For Immediate Release
For More Information:
Carolyn Casey, Port of Bellingham, 360-676-2500
Port Commission Protests NOAA Decision
Directs Staff to File Protest Immediately
[Bellingham, Wash.] The Port of Bellingham's Board of Commissioners voted today to submit a formal protest of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) site selection and lease acquisition process.
"The best outcome for Bellingham is still to get NOAA, if we possibly can, because it would be an anchor tenant, would provide essential new jobs and would jumpstart our waterfront redevelopment," said Commission President Scott Walker. "We believe the new information we gained in the past few days made it essential that we take another look at filing a protest. We still believe Bellingham is the very best site for NOAA's facility."
Last week the Commission voted against filing a protest in a meeting that Walker was unable to attend due to a death in his family. Walker took part in Thursday's Special Commission meeting by phone, as did Interim Executive Director Fred Seeger.
Following the Commission decision last week, Port staff and a legal team continued to evaluate the NOAA selection process, as well as the agency's comparison between the winning Newport, Ore., site and the Bellingham Shipping Terminal site. Both sites scored very high in NOAA's site technical evaluation, with Newport finishing slightly higher.
The research found that the federal agency's official Solicitation for Offers (SFO) stated that sites under consideration could not be in a floodplain. According to Port Attorney Frank Chmelik, the analysis by the Port's Washington D.C. lawyers indicates that NOAA may not have followed proper procedure to deal with the floodplain issue because the Newport site is in a floodplain.
He noted that, according to federal contract rules, if NOAA approved a site that did not meet its stated criteria, the federal agency would have to either remove Newport from consideration and choose another site, or would have to change its SFO and allow new bids to be submitted.
"Last week I stood before you and cautioned you that your protest might ‘win the battle but lose the war,'" Chmelik said. "Today, with the new information we have found, I believe that if this issue prevails the Port will have the opportunity to actually get NOAA."
The other new information that was shared with the Commission was the finding that, if their protest is successful, they will be able to recover most of their legal fees from the bid protest effort. Depending on the length and complexity of the protest, these fees could reach $300,000, according to the Washington D.C. legal firm that is working on behalf of the Port.
"We have undertaken a careful review of the site selection process and the manner in which the competing sites were rated," said Port Commission Vice President Jim Jorgensen. "We have strong concerns that the process did not result in a fair or accurate comparison of the proposals."
Earlier this month, NOAA announced that it had selected Newport, Ore., for the Pacific Research Fleet homeport facility. The facility is currently located on Lake Union in Seattle. The Seattle location, as well as the Port of Bellingham and the Port of Port Angeles were all in competition with Newport for a 20-year lease for the ships and their upland facilities.
Port Interim Executive Director Fred Seeger recommended the Commission authorize a protest of the NOAA process.
"We believe that there were enough irregularities to merit a review of this process," Seeger said. "In addition to the inaccuracies in the manner of scoring for several key technical factors, I believe the flood plain issue is a major area of protest."
Port officials do not know if any of the other sites that submitted bids will be protesting the selection process. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, along with five congressmen sent a letter asking the Federal General Accounting Office to undertake a review of the lease acquisition process.
The Port has been part of the formal site selection process since it began in 2007. The NOAA facility could have an estimated $19 million a year economic impact and could generate 188 permanent full-time jobs. A community-wide effort was undertaken in pursuing this project.
-30-
