By mid-February, the Lummi Island ferry fares will go back to what they were on May 31, 2024. A Lummi Island resident has won a legal battle against Whatcom County after the county increased fares to cover rising expenses, including some that a judge says were miscategorized as operating costs rather than capital expenses.
In an executive order issued in April 2024, Executive Satpal Sidhu announced a ferry fare hike that amounted to a 46% increase for multi-ride pedestrian punch cards and a 29.5% increase for multi-ride vehicular punch cards. The multi-ride punch cards are purchased primarily by island residents and make up the majority of ferry fare revenue. The rate increase, which went into effect on June 1, 2024, was supposed to help cover the deficit between ferry revenues and expenses.
Peter Earle, an islander for nearly a decade and a semi-retired civil rights lawyer, represented himself in a lawsuit against the county, filing a complaint soon after the executive order was issued.
Earle took issue with two expenses charged to the ferry fare box: nearly $782,000 to expand and reconstruct two dolphins (wood and steel bumpers that help contain the ferry when docking or leaving port), and $2.9 million in monthly tidelands lease payments to the Lummi Nation. Both expenses were deemed operating costs by the county public works department, and ferry fares are supposed to cover 55% of the day-to-day operational expenses and routine maintenance of the Whatcom Chief and dock infrastructure.
Earle argued both should instead have been considered capital costs, one-time expenses incurred when acquiring or building an asset or infrastructure, and the case went to trial in October 2024. Island residents raised more than $23,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to support Earle’s efforts.
In early January, Whatcom County Superior Judge Evan Jones ruled the cost of the dolphin reconstruction was a capital expense, but the tidelands lease payments for the Gooseberry Point dock were an operating cost and have been considered such since 2011. Earle has appealed the decision about the tidelands lease to the state Court of Appeals.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, the judge ordered the county to roll back fares to the May 2024 rates and said they could not be increased again until the cost of the dolphin rebuild was removed from the ferry fare box. Whatcom County has until Feb. 20 to restore fares.
The executive’s office announced on Wednesday, Jan. 22 that the rolled-back single-ride fares will be implemented no later than Friday, Jan. 31. The county will begin to offer rolled-back multi-ride punch cards by mid-February, depending on printing and processing. While Earle believes the county needs to “make island fare-payers whole” after the two improper fare increases, the county said there is no plan to issue individual refunds.
The announcement also said fares will have to increase by, at minimum, 60% in 2026 because of the judge’s ruling, and clarified that the dolphin rebuild was not and had never been the primary reason for the fare hike — ferry operating costs like maintenance, fuel and insurance have risen significantly and revenue hasn’t kept up.
“It has created a mess,” Earle said about the multiple fare increases. “My position was it was imprudent to raise the fares while the judge had the case in front of him, and the county shouldn’t make the same mistake again without knowing what the Court of Appeals is doing.”
Some farepayers, including Earle, want to see a countywide ferry taxing district that would distribute the cost of operations across the entire tax base. Sidhu has said he is not currently proposing that option.
Meanwhile, Whatcom County has wrestled for years with replacing the more than 60-year-old Whatcom Chief ferry boat. Sidhu, public works director Elizabeth Kosa, council member Jon Scanlon and other county officials attended the Jan. 22 ferry advisory committee in person on Lummi Island to discuss funding issues. More than 100 islanders attended or watched the meeting online.
The county was awarded a $25 million federal grant in 2022 for an electric 34-car ferry. Due to inflation, the county council has since reduced the scope of the ferry replacement and terminal restoration project and is now planning for a hybrid 20-car ferry. There had been some concern that the project would lose its funding because of the change in plans, but Kosa reassured the islanders on Wednesday that it didn’t seem likely.
“We do believe there is a good chance we’ll get some, if not all, of that $25 million, so cross your fingers,” Kosa said.
Whatcom County is also in line to receive a $10 million grant over 20 years from the state’s County Ferry Capital Improvement Program and $5.3 million from the transportation fund. To make up the rest of the $50 million project, the county is requesting more money from the state. If that effort falls short, the county could explore other options that include lobbying the state to allow car ferries to access transit funding; a partnership with the Whatcom Transportation Authority; and implementing an island-wide or countywide ferry taxing district.
Terminal construction is expected to kick off in summer 2027. New ferry service could start in 2028.
This article was updated on Jan. 28 to clarify that Earle appealed the case to the state Court of Appeals, not federal court. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.