Please join us for our first Tuesday Roundtable of 2022 honoring Compass Award winner Representative Steve Tharinger. The WPPA Compass Award is given to legislators each year that have shown special support of port districts. The award actually consists of a compass – which is a symbol of heading in the right direction.

Representative Tharinger helped shepherd infrastructure funding to ports for individual projects, state programs ports can utilize and much needed broadband money. In addition, he stepped in and helped WPPA get the MTCA remedial action grant bill across the finish line in the House this past session. Finally, he sponsored a bill that would have extended the .09 funds for 20 more years, an important program for ports in rural counties. He provides thoughtful advice when asked and always makes himself available to his local port districts.

Use the link below to register for the Zoom meeting, after which you will be given the Zoom link and the option to add the event to your calendar. We hope to see you there.

Legislative Session is just around the corner, and WPPA is gearing up to represent port interests in the legislature. We’ve invited Dave Catterson, JTC Coordinator along with JTC Staff to discuss four important transportation-themed studies that your port should be aware of:

• Broadband Access to State Right of Way

• Assessment of State Support for Short Line Rail Infrastructure

• Truck Parking Action Plan

• Hood River Bridge Bi-State Authority

Washington’s Joint Transportation Committee (JTC) is a bicameral committee that completes transportation-related research, conducts studies and makes recommendations for legislative action. We will discuss recommendations and the potential for legislative action this upcoming session addressing issues identified by the research teams.

Freight and goods movement is vital to the success of most of the port districts across Washington State. WPPA is proud to host WSDOT to our Tuesday Roundtable to provide a comprehensive overview of the update to the State’s Freight Plan on Tuesday December 14th from 11:00AM to 12:30PM. The following topics will be discussed in detail:

·       Overview of state freight plan and freight investment plan

·       Engagement opportunities for ports

·       MPO/RTPO coordination

·       Timeline for plan update

This Roundtable is open to WPPA member ports only. To register, click the button below:

Dr. Lisa Brown, the Director of the Washington Department of Commerce headlines this WPPA Tuesday Roundtable. Together with key members of her staff, such as Chris Green, Assistant Director of Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness, Dr. Brown will speak on economic development in Washington state and give an update on all of the programs and opportunities Commerce has for ports.

Ports are essential economic engines in Washington, and provide their communities with infrastructure, trade, tourism, and a favorable business climate. This conversation with Dr. Brown will highlight programs ports can use.

Connecting Ports with Grant Opportunities and organizations focused on helping ports meet our mission continues to be of strong interest to WPPA members. The August 17th Roundtable will pair two distinctly different opportunities for you to learn more about programs designed to help you port. US EDA has been very busy assisting small business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laura Ives will join us to give you an overview of what US EDA programs are available for your port or your tenants and how she can be a resource for you to tap into as you consider future funding needs. We will also have David Chenaur, the Program Manager for the Community Aviation Revitalization Loan Program join us to talk about this program and how he hopes to build a culture of sustainability among the smallest airports across Washington.

Join us August 17th to learn more about these exciting opportunities available for your port.

Auto manufacturers are ramping up production of plug-in electric and other alternative fueled vehicles with breakneck speed. Is your community or port prepared with publicly available infrastructure necessary to respond to the coming demand for charging infrastructure? Is your port thinking about converting your own vehicles or vehicle fleets? This Roundtable is designed to get your port considering its role in responding to the dramatic shift in how we all get around. Three experts will join us to talk about this conversion to plug-in electric vehicles and share with you opportunities that exist for ports to help offset costs associated with installing EV charging and other infrastructure.

Expert panel:

Tonia Buell, Washington State Department of Transportation Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Partnership Program Manager

Michael Breish, Washington Department of Commerce, Electric Vehicle Energy Office

Jim Jensen, Washington State University, Senior Bioenergy & Alternative Fuels 

Please join us July 27th between 11am and noon for this very important topic.

Our collective rapid move to a majority-online environment for many workplaces and schools during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the deep digital equity divide within our own state- many underserved residents in Washington struggled to get the internet connectivity they needed to be successful. Driven in part by this stark divide, as well as historic efforts in broadband development, the 2021 Legislative Session saw great growth in broadband infrastructure financing opportunities for ports.

We are pleased to be hosting a Tuesday Roundtable on broadband issues on July 13th, featuring the State Broadband Office, CERB, and the Public Works Board, all organizations that have new funds and new responsibilities in the broadband space.

Ports are very engaged in broadband, and some ports found during the pandemic that their own communities weren’t as connected as they could be. Other ports already have broadband projects under way. All in all, going forward there will be a lot more projects featuring port participation, and this Roundtable will show ports how to access funds for these projects.

Register today to save your spot at this informative event!

The Washington Public Ports Association is pleased to welcome back Patrick Connor of the Washington Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses on June 8, 2021 at 11am. Connor will share updated information on how small businesses have fared the COVID-19 crisis, a brand new jobs report, and May's economic trends survey results.

Register today and come with your questions about the future of small and independent businesses in Washington state.

Join us for our Tuesday Roundtable on Redistricting for Ports with the Washington State Association of County Auditors (WSACA) at 11am on May 11, 2021.

Port districts are subject to redistricting per the 2020 census results, which are slated to be released later this year.

This presentation by the WSACA will focus on the top reasons why port districts need to start work on redistricting this year, plus information on statutory deadlines, how to get started, ways to work together across port districts, and more.

This week's Tuesday Roundtable is brought to you by Chmelik Sitkin & Davis P.S. Established in 1984, they are a regional Northwest Washington law firm based in Bellingham. They principally represent municipal governments, businesses, and the people who own and manage them. Thank you for your support, Chmelik Sitkin & Davis.

WPPA is pleased to welcome State Auditor Pat McCarthy to a Tuesday Roundtable on April 20th, 2021 at noon. State Auditor McCarthy is the 11th Washington State Auditor, and became the first woman elected to the position when she took the oath of office in 2017. 

Previously, Pat was twice elected Pierce County Executive; she is also the first woman to hold that role. Over more than 30 years of her public service career, Pat has served as Pierce County Auditor and Deputy Auditor, and Board President for the Tacoma School District.

As local governments, port districts are audited by the Office of the Washington State Auditor. State Auditor McCarthy, together with her staff, will give information on a variety of topics that directly impact port districts, including the annual filing deadline, important changes due to COVID-19 emergency orders, .09 money, and the recent cybersecurity breach at SAO.

Register now for this informative conversation, and bring your questions for State Auditor McCarthy.

With the official start of the 2021 Legislative Session on Monday, January 11, the staff of your Washington Public Ports Association is ready to begin working on your behalf.

Join us for a members-only look at the 2021 Legislative Session- issues, topics and considerations for the historic virtual session, WPPA priorities, scenarios, and more.

Deputy Director Victoria Lincoln will be joined by Senior Director of Environmental Affairs Gerry O’Keefe and Senior Director of Trade & Transportation Chris Herman to provide an in-depth look at the key focus areas for ports in 2021.

Join us for our first Roundtable of 2021 celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments of three different ports. We’ll be recognizing our Community Engagement, Job Creator of the Year, and Environmental Stewardship award winners for 2020 at this special Roundtable.

We will hear from each of the award winners on their projects, and talk more about ways in which ports can carry forward the momentum in the lessons learned from these award winners.

We hope you can join us to celebrate the New Year by recognizing the accomplishments of our port community.

WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar will be joined by the Governor’s Chief Transportation Policy Advisor, Debbie Driver to talk transportation during WPPA’s Tuesday Roundtable on December 15th. Transportation is shaping up to be one of the most active issues during our upcoming 2021 Legislative Session.

Secretary Millar will update us on the department’s budget requests, including a 10-year, $10 billion preservation request as well as the status of project delivery in the age of COVID-19. Debbie will give us a glimpse into the Governor’s transportation priorities and discuss the possibility for a new revenue transportation bill during the coming session. Please join us and don’t forget to bring your questions as we wrap up our Tuesday Roundtable Series for 2020. We’ll be back in 2021 with a port award Roundtable on Jan. 5th.

A big thank you to this week’s Roundtable underwriters, David Evans and Associates. At DEA, they are creating a different future: Engineers, surveyors, planners, hydrographers, landscape architects, and natural resources scientists working together to improve the quality of life while demonstrating stewardship of the built and natural environments.

Over the last two legislative sessions there has been growing interest in revisions to the Growth Management Act (GMA).  Originally adopted 1990, the GMA established a framework to guide local government land use planning.  The legislature is being asked to address problems that include the cost of housing in Central Puget Sound, lack of flexibility and costs for smaller communities, and to environmental issues related to land use.  Our speakers will assess current stakeholder processes,  consider industrial land preservation and conflicting land use challenges, and how rural communities are affected by the GMA.  

Join us on December 8, 2020 from 11am to 12pm to learn more about GMA considerations.

Does your community need funding for infrastructure or other public improvements? Tax Increment Financing, or “TIF,” is a financing method used to help fund infrastructure that will catalyze economic development and recover or grow jobs. It uses anticipated future increases in tax revenues to generate incremental tax revenues from a specific development project or projects across a designated district to help pay for current costs associated with development.

Washington is one of only two states in the nation that does not have TIF authority for local communities, but a TIF Coalition, including WPPA and WEDA, is actively working to get TIF authorizing legislation passed by the Legislature.

Want to learn more about TIF and if it might be a useful tool for your community, and how you can get involved in the TIF Coalition? Join us for this webinar on November 17 at 11:00 am.

Ports are important to their communities in many ways, through the economic opportunities they provide, recreational space, boating, infrastructure, logistics, and much more. Ports are key to helping these communities weather the historical pandemic fallout, and providing residents with a path toward a prosperous future.

We are honored to have Senator Curtis King of the Yakima area to come talk to ports and stakeholders at this Tuesday's Roundtable at 11am. Senator King will formally accept his Compass Award from the WPPA and cover many key issues to ports.

We hope you will join us for this informative Roundtable centered on providing a port-focused perspective on legislative concerns.

Small ports all across Washington are accomplishing big things, and this Roundtable features our 2020 Creative Partnership award winner talking about the amazing things they were able to do with a small budget, volunteers, and grant opportunities.

To that end, we've invited our award winner to come speak about their experiences. We've also invited Washington's Recreation and Conservation Office, RCO, to talk more about grant opportunities for small ports and how to access those grant funds.

October is Small Ports month, and we are featuring topics relevant to small ports leading up to our Small Ports Seminar on October 22 & 23rd. We hope you will be able to attend this inspiring Roundtable focused on what's possible for any small port in Washington.

As we enter the seventh month of the pandemic response, our new normal is becoming more ingrained into our daily lives. Zoom meetings are no longer a brand new experience, and we’ve worked out the kinks on what constitutes good digital meeting etiquette or the right ways to get in contact with one another. So what does this new normal mean for our port operations as we plan for the future, and look forward to a world that’s been altered by the current crisis.

To help ports think strategically about an unclear future, we’ve invited two state-level leaders involved in setting and implementing best practices around telework, workplace culture, and more to this Tuesday Roundtable.

Cheryl Sullivan-Colglazier is the Workplace Culture and Learning Administrator for the Washington State Office of Financial Management. She recently moved into this role after being the Chief Learning Officer for the state.

Some of her work shifted to navigate the impacts of COVID-19; she has been the lead on developing the Safe Start Guide for state agencies. Version 3 was recently released. This means working with many experts from key agencies and organizations to ensure state agencies have the most current information and requirements for safely reopening or maintaining worksites and services during the pandemic.

Jeff Pelton is the Director of Human Resources and Safety at the Washington State Department of Transportation, and has been leading the agency’s innovative telework policies for many years. He will cover the permanent pivots WSDOT is making as a response to the pandemic.

We hope you will be able to join us for this timely and important topic.

It's been a while since we heard from Steve Lerch, Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council on the state of the economy in Washington. The pandemic drags on, and many in port positions around the state want to know what the implications on the economy might be.

Digging in to more specific areas of the economy that matter to ports--like air traffic, transportation, trade, and more--this Tuesday Roundtable will feature speakers on these topics who bring a port-focused perspective to economic indicators.

We hope you will be able to join us for this fascinating look at what direction the parts of the economy that matter most to ports may be going.

Register here.

As local governments in Washington, port districts have many points of interface with federal issues related to their line of business, including transportation, infrastructure, waterways, agriculture and more. The pandemic has added an additional layer of complexity to ports' nexus with the federal government through stimulus legislation.

We are excited to have Washington Congressmen Rick Larsen and Daniel Newhouse at this Tuesday's Roundtable to address federal issues that matter to ports.

Visit our Eventbrite page to register now and save this event to your calendar.

Believe it or not, we here in Washington are now six months in to the pandemic response- and our lives are vastly different now than they used to be. Our working lives have gone largely online, and we are learning how to stay connected to one another even through the requirements of social distancing.

To help ports contend with the pandemic's course, we've invited Washington's State Health Officer and Chief Science Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy to speak on her understanding of what the science tells us the future holds. We've also invited other state-level speakers to talk more about how the pandemic has been the catalyst for permanent changes to employee telework and culture.

Register here.

The Washington Department of Ecology is a key partner and stakeholder for ports across the state, which is why we are so pleased that the director of Ecology, Laura Watson, has agreed to speak to ports at this important Roundtable.

As the new director of Ecology, Ms. Watson will share her priorities for the agency and offer her thoughts about how she plans to work with port districts protect public health and the environment.

Elected port leaders will be especially interested to hear her thoughts about how to ensure MTCA cleanup funds are retained for their intended uses. We look forward to her thoughts about how we can work together to shape efficient and effective standards.

Register for this Roundtable here.

Ports are critical infrastructure--our unique role in the economy of Washington (and the world) means that security is of the upmost importance to our work.

Increasingly, securing that critical infrastructure means being cyber-smart; the COVID-19 pandemic shift to a more virtual environment has only underlined the importance of understanding the basics of cybersecurity for your port.

Cybersecurity is an issue for everyone, not just your IT department. Educating yourself on cybersecurity best practices can be your first line of defense against attack.

This Tuesday Roundtable brings together national and state cybersecurity experts with a local government focus, specific to port-related concerns. You'll learn what's trending now in cybersecurity, and what steps you can take today to start protecting your port from harm.

Register for this important learning opportunity here.

The Washington Public Ports Association works on behalf of public ports across Washington to advance the interests of ports with the state legislature--and beyond. Our success in ensuring these interests are protected requires the leadership, vision, and collaborative working relationships with state legislators.

Each year, WPPA recognizes legislators who provide "extraordinary leadership and unparalleled vision" in our efforts to advance the importance and future of public ports for the residents they serve.

Don't miss this Tuesday's Roundtable, where we will recognize the work of two legislators with a Compass Award, and hear from these champions of port work what their 2021 legislative priorities are. You'll have a chance to ask questions and participate with the Compass Award winners.

Register now.

The pandemic has changed many aspects of daily life, perhaps not the least of which is our ability and willingness to travel. As such, the impact on air travel and airport traffic around the world has been substantial—and its impacts are being felt in Washington state.

Join us this Tuesday for a Roundtable focused on statewide airport concerns, with a broad focus on what changes to the travel and tourism industry might mean for ports in Washington. We will look at many issues, including federal relief and regional concerns.

If you’re interested in what the downturn in air travel means not just for airports but for the state trade and tourism economy, you won’t want to miss this Tuesday’s Roundtable.

Register now.

Are you concerned about federal legislation that may impact your port district? If so, this Tuesday’s Roundtable on July 14th is for you.

Three expert panelists; Kristin Meira, Executive Director with the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association; Elaine Nessle, Executive Director for the Coalition for Americas Gateways & Trade Corridors; and Rick Agnew from national law firm Van Ness Feldman.

You’ll hear about the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement (CRSO EIS) and the Water Resources Development Act, progress on a new surface transportation bill, and the status of CARES Act implementation plus prospects for further stimulus funding taking shape in DC.

Register now.

Ports are some of the most important economic engines in the state of Washington- their role in trade, tourism, economic development, and infrastructure building is essential to the economy of communities across the state. This role is even more critical in times of economic downturn, like we've seen during the current pandemic.

We are lucky to have Steve Lerch, Ph.D., the Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, head up this Tuesday's Roundtable centered on economic issues currently facing ports in Washington.

If you're wondering what the economic forecast means for you and your port, you won't want to miss this amazing opportunity to ask Steve Lerch your questions.

Register here.

Dr. Lisa Brown, the Director of the Washington Department of Commerce headlines this week's WPPA Tuesday Roundtable. Together with key members of her staff, Dr. Brown will speak on economic development in Washington state--a message all the more important in the face of the serious revenue drop announced on June 17th.

Ports are essential economic engines in Washington, and provide their communities with infrastructure, trade, tourism, and a favorable business climate.

Register for this event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wppa-tuesday-roundtable-dr-lisa-brown-director-of-the-dept-of-commerce-registration-110180579078

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android to Access Zoom Meeting Website Click Link: https://zoom.us/j/3709429295

(or join by phone: (301) 715-8592 Meeting ID: 370 942 9295)