[ad_1]
The Port of Seattle is without doubt one of the area’s main financial engines, making the port commissioner race certainly one of its most vital. In poll after poll, voters have cited financial points as extra essential to them than another.
Incumbent Commissioner Fred Felleman, who has served in Place 5 for the previous seven-and-a-half years, has the expertise and data to assist hold that engine purring.
Felleman is an environmentalist who studied southern resident orcas on the College of Washington and later based the Port’s Vitality and Sustainability Committee. He additionally serves because the fee’s tribal liaison and has labored with the Suquamish and Muckleshoot, believing strongly in bringing them on board when making Port selections that can impression their communities.
Importantly, Felleman understands bigger geopolitical shifts as effectively, and grasps the financial implications of developments in Asian commerce routes from China to Vietnam, India and elsewhere.
Felleman additionally sees that the Port is without doubt one of the state’s main sources of revenue and employment, and never a political instrument.
In June 2021, when pro-Palestinian “Block the Boat” protesters focused the publicly traded, Israel-based ZIM San Diego, Port officers accommodated the protesters’ demonstration whereas guaranteeing the protection of staff and sustaining the Port’s reputation as a reliable gateway for worldwide commerce. “We’re not in favor of enjoying politics,” Felleman advised the editorial board.
However, he provides, the Port just isn’t primarily a revenue generator. What issues most is its capacity to create and keep jobs, and on that matter, his document speaks for itself.
Regardless of the China-U.S. commerce struggle, the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent supply-chain points, the Russia-Ukraine Conflict and quite a few different obstacles, the variety of new staff employed on the Port rose from 24 in 2021 to 141 in 2023. There have been extra job openings created, extra interviews carried out and extra employment trainings accomplished.
“We must be judged by our capacity to create jobs,” Felleman advised the board.
Difficult him are Todd Curtis, a danger evaluation skilled and programs engineer, and Jesse Tam, a former banker and present board director for the Higher Seattle Chinese language Chamber of Commerce. Each certified candidates provide options that draw upon their strengths. Curtis guarantees improved integration strategies whereas Tam desires to deal with budgetary points. However neither candidate has the depth of expertise or data to match Felleman’s.
Voters must re-elect Fred Felleman to proceed his work as Port commissioner.
Editor’s notice: An earlier model of this editorial misstated how lengthy Fred Felleman has served in Place 5.
[ad_2]
Source link
