A.G Ferguson Continues Enabling ST Debacle

The Washington State Office of the Attorney General offers the following for residents:

We offer an informal complaint resolution service to Washington state residents, and to consumers with complaints about business located in Washington state.

My conclusion Sound Transit's planning for Prop 1 extensions had failed to comply with RCW 81.104.100 requiring high capacity transit system planning consider far lower cost BRT prompted a 1/20/17 complaint.  The response was

Dear William James Hirt,                                                                   Thank you for contacting the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office.  Your complaint has been reviewed and it was determined that the issues presented are un the regulatory authority of another  agency.  Your complaint has been closed accordingly

We referred your complaint to the following agency. Please contact the identified agency directly with questions about the status of your complaint.

Sound Transit Board of Directors                                                         co Board Administrator                                                                      411 Jackson S                                                                                Seattle, WA 98104

That referral led to a Sound Transit Board response including the following: 

Project level reviews are not subject to the requirements of RCW 81.104.100.  As noted in your complaint, the project level review of the East Link project did include a no-build option. Your presumption that this was due to the requirement in RCW 81.104.100(2)(b) is not correct. As indicated above, the statutory requirement applies to system-wide plans, not project levels reviews.  

When asked whether they agreed the Attorney General's Office response included the following:

Regarding Sound Transit, our office does not advise or represent regional transit authorities, nor does our office have the role of supervising or correcting the activities of such authorities.

Still, my concern with Sound Transit funding their realignment construction and "Tax Based Debt" beyond ST3 end date in 2041 prompted the following complaint:

My complaint is based on Sound Transit's attempt to use ST3 passage in 2016 for its 2019 budget claim "The Board has the authority to fund ongoing costs through a continuation of the local taxes authorized by the voters".  The result will be the area's residents will be obligated to fund construction costs and debt payments far beyond the 2041 end date they approved.  That Sound Transit has no legal basis for doing so and should be required to get voter approval of ST4 funding to do so.

However the following response was not unexpected.

Bob Ferguson                                                                         ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON                           Consumer Protection division - Consumer Resource Center             800 Fifth Avenue Suite 2000,                                                        Seattle, WA 98104                                                                      (206)464-6684

August 16, 2021

William James Hirt                                                                            2615 170th SE                                                                                Bellevue, WA 98008

Dear William James Hirt,

Thank you for contacting the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney' General's Office.  Your complaint has been reviewed and it was determined that the issues presented are under the regulatory authority of another agency.  Your complaint has been closed accordingly.

We referred your complaint to the following agency. Please contact the identified agency directly with questions about the status of your complaint.

Sound Transit Board of Directors                                                         c/o Board Administrator                                                                         401 S Jackson St.                                                                           Seattle, WA 98104                                                www.soundtransit.org                                                                        (206) 398-5000

Clearly A.G. Ferguson continues enabling ST debacle.