66 years old), the Kaleetan (58) and the Yakima (58) running for many years more.
Ferguson said he was talking with budget staff the day before about that subject. He said he told his staff, “We’re not getting enough boats in the water quick enough. Okay? Look, I need options, okay?
Rep. Paul seemed to agree. He said, “We need to make the math for 25 ferries in our system to operate the way I think everybody should want. They last roughly 50 years. That’s pretty simple math. If we build a new ferry every two years, every biennium, we’re back in a position where we’re regularly replacing ferries. With my colleagues, that conversation has gone better than it did six years ago when I first joined the Legislature.”
WSF’s Nevey confirmed that WSF is planning on relying on those three aging vessels for 10 more years.
There was consensus among the leaders that WSF has had faster success with recruiting, training and retention of onboard staff. In 2024, many hundreds of sailings were canceled for lack of crew to meet Coast Guard minimums.
But perhaps the most interesting back-and-forth was sparked by Dean Enell, chair of the Clinton Ferry Advisory Committee, who told the Governor-elect, “You got to get the cars off the boats. It says that all over the long-range plan, and I don’t see anything done to do that.”
Enell continued, “In my 34 years, there’s more and more cars on the ferry every single year.” Enell advocates passenger-only ferries, also known as foot ferries, which seamlessly connect to mass transit bus systems, light rail and commuter rail.
Indeed, in the San Juans, the County government intends to spend most of the $1.5 million emergency grant from Gov. Inslee on various forms of foot ferries.
After Enell made his case for foot ferries, Ferguson turned to State Rep. Nance, who was already sitting forward in his chair and said, “We’ve got to use this crisis to think outside the box. One thing that’s worked wonders for us in Kitsap, where our Kingston and Bremerton communities have been hammered with one boat service since 2021, is passenger-only vessels. If this is just a group of legislators representing districts with ferry terminals, we don’t have the 50 votes in the House. We don’t have a 25 vote to be in the Senate to get this budget to the governor’s desk. And so by taking a wider aperture, trying to really solve this challenge and for a point of reference, our inputs, I haven’t seen the latest bid figures. They’re gonna be very, very, very expensive.”
Nance continued, “A used passenger-only vessel can be $2 million to $5 million to $8 million. So there’s different economics here to get boats in the water.
Nance said he is drafting a bill for the Legislature which he will name, “The Mosquito Fleet Act.”
The powerful Senate Transportation Llias didn’t speak for or against Nance’s idea. But he did say some innovations cannot be heaped atop the huge lift WSF already faces. Said Llias, “It’s really important with these passenger options that we are not asking WSF to do more work. Their mission is to get our boats in the water, get our crew restored. So I love that it’s Kitsap Transit. I love that it’s King County Metro. Steve (Nevey) and his team don’t have bandwidth to build a passenger-only fleet on top of the work in front of them.
Nance is a relative newcomer to the state Legislature. A bundle of energy and enthusiasm, his ideas are big. In his freshman term last year, Nance was elected assistant whip by the Democratic Caucus. On Wednesday, Nance’s high energy matched that of Ferguson.
While perhaps insignificant, moments before the Governor-elect’s limousine pulled away from the Clinton Community Hall, the Governor invited in another passenger: Representative Greg Nance.
