Tonight the Whatcom County Council approved a multi-million dollar deal with the Lummi Nation to continue operating the Lummi Island ferry.  Despite a right-of-way approved early last century - over a traditional route used for millennia - the county approved roadway rents of more than $200,000 a year, plus millions more in ancillary road safety improvements on the reservation - to pay for less than 5,000 sq. ft. of disputed tidelands.

Lummi islanders attended in droves, transported by a fifty seven passenger bus to obviate the inconvenience of arriving separately while the ferry was in dry dock.   No Lummi Nation representation was evident.

Many islanders testified, every one asserting they didn't like the lease, but begging the Council to adopt it to end the anxiety and uncertainty they have suffered for more than two years.  They cited their childrens' travel to school, their need to get to work, and the threatened value of their homes if ferry service were disrupted as cause to adopt such a one-sided deal.  Only two islanders said the deal was no good and should be rejected.  They said the Council should have more strenuously explored pre-existing rights and bargained harder on behalf of island residents.

The Council itself was divided.  In a 5-2 vote, Council members echoed islanders' sentiment that the deal was lopsided. Council members Brenner and Larson opposed, saying the County fell short on negotiating strength, missing important points that could have ameliorated costs.  Others said they felt they had to go along, given it was the best they could do and because the lease terms allowed them to escape if a better deal could be found.  Most cited a lack of any "Plan B" as reason to approve the deal.  Only Council President Sam Crawford claimed it was a good deal, saying, "I learned that they (The Lummi Nation) are human, too."

Good for Sam. We knew that. And no one begrudged the Lummi seeking the best deal they could get, but most were shocked and dismayed at the extent to which the deal benefited only the Lummi. No one in the Lummi Nation is wringing their hands at the deal they got tonight.

I am sympathetic to the two years of strain islanders have suffered and don't fault the county or islanders for accepting such a one-sided deal.  Repeated Lummi threats of blockading the ferry have taken their toll.  But as a public interest advocate of many decades, I can attest that solving problems of this magnitude normally takes four to eight years - and I have the results to prove it.  My sense is that islanders are simply unaccustomed to battle.

Needless to say, I am sure it is not over.  Prior leases have proven to be the source of continuing problems, not solutions.  Islanders will undoubtedly, eventually, chafe under the pressure of the bit they have endorsed. The Lummi Nation will find another fulcrum to lever - probably their proposed harbor.  Stresses in the system, already increased, will build to a breaking point, and all that has been done will be for naught. The dispute will start anew.

The Lummi have again proven that single-mindedness and continuity of purpose will prevail. Lummi islanders could learn from their neighbors.