Undignified mess at Port of Seattle

The five Port of Seattle commissioners are clearly of no mind to pay former CEO Mic Dinsmore a severance package, and we believe it should not.

Severance is for employees who are laid off. The Port has given crane operators and warehouse workers severance of the type discussed for Dinsmore: two weeks' pay for every year of employment. In Dinsmore's case it amounted to 40 weeks' pay — $261,416 — for his 20 years of service. It was not a year's pay, as has been reported.

The case for giving him this money would have been much stronger had he been let go without warning. There was discussion of that early in 2006 when new commissioners came onto the board, but it did not happen. Indeed, Dinsmore was given a6-percent raise four months after he had announced plans to retire and after the memo discussing a severance package. The raise bumped up his lifetime pension benefit by $3,000 per year, to $88,395.

That is his parting gift, and he does not require another. He was a fine Port executive, and he was paid commensurately.

The memo signed by Dinsmore and by Pat Davis (on the top, without dating the signature) looks like a promise of an additional 40 weeks' pay, but it is not a binding commitment until approved by a majority vote of commissioners in public meeting. Everyone knew that. The memo is a dead letter.

What remains at the Port of Seattle Commission is an undignified mess. Commissioners need to make some apologies and get back to the people's business.