Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman Admonished for Seeking Special Privilege and Treatment

by Luna Reyna

The Port of Seattle Commission voted last month to admonish fellow Commissioner Fred Felleman for using his commission post to secure special privileges in an effort to influence a nonprofit environmental group.

The Port of Seattle Commission adopted an order directing Felleman to attend training provided by the Port in conflicts of interest and "appropriate standards for interaction between elected officials and staff, including navigating the respective roles of a Port Commissioner and a Commissioner as private citizen, and maintaining a respectful workplace." The commission also suggested that Felleman apologize in writing. Felleman submitted a statement accepting the order and apologized to staff and the commission in writing.

The action brought an end to a yearlong ethics investigation based on complaints from employees whom Commission President Sam Cho thanked and commended for bringing the issue forward.

"I understand fully and know my colleagues understand that it is very difficult to speak up when you've been wronged,"Cho said at the Port of Seattle Commission's Sept. 26 meeting, "especially in organizations like these where you have so much bureaucracy and process, the fear of retaliation — and I have to really commend the complainants for coming forward and blowing the whistle on what could not have been an easy thing to do."

"I thank them not just for standing up but for making us better as an organization … They made this organization a better one because of what they did, because of the courage they showed, because they held us to that higher standard," Cho said.

Last October, the president and vice president of the Port of Seattle Commission filed a formal Port of Seattle Board of Ethics complaint on behalf of two port employees against Felleman, a Seattle Port Commissioner for the last 7 years who is running for reelection. The complaint alleged he was using his position to obtain special privileges, retaliating against another Port employee for not conceding to those special privileges, and for gender discrimination.

The Port of Seattle Commission Board of Ethics carried out a full investigation into these allegations and shared their findings publicly in the Sept. 26 Port of Seattle Commission meeting. The investigation found Felleman used his position as a port commissioner to seek special privileges. The investigation also found that although there was evidence of retaliation, the "necessary elements of a formal retaliation claim do not appear to have been met," and gender did not play a role in the retaliation or treatment of the Port employee.

The commision will be reviewing their bylaws with a new lens very soon, according to Cho. "We will definitely be looking at these issues of conduct and ethics and conflicts of interest to make sure that whatever happens going forward is addressed. That there are further consequences and or accountability measures for us as commissioners."

Conflict of Interest Allegations

Washington Maritime Blue is a nonprofit organization that brings business and tech leaders together with research institutions, public agencies, Native Nations, and community-based organizations working for a sustainable maritime industry. Felleman was a founding member of the Maritime Blue board, but he no longer serves on the board of directors.

During the pandemic, when sound pollution in the oceans diminished due to fewer large commercial vessels in the waters, the Washington State Legislature established the Quiet Sound program (QS), a program with experts in marine conservation and ecology, highly trained local naturalists, environmental educators, scientists, and more, with funding to Maritime Blue, which provides administrative and financial support. Quiet Sound's mission is to cut underwater noise from those large ships so that it doesn't interfere with endangered orcas' echolocation, which they need to find food.

In an email to the Emerald, Felleman said that he has worked to reduce the environmental impact of ship operations at the Port for more than 20 years, including initiating efforts for the Port to use their berthing and tariff agreements to require that cruise ships not discharge anything at the terminals and to use shore power or low sulfur fuels while at berth.

According to the Port of Seattle ethics investigation report, Felleman supported the Quiet Sound program from the beginning and pursued a leadership role at that organization. The report stated that Felleman worked with people at the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) and the Port to create an NWSA representative position on Quiet Sound's Leadership Committee (LC), a position he assumed he would fill due to his background and expertise in the field. Despite Felleman's assumption, the leadership committee decided that in order to foster open discussion and avoid power discrepancies, they would not allow elected officials on the LC.

"Commissioner Felleman was not happy with his inability to play a significant role in Quiet Sound's leadership," the report said. "He decided that since he had been told he could not participate as a commissioner, he would ask to do so in his private capacity."

On Aug. 24, 2022, Felleman emailed members of the QS LC requesting to observe the quarterly meetings. He didn't state in the email why he wanted this, but during the investigation, he told investigators that he could help its members avoid "stumbling" by listening and offering assistance offline and providing advice before they took action.

The QS LC agreed that allowing observers would change the dynamics of the meetings, especially considering the role port commissioners play in QS funding even though Felleman claimed he wanted to sit in on the meetings as a private environmental consultant. According to the investigation report, the QS LC only considered his request because it came from a commissioner. If the request had come from a private consultant, their response would have immediately been, "No."

Instead, the LC attempted to meet Felleman halfway and offered him a special briefing or a special guest spot at a future meeting. Felleman did not accept either alternative. Felleman told a colleague that he believed that Quiet Sound would not be as successful without his involvement. The investigation also revealed that months before his email request, he told a member of the LC something like, "Hey, I want to come to these meetings. Pull some strings, get me into these meetings."

Retaliation Allegations

After Felleman's request was denied, he continued to share his frustrations about the denial with colleagues in and outside of the Port of Seattle, including in official commissioner emails that included QS. One person he spoke with said Felleman was "pissed" saying something like, "I'm an expert, that's a mistake, I can't believe you're not taking me up on this," the report said. This person that was interviewed during the investigation also said that the commissioner was seeking "a pound of flesh" for the person on the QS LC whom he felt kept his request from being approved.

This same person, whose name is redacted from the investigation report, is the Port's subject matter expert on kelp projects in Washington. A representative from The Pew Charitable Trusts contacted Felleman and others about kelp projects in Washington for the Kelp Digest. Felleman disinvited the expert on kelp projects and asked that another person attend instead.

"Agree… [redacted] is our program lead and SME on kelp matters," the response said. "To request to be staffed otherwise is not only awkward [sic], it's utterly insulting and unacceptable to me, and my team will not be attending."

In July 2022, after the person Felleman perceived as being the reason his request was denied was disinvited from the Pew meeting, Felleman reached out to a film crew from Germany who wanted to interview him about some of the things the Port is doing in support of orcas, but he excluded the same person from the email.

On Sept. 30, 2022, Sarah Ogier, the director of Maritime Environment and Sustainability, was notified about the issue by email.

"I need to let you know," said the writer of the email, whose name was redacted in the report, "that I can't in good conscience allow [redacted] or [redacted] to attend the … kelp meeting that was requested, particularly inasmuch as [redacted] has reported that [redacted] perceives the Commissioner's actions to be both 'retaliatory' and 'sexist.' I have repeatedly notified Commission staff that [redacted] is our SME and resource for the Port's kelp work, yet again they overtly default to [redacted], going so far as to even put [redacted] name in the meeting title. I can only imagine how this feels for [redacted]

"Attending this meeting would put [redacted] and [redacted] in a bad position with respect to each other as teammates/colleagues; it would also put them in an extremely uncomfortable position with the Commissioner and his staff. This is quickly moving towards becoming a hostile work environment, in my opinion."

Investigation Findings

The investigation found no evidence that Felleman sought a financial benefit, but they did decide that he had sought several personal benefits using his position as a commissioner.

"First, having been denied his request to serve as a member of Quiet Sound's Leadership Committee in his capacity as a commissioner, Commissioner Felleman came up with a way around that restriction — to request to 'observe' LC meetings in his capacity as a private consultant. Commissioner Felleman admittedly had something more in mind," the report reads.

"Rather than simply observing, Commissioner Felleman wanted to insert himself into Quiet Sound's decision-making process by hearing the Leadership Committee's deliberations live and then providing advice to its members behind the scenes. He describes his interest as a kind of selfless, philanthropic one — he wants to help the orcas and use his many years of experience in the field to head off bad decisions by the Leadership Committee before they are put into effect. Regardless of his intention, however, his goal in being involved was indisputably a personal one, neither sought by the Port, nor desired by the Leadership Committee."

The report goes on to detail how Felleman used his port commission position against a QS LC member that he perceived as being disloyal, but these "vindictive" actions don't qualify as retaliation within the scope of the Port's anti-retaliation policies. The report concluded that there was no discrimination based on gender.

The investigator found Felleman's version of things inconsistent, his stories unreliable and conflicting with other evidence such as texts and emails.

Felleman's Response to Findings

At the Sept. 26 meeting, Fellman submitted his statement about the findings. In it, Felleman apologizes but blames his "passion and advocacy for saving the critically endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale community from extinction" for his actions.

"I recognize that my words and actions sometimes lack respect and courtesy," Felleman's statement says. "That is not intentional." Felleman told interviewers during the investigation that he can be abrasive, but that he's seeking professional leadership training to address that.

In his email to the Emerald, Felleman said he had no further comment on the investigation beyond the statement he provided to the Commission.

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