Date:
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Contact:
Lloyd Brown, WSDOT Communications, 360.705.7075
OLYMPIA – The following is excerpted from Secretary Doug MacDonald’s statement during the swearing in ceremony today, Feb. 22, at WSDOT headquarters in Olympia.
"It was just short of five years ago in this room – and only a few of you here today were here then – that Governor Locke and the Transportation Commission welcomed me as the new Transportation Secretary.
"That’s prompted a few comments, though, looking forward to today – will it be déjà vu for you to do it another time?
"Looking up déjà vu, I found it’s the feeling that you’ve seen or heard this before. This is not that! Because we have not been here before, although some of it is, happily, now very familiar.
"So there is a moment here for reflection … what is the same as five years ago? What is new? What is the excitement and the challenge of what lies ahead?
"What is the same – almost uncannily – is that five years ago I promised that WSDOT would focus on two themes and only two themes: project delivery and accountability. And that is what we have done. Not that it took great insight to set that strategy, because project delivery and accountability were then, and are now, the keys to the biggest problem we all in public life face, the restoration of the public’s confidence in government. We set out on the right track, and nothing has changed, because we are still on it.
"What’s different from five years ago are three things.
"First, we together over five years have built WSDOT as a strong and vigorous organization based on the principle of collaborative management. We work with one another. We work with citizens. We work with local and state officials. We have a unique esprit de corps. With long-timers and new comers, we’ve grown.
"WSDOT’s capabilities and its standing in our communities across the state and clearly we are recognized as a leader in our field across the country. Because we can be proud of what we have achieved, we can also embrace the continuing challenge of moving that bar even higher.
"Second, we have new resources to attack the job for the public wants us to do – improving our transportation system. What a change from the dark days of 2000 and 2001 – and what a debt we owe to so many, including many guests who have kindly come today, for everyone’s joining together to give us the hardest but best job of all. Put those resources to work and spend the money well to give the taxpayers the return they expect on their investment!
"Third, we have the new governance structure. Not a minor matter, especially since it is precisely why we are here today. It’s a big change. It’s the right change.
"I think all the hard work to realign the WSDOT’s position in the framework of government is going very well – at least I think so. But maybe that just goes together with how pleased I am to be here today as the new Secretary.
"Now, the Governor has put to us some challenges. But she was also gracious enough to say very nice things about me and about us. It’s tricky to judge the precisely right voice and tone with which to reciprocate. So I’ll go to the easiest solution and just tell you exactly what I think.
"Why am I excited at our opportunity to work with this Governor?
"Last night, in the context of reckoning at age 60 that I have finally entered middle age, I counted seven public agencies for which I have worked – in public housing, agriculture, aviation, water resources and transportation. This is what I love to do. It is the career that suits who I am and what I most effectively can direct my energies to doing.
"Every day I come to work amazed at my good fortune at having the privilege of doing the thing in life I most enjoy. It is, for me, a daily thrill and an honor to try to answer the call of public service.
"And that is why, of all the things I’ve come to appreciate about our Governor, what I appreciate most is that I think she feels exactly the same way.
"This is not something about the Governor that I have learned just by listening to her – although I have heard her say it, and well.
"It is also not something I have learned just be watching and working with her and her team in her office, although the energy and commitment in that office today speaks volumes to reinforce my conclusion.
"No, it has been in the field, with the people of this Department who do its hardest work keeping the roads safe and planning and building the projects. That is where you learn about this Governor. I’ve seen it at the SR 520 bridge, at the Viaduct, and in Yakima, and in Kirkland and, as the Governor herself just mentioned, at the slide area on SR 101. To WSDOT people and their work, the Governor brings genuine interest and curiosity about what they are doing. She understands and expresses appreciation for exactly what they do. She shakes their hands and thanks them for their work. She is, truly, there. And when she leaves, she talks about whom and what she saw, what she learned, and what more she would like to know and see and help us achieve.
"To have those qualities in a leader makes us very, very lucky. For the challenges she has outlined for us, I am happy to sign up. For the trip with such a leader who shares and celebrates the best of our values and aspirations as public servants – that’s where the special feeling of delight comes from at the opportunity to be the Secretary. And in that I am pleased to speak, I know, not only for myself, but for all of us for the work she has charged all of us to do for our fellow citizens.
"Thank you."
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