PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland city commissioners voted against giving $225,000 to a project aimed at bringing a public ferry to Portland amid tension between TriMet and the nonprofit Friends of Frog Ferry.
The plan to bring a ferry to Portland has been building for about five years, with Frog Ferry leading the way. Now tensions between the transit agency and Frog Ferry have boiled over.
“I wish it were more promising, but we don't right now have a path forward,” said Frog Ferry founder Susan Bladholm.
TriMet was in charge of delivering a half-million dollars in state grant money to develop a feasibility study for the ferry, but it has only delivered $67,000.
TriMet accused the nonprofit of inappropriate spending and billing practices, writing that "[Friends of Frog Ferry] submitted certain expenses that do not qualify for reimbursement, included invoices that didn't add up and kept changing, and management costs that could not be considered reasonable or necessary."
But Bladholm says TriMet is guilty of being unwilling to work with Frog Ferry, while throwing wave after wave of requests its way for ever-changing documentation.
“I am happy to address that we have absolutely operated with full transparency and integrity here,” said Baldholm, who added, “I think bottom line, TriMet doesn’t want another operator in this community.”
All of the tension culminated in an urgent request of the Portland City Council to keep Frog Ferry afloat.
At least half a dozen people spoke in support of the system that would ferry people on the Columbia and Willamette rivers between Vancouver and Portland, possibly further.
Commissioner Mingus Mapps proposed the city bailout, but Mapps is not in charge of the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty is. And despite having said she is excited about the future of ferries, she shot down the idea of supporting Frog Ferry at this point.
“I cannot in good conscience support this budget allocation when both TriMet and Frog Ferry are leveling such serious allegations against each other,” said Hardesty.
And so it went: a majority of commissioners voted no, leaving Frog Ferry high and dry.
“This is a real shame that all of the grassroots and private sector effort behind this is getting nowhere,” said Bladholm.
Baldholm encouraged people to look at the Friends of Frog Ferry website for information about the plan and the financial details available to the public.