PORT ANGELES – Two bidders hoping to house the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Fleet filed protests by Friday’s deadline against the decision to relocate the ships to Oregon, in actions that — should they result in reopening the bidding process — could benefit Port Angeles.
The protests were filed by Bellingham and Seattle, both of which had bid to be the next home for NOAA’s research fleet, now based at Lake Union in Seattle.
No protest was filed by the Friday deadline by Port Angeles, which also had bid to be the base for the four research ships.
Asked for extension
Instead, the Port of Port Angeles, Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles asked to extend the protest filing deadline, saying they lacked sufficient information to make a decision about objecting to NOAA’s selection of Newport, Ore., as the next base for its four research ships, which have been quartered at Lake Union since 1911.
NOAA turned down the request for a deadline extension in an e-mail to the port received Thursday.
Since a successful protest would reopen the entire review process, Port Angeles could benefit by Bellingham’s and Seattle’s actions.
“That’s a game changer for us,” said Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb after Bellingham’s protest, filed Thursday, was reported Friday.
NOAA signed a 20-year-lease with Newport, Ore., on Aug. 8. Its lease at Lake Union ends in 2011, and NOAA wants to move the fleet by July of that year.
Both the Port of Bellingham and the city of Seattle contend in their protests that NOAA specified the base could not be built on a floodplain and that NOAA’s own environmental analysis says that Newport’s Yaquina Bay, at the mouth of the Yaquina River, is in a floodplain.
Costly option
Seattle also says that the move would be the most costly of the options that were available to NOAA and that it would undermine the safety of the research fleet.
Although the lease at Lake Union, which would cost NOAA between $4 million and $5 million annually, would make it the most costly of the offers received, Seattle argues that additional costs would make Newport the most expensive, The Seattle Times reported.
The Seattle protest says that NOAA would have to spend about $1.7 million annually to ship fuel by barge to the Oregon coastal town, hire pilots to navigate a treacherous river bar and bring ships back to Seattle for major repairs, the newspaper said.
Much of NOAA’s support staff would stay in Seattle.
Robb said the port has not given up on its effort to provide a 20-year lease facility at Terminal 3 that would cost more than $25 million.
“We are considering what our options are right now,” Robb said Friday morning.
The three government entities had contended after being debriefed on NOAA’s decision on Aug. 18 that they did not have enough information to decide if a protest were warranted and that the deadline should be extended.
James Barrows, NOAA’s property contracting officer at the agency’s Sand Point facility, said there was no more information.
“We have reviewed the evaluators’ books and did not find any different information beyond what was described at the debriefing,” Barrows said in the e-mailed letter.
The port’s position is that the 10-day window for filing a protest begins Thursday, when port officials learned of Barrows’ decision, Robb said.
The next port commissioners’ meeting is Sept. 14, and no special meetings had been planned as of Friday morning.
“I will communicate with the three commissioners individually and gauge the commission,” Robb said.
Port lawyer Dave Neupert said at the commission’s Monday meeting that about 20 percent of protests of NOAA’s decisions are successful.
“That will probably be a strong measure of the commission direction,” Robb said.
However, The Times cites NOAA as estimating that about 5 percent of appeals are successful.
John Calhoun, port commission president, has said he does not favor the port filing a protest.
The Port Angeles bid proposal cost $129,000, with costs divided among the port ($54,000), the city of Port Angeles ($50,000) and Clallam County ($25,000).
The Newport facility for NOAA’s Pacific fleet is expected to cost about $38 million, The Times said, and will have offices, warehouse space and berthing for four ships.
The Port of Newport will issue $24.76 million in revenue bonds, and the state of Oregon agreed to add $19.5 million in bonding capacity.
Port of Bellingham spokeswoman Carolyn Casey said in a prepared statement that legal fees for the protest, which would be filed with the GAO, could reach $300,000, but those fees can be recovered if the protest is successful.
Seven members of Washington’s congressional delegation — including Sens. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, and Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace — have requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office review NOAA’s decision.
The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine NOAA’s lease acquisition process to see if it assured the best value for taxpayers and whether officials changed criteria during the process.
The letter also was signed by House members Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, Adam Smith D-Tacoma, Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, and Dave Reichert, R-Auburn.
The GAO is expected to decide if it will review NOAA’s decision within the next few weeks.
