Deja Vu-All Over Again
On 31 June 2026, Judge Kathryn Loring, after hearing oral arguments, issued a Remand Order instructing Skagit County to get on with recalculating the 2025 fares (recalculating the 2024 Fare Revenue Target Report) and redoing the non-expiry cards resolution to remove the deadline for conversion, specifically “. . .without unreasonable restrictions being placed on the terms, conditions, or circumstances by which the COVID Emergency Punch Cards and Convenience Cards may be converted to the County’s electronic ticketing system.” The full text of the Loring Remand Order can be found through this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nbDDhL4AMjo-vSHPs7ZrLns9CYJg-k5g/view?usp=sharing.
Despite a public notice of the 31 August hearing referencing new resolutions to be the subject of the hearing, no new resolutions were published before nor during the session. The meeting itself was kicked-off by a presentation frp, Skagit County attorneys Erik Pedersen and Steve Fallquist. Fallquist’s presentation repeated the same argument made to Judge Loring in previous hearings and by reference in the oral arguments at the 31 July 2026 hearing. Or to quote Yogi Berra, “This was like déjà vu all over again.” Their conclusion is that because the 2024 Target Report had been recalculated the following June, 2025 and that this recalculation had come out almost exactly the same (a statistical improbability) as the budgeted target, no recalculation of the 2025 fares is necessary.
In her 3-minute statement, Cindy Kamp asked why the County had only budgeted $200,000 in capital in the 2024 Target Report, knowing that a major haul-out and engine replacement was coming. Kamp further pointed out that the County’s entire budgeted number for O&M was inflated by a CPI of 16.4% instead of the recommended Seattle CPI then at about 2.6%.
And overlying the entire hearing was the surprise announcement to the Fair Fares attorney, Carl Marquardt, that the County had filed late on Friday afternoon of 28 August an appeal of the 31 July Remand decision to the State of Washington Court of Appeals. County personnel had repeatedly said that the legal case could not be discussed in the current round of proposed fare increases for 2027 as the attorneys for each side were working things out. Apparently the two attorneys were not working things out as evidenced by the surprise appeal to the Appellate Court.
After public testimony, the Commissioners chose to go into an Executive Session to determine what to do with the two proposed resolutions. They returned to the Hearing Room to announce that they were following the judge’s orders on the non-expiry cards by removing an end date for conversion and making the process of setting an appointment for conversion easier by providing a phone number so that the card holder could more easily schedule the required appointment. A copy of this new resolution if now available here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JXwVgoHTEEFxkMJ8QpGJ1M8fD7tfW1DR/view?usp=sharing
Regarding the recalculation of the 2025 fares based on the 2024 Target Report, the Commissioners instructed staff to recalculate by the September 14, 2026 deadline set by the Court. This should produce a new resolution which the Commissioners will pass by consent agenda on 14 September meaning that this recalculation does not have to be shared with the public before being voted on in a consent agenda session.
The video of the 31 August hearing can be seen here:
https://skagit.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=8&clip_id=5125