A Day in the Life of a Citizen reacting to the Port of Seattle
By Paul Schlossman
Notwithstanding the somewhat remote philosophy of leadership which emanates soap- operatically from the leadership group at the Port of Seattle, I, having a little spare time, was in a good situation for some reading on economics and ecology; and for a gradual learning process to understand large out-of-control entities (such as the abovementioned Port)
The Port thought itself remote from the citizens who pay for it and its errors, but the citizens have an interest in the colossus that keeps them watching it.
I was going to write a book reaction for the inclusion in THE PORT OBSERVER about Paul Ormerod's, BUTTERFLY ECONOMICS. In this book, by an economist who has written for The Economist, Ormerod states that simple linear upward graphs predicting success for dominant institutions are in error. The economy, he says, is not a machine; but closely analogous to an organism.
This means the growth pattern is complex, spiraling, vortexing, multi-plexing and capable of the opposite of growth (stunting, or, perish the thought, perishing; ever heard of perishable produce?)
The economy, if we inject the notion of “sustainable development,” is not only like and organism. And not only is it actually an organism. But it stands, or falls, on the biological health of us. (We the organisms).
Anyway, I am reading about economix for another purpose. My high school classmate won the Noble for continuing the work of Stiglitz, John Nash (A Beautiful Mind), Soros and Arrow. This is the decisive (And I mean decisive) research that shows that the free market works only some times, and under some fairly restrictive assumptions. It is not a power machine powering haves inhabiting restrictive clubs and counting upward what they have got.
Which goes to what woke me up from this frenzy of reading. Glaring headlines greeting the citizen-who-follows-the Port on December the 21st; Mr Sonntag has completed his audit. Mr. Sonntag does not appear to be amused; nor do other government agencies having an interest in this matter.
This is my understanding of two points about how we might think about this. The fiduciary responsibility for accurate accounting is indeed linear, machine like, engineered and unvarying. Accuracy is important and has no substitutes. Hundred million dollar cost overruns on unbid contracts count. They cannot be explained by what Mr Yoshitani has termed “best practices.” Mr Yoshitani's justification for theses glaring errors via such business technology (“best practices”) shows (again!) the defective theory behind the Port.
The Port must balance its governmental nature and its business nature; It cannot hide behind popular business terminologies like “best practices” or the “business judgment rule.”
What is signaled and what is signified by the linear integrity of perfectible, and responsible, accounting is not a right of a power group to pump up its share and take up more; but the human life behind the accounting.
As Alan Greenspan has written; the numbers that show the economy are a signal. But what they signal is the vibrant set of socially measurable organisms that must be protected; the (organic) economy; the (organic) environment ; aka, this is your life.
This is your life on clean air? Or this is your life on chemicalized air. This is your life on prudent fiscal management in public institutions; Or this is your life on incredible cost overruns?
As James Fox of New Jersey told me last May. “Had there been in the State of Washington a strong oversight function, with veto power, for the governor, accounting problems would be “less likely to occur” Mr Fox has been the Chief of Staff for a governor and a U.S. Senator in New Jersey; the Transportation Commissioner; and Deputy Director of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. His views are based on economic, financial and legal science. He should know. Mr Fox is a fiduciary in the classic sense of the word. Since he would know, a citizen having the chance to hear from him how its supposed to be would begin to maybe know something about it, too.
Accounting problems, or whatever else Mr Sonntag, finds in the matter of the Port of Seattle, are objective realities; whose destiny is to receive correction from the voice of concerned citizens, reacting to the situation-during this final week of 2007