Today's "Local Mailing List"..."My Opinion" by Cdr. L.M. Patella on the IDD Levy

[Chief]

received today, via e-mail

My response to this is in work...

Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 6:15 AM
Subject: My Opinion


> (Mailing list information, including unsubscription instructions,
> is located at the end of this message.)
> __
>
> By now, you should have received a copy of the Citizens for a Strong Economy Dear Neighbor Letter. I got three. I am aware of some households that got 4 or 5. Although the letter was well written and focused on the Port's theme of creating jobs, it neglected to Point out a few facts:
> Who or what is Citizen's for a Strong Economy? "Citizens for a Strong Economy" appears to be another name for "Identity Clark County" with a few local politicians added. You know them, they are the group that helped squander, without a vote of the people millions of our tax dollars on the Peoples Hotel of Vancouver, The Murdock Building, the Monterey Hotel, the Bridge to Nowhere, numerous downtown parking garages that continue to require daily infusions of tax-payer dollars and other boondoggles too numerous to mention.
> Their members often receive legal kickbacks and are allowed to purchase publicly owned property for a fraction of its assessed value.
> They also were and are instrumental in the creation of numerous tax-spending authorities such as "the Vancouver Public Facility District", the Clark County Public Facility District, Vancouver Downtown Redevelopment Authority that are staffed and run by unelected "Appointees" who are allowed to spend our tax dollars without a vote of the people.
> Also omitted from their letter was the fact that the Port attempted to raise your property tax 132% over the current rate they now collect without allowing you to vote. Only a petition drive by the people has allowed your voice to be heard.
> The letter claims the levy will create some 6000 jobs, yet it ignored the fact that the port rushed to pay a premium price for property that had been on the market for years with no other apparent buyers. What else did the letter not tell you? They conveniently remained silent on the fact that they have no prospective employers and they may not have any for years to come. Why? Because on October 10, 2003 they entered into a 150-page agreement with the "Columbia River Alliance for Nurturing the Environment" that makes the development of the area, they want to purchase virtually impossible over the next 6 years. It cost me $15 dollars to get a copy of that important document.
> The Citizen for a Strong Economy letter also neglected to tell you that the Port is a publicly owned profit making business. As such, they should have told you that the Port has sufficient funds to purchase the Alcoa/Evergreen property and pursue the Railroad project with out increasing our property taxes.
> But then, when those who are entrusted with managing our hard earned tax dollars are allowed to raise taxes every time they need a couple of dollars, they don't need to be productive, cost effective business manager, do they?
>
>
> L. M. Patella
> CDR USN (ret)
> 2714 NE 42nd Circle
> Vancouver, WA 98663
>

[Chief]

By now, you should have received a copy of the Citizens for a Strong Economy Dear Neighbor Letter. I got three. I am aware of some households that got 4 or 5. Although the letter was well written and focused on the Port's theme of creating jobs, it neglected to Point out a few facts:

Let's just stop right there. The mission of the Port of Vancouver is job creation; why wouldn't that letter focus on that?? The Commander casually dismisses the main reason why the Port exists in the first place, in order to point out the set of "facts" he has assembled.

Who or what is Citizen's for a Strong Economy? "Citizens for a Strong Economy" appears to be another name for "Identity Clark County" with a few local politicians added. You know them, they are the group that helped squander, without a vote of the people millions of our tax dollars on the Peoples Hotel of Vancouver, The Murdock Building, the Monterey Hotel, the Bridge to Nowhere, numerous downtown parking garages that continue to require daily infusions of tax-payer dollars and other boondoggles too numerous to mention.
> Their members often receive legal kickbacks and are allowed to purchase publicly owned property for a fraction of its assessed value.

Once again, Commander Patella is pounding out his laundry list of sins, committed or perceived as committed, by everyone from the City of Vancouver to Clark County, and is trying to pummel the Port of Vancouver in a mis-guided quest fot retaliation for them. His colorful descriptions of those sins, and his use of his own pet names for expensive projects all fit in quite well with what he did label as "My Opinion". All of this paragraph is certainly that, and without any supporting foundation for his claims, whatsoever.

In fact the fellow who wrote the letter we received clearly identified himself as a longshoreman, leading me to believe that the local Longshoreman's Union is behind that letter as opposed to ICC. In any case I will be working this week to find out who that group is. I did a cursory search on Google, and could turn up no information whatsoever, so if Commander Patella has information that ICC is behind this group, I urge him to share it.

They also were and are instrumental in the creation of numerous tax-spending authorities such as "the Vancouver Public Facility District", the Clark County Public Facility District, Vancouver Downtown Redevelopment Authority that are staffed and run by unelected "Appointees" who are allowed to spend our tax dollars without a vote of the people.

Again Commander Patella is running down his personal laundry list of issues that have been voted on by different duly elected Public agencies, from the Clark County Commissioners to Vancouver City Council. Neither of them are run by the Port of Vancouver, or the Commissioners of the Port of Vancouver. The "unelected "Appointees"" that he is referring to are unnamed and therefore completely unclear as to whom he is referring to. I think it may be likely that some of his "appointees" are likely duly-hired employees of the City of Vancouver of Clark County.

Also omitted from their letter was the fact that the Port attempted to raise your property tax 132% over the current rate they now collect without allowing you to vote. Only a petition drive by the people has allowed your voice to be heard.

I am encouraged to see that Commander Patella has parsed this sentence, since he first started using a different variation of it in order to get signatures on the Petition to vote on the Levy. He was claiming that the Port was trying to raise our taxes 132%; and that is a complete misstatement of facts.

It is true that the tax they charge is going up about that much. In my case, the current Port tax of about $103.95 per year will increase $33.26 to about $137.21 per year.. Measured against my entire Property Tax bill from Clark County this year of almost $3800, the increased Port tax will be a staggering 3.61% of my total Property tax bill.

In other words the good Commander is still overstating the size of this increase in order to try and score cheap political points.

The letter claims the levy will create some 6000 jobs, yet it ignored the fact that the port rushed to pay a premium price for property that had been on the market for years with no other apparent buyers. What else did the letter not tell you? They conveniently remained silent on the fact that they have no prospective employers and they may not have any for years to come. Why? Because on October 10, 2003 they entered into a 150-page agreement with the "Columbia River Alliance for Nurturing the Environment" that makes the development of the area, they want to purchase virtually impossible over the next 6 years. It cost me $15 dollars to get a copy of that important document.

The Port has repeatedly answere all of these charges that the Commander is making yet again, at all three of the Commissioner Forums. He is one of the people who went to those meetings asking the same question over and over, and getting the same answers over and over.

How the Commander can make the claim that the Port has "no prospective employers and they may not have any for years to come" is completely beyond me. In fact the Port of Vancouver has a 100% occupancy rate of the properties they hold right now, and has been turning business away, because they do not have the space, or the rail access. Those are the prolems the IDFD will help fx.

Once againCommander Patella is making unsubstantiated claims without a shred of supporting documentation. I couldn't care less that he paid $15 dollars or $1500 dollars for any document that he cannot (or will not) share a copy of on the internet where anyone can read it. I will not accept his analysis of any document that I cannot view, and independently do my own analysis of.

I will also work this week to track down the document he bought, and see if it makes his point on this or not.

The Citizen for a Strong Economy letter also neglected to tell you that the Port is a publicly owned profit making business. As such, they should have told you that the Port has sufficient funds to purchase the Alcoa/Evergreen property and pursue the Railroad project with out increasing our property taxes.

This is another unsupported statement of what the Port of Vancouver is all about.

Here are the links to the unaudited 2006 Financial Statements for the Port of Vancouver. I have these posted elsewhere, but I will post them here for quick reference...

http://clarkblog.org/index.php?action=post;msg=4067;topic=1557.0;sesc=6 62cd437f8b538da9b469a71f60a4ea5

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/Financials/2006 Cash Flow.pdf">2006 Statement of Cash Flows</a>

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/Financials/2006%20Rev%20%20Exp.pdf">2006 STATEMENT OF REVENUES, EXPENSES</a>

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/Financials/2006 Stmt Net Assets.pdf">2006 STATEMENT OF NET ASSETS</a>

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/Financials/MgmtDiscussionAnalysis.pdf">2006 Management's Discussion and Analysis</a>

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/Financials/Notes to FS.pdf">2006 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS</a>

I challenge anyone here to show me on those statements where the Port of Vancouver is reporting any "Profit", legal or otherwise.. In fact the Port of Vancouver has been pouring revenue into Capital Assets, and has documented it thoroughly in their financial statements. Don't take my word for it, go read those documents and make up your own mind.

His statement that the Port "As such, they should have told you that the Port has sufficient funds to purchase the Alcoa/Evergreen property and pursue the Railroad project with out increasing our property taxes." is an outright fabrication on his part, has no basis in fact whatsoever, and he is wrong as he can be to be saying that in public. He is personally discrediting not only himself, but everyone who is associated with this "opposition" to the IDD Levy every time he makes this outrageously inaccurate statement.


But then, when those who are entrusted with managing our hard earned tax dollars are allowed to raise taxes every time they need a couple of dollars, they don't need to be productive, cost effective business manager, do they?

Accusing a duly elected Public Official of misconduct of any kind in the official performance of their duties is one of the most serious charges that anyone in public office will ever face. If proven to be true, such allegations warrent a speedy trial, and upon conviction, the strongest sanctions available under the law.

Commander Patella is continuing to sling mud at the Port Commissioners, and blaming them for things that the City of Vancouver, Clark County, the State of Washington and others have done that he personally does not approve of. In fact, I am not at all sure what Commander Patella DOES approve of, since he has so many negative things to say about nearly everything.

I have yet to see him produce any documentation to back up a single emotionally charged issue that he chooses for his personal attention. There is merit in being a "Naysayer", but when all you can do is complain, when you never provide a solution of your own to anything, and you never have a good word to say about anything, your message is diminished, and easily dismissed. Why do you think that Larry Patella is the most published letter writer on the columbian's editorial pages??

Once again, I insist that we stick to facts that we can document to back up any claims or recommendations about the Port of Vancouver's proposed IDD Levy. Commander Patella is once again making spectacular, outrageous charges that are completely unsupported by facts.

I respect his right to speak his mind and express his opinions, but when he is as far off base as he is in his missive this morning, I will not hesitate to rebut him here at Clarkblog.

Stout Hearts!!

Chief