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I attended most Port Commission meetings and Study Sessions for a total of four years ending in 2017. It was my personal experience that the Port of Olympia suppressed honest information about most all of the Port's questionable business practices, including inaccurate financial accounting and generalized shadiness of actions.

Information has been deliberately withheld by the Port, even when legally requested, as there has been no corrective oversight from any state agency other than the State Auditor's office a few times when their accounting practices were grossly incorrect. Legal actions against the Port have resulted in multi-million dollar settlements, at times; that has been the only way to get the Port to act legally in my experience of the Port going back about 10 years since i began watching them.

I personally witnessed the mean undermining and harassment of Commissioner Sue Gunn which culminated in Commissioner Gunn's being forced from office because she was unable to attend meetings in person for a period of 6 or 8 weeks after heart surgery which had a longer recovery period than was legally allowed.

I witnessed the harassment of EJ Zita as well. Watching the Port in action as they harassed the two female commissioners who fought for more ethical and financially sound Port actions, I saw concerted undermining by Commissioners Downing and McGreggor--as well as systematic harassment and undermining by both Port staff and by members of the longshore union--of both female commissioners until they were both actively pushed out.

And now we have a third female commissioner, Amy Evans Harding, who is being suppressed and silenced when she attempts to bring some integrity of action to the Port of Olympia.

A majority vote of two commissioners can, has, and continues to silence the minority vote commissioner. A minority commissioner is powerless to make positive change in that deeply corrupt agency that is the Port of Olympia. Public pressure to fire Gibboney has gotten nowhere over time.

There has been evidence over the several years of ED Gibboney's employment at the Port, factual and anecdotal from people who watch the-Port, and from information in the local press, that the Executive Director Sam Gibboney has acted dishonestly and unprofessionally in the performance of her job. There is the letter signed by dozens of Port employees stating they lack confidence in her leadership because of the unethical and unacceptable things Gibboney has done. There is obviously a big problem at the Port with management by the Executive Director.

Our elected Commissioners Joe Downing and Bob Iyall, by their actions, have demonstrated that they approve of a director who acts in ways that are unethical and immoral--or they'd have replaced her long ago. Looks obvious to me that she’s doing their dirty work.