To the editor:

Because of my interest in and reliance on our ferry system, and expecting some innovative ideas on ferry service affecting Whidbey Island, Port Townsend and the rest of Puget Sound from “legislative leaders and transportation experts,” I joined the Leadership Council’s recent telephone town hall meeting.

I was seriously let down.

What I listened to instead were political attacks directed at Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the one state senator who — often single-handedly — has championed a fiscally sound, well-managed ferry system. A volley of slanted assertions, catchy one-liners and quick fixes blamed the leadership in Olympia for getting everything wrong, conveniently ignoring two state representatives, both Republicans, who also represent Whidbey.

Not once did I hear about Sen. Haugen’s successful fight for a larger 144-car ferry design that will increase capacity on the South Whidbey-Mukilteo link by more than 15 percent.

Not once did I hear a single proposal regarding sustainable funding for the ferry system. Instead, there were those tired old ideas of repealing regulations that somehow prevent shipyards from bidding competitively, and of privatizing the operation, thereby solving all its problems.

Not once did I hear of the inadequacy of the “design-build” process when there is in fact just one shipyard in Washington state with the financial and logistical wherewithal to build ferries.

So it seems the telephone town hall was just a thinly-veiled attempt to heap all of the ferries’ problems on Sen. Haugen rather than seeking workable, fiscally sensible solutions. Little was offered in the way of constructive proposals to address the ferry system’s serious fiscal problems brought on by $30 car tabs, a fare freeze and the unprecedented increase in fuel costs.

Blaming Sen. Haugen isn’t leadership; it’s just politics, plain and simple. So while few fact-based, innovative or useful ideas were offered on the call-in, little was accomplished.

Bob Distler

Orcas Island