This is the second installment of The Northern Light's investigation into the Port of Bellingham's contract procurement and public disclosure process.
To read Part 1 of "Behind Closed Doors click here.
One contract was awarded at exactly $49,999.49.
That’s fifty-one cents below the $50,000 threshold at which state law requires the Port of Bellingham to document competitive solicitation for professional services. The contract, awarded to TranTech Engineering in 2018 for Waterfront Franchise Utilities work, then grew to $308,205 – more than six times its original value.
Two weeks ago, The Northern Light reported that 85 percent of Port professional services contracts lacked required procurement documentation. This investigation examines who benefited from those patterns.
Further analysis of the Port’s contract database reveals that a small circle of consulting firms received the bulk of contract amendments. Between 2018 and 2024, contracts starting at $45,000 or more that grew by at least 50 percent totaled $8.2 million at signing. Through amendments, they reached $34.3 million – $26 million in additional work.
Four firms account for a disproportionate share: Anchor QEA, Landau Associates, Aspect Consulting, and CRETE Consulting. Each has multiple contracts that grew by hundreds or thousands of percent.
BergerABAM received a 2018 contract for Blaine Harbor bulkhead work at $49,974 – twenty-six dollars below the $50,000 threshold. It grew to $423,255, an increase of 747 percent.
Five contracts, all starting below $50,000, all growing to at least $134,000. The probability of multiple contracts landing within dollars of the threshold by chance is low. The TranTech contract, priced to the penny at fifty-one cents below, strains coincidence.
Environmental remediation projects dominate the amendment totals.
Seven cleanup contracts account for just 21 percent of the high-growth contracts examined but 49 percent of amendment dollars – $12.76 million of the $26 million total.
Landau Associates holds four of these cleanup contracts, accounting for $5.6 million in amendments. Anchor QEA holds two, totaling $4.7 million in amendments. CRETE Consulting’s single cleanup contract added $2.95 million.
Cleanup projects can legitimately encounter unforeseen contamination. Digging into polluted industrial sites may reveal problems that weren’t apparent during initial assessment. Scope changes may be unavoidable.
But the question remains: when a contract grows from $85,000 to $1.7 million, or from $577,000 to $5.77 million, should other qualified firms have an opportunity to compete for the expanded work?
Port contracting records identify staff members who “sponsor” contracts – initiating the procurement and guiding it through approval.
A small group of sponsors account for most contracts with threshold issues.
Greg Nicoll, a Port engineer, sponsored 17 contracts that appear in the analysis – 49 percent of the total.
Alec Strand sponsored five contracts. All five went to Reid Middleton. Combined value: $523,580. All involved Squalicum Harbor work.
Every contract Strand sponsored went to the same firm.
Maul Foster & Alongi, a Pacific Northwest consulting firm, received two contracts for similar economic development studies within three weeks of each other.
Brian Gouran sponsored a $157,000 contract for Brownfield Affordable Housing Inventory. Tyler Schroeder sponsored a $99,425 contract for Whatcom Industrial Lands Study.
Combined value: $256,425 – well above the $100,000 threshold for formal bidding.
Separated into two contracts with two sponsors: each below threshold.
The patterns documented here emerge from the Port’s own contract database – though that database itself raises questions. State law (RCW 53.08.440) requires the Port to maintain a “list of all contracts for public inspection.” The database the Port has posted on its website shows a last update of April 9, 2025 – eight months ago.
The same contractors appear repeatedly among high-growth contracts. Those contractors receive work that starts below competitive thresholds and grows dramatically. Some contracts are priced to within cents of those thresholds. Staff sponsors show consistent preferences for particular firms.
Whether these patterns reflect legitimate business relationships, institutional comfort with familiar vendors, or something else remains unclear.
State law imposes a specific requirement on large amendments. RCW 53.19.030 requires that amendments exceeding 50 percent of a contract’s original value be filed with the commission and made available for public inspection before work begins. Every contract examined in this analysis exceeded that threshold – many by hundreds or thousands of percent.
The Northern Light has submitted a public records request for procurement documentation on contracts with the highest amendment growth, including selection records, amendment justifications, evidence of competitive re-solicitation when contract values crossed procurement thresholds, and commission filings for amendments exceeding 50 percent of original contract value.
The Washington State Auditor’s Office, responding to questions from The Northern Light, confirmed that its July finding of material weakness was limited to a single contract funded by federal grants.
“Because the federal single audit was scoped to review compliance with federal grant requirements for this specific project, we did not expand our work to other projects with different funding sources,” wrote Adam Wilson, assistant director of communications. The office also did not examine amendments that increased the Moffatt & Nichol contract from $906,006 to $3.33 million.
Asked whether the audit methodology was sufficient to identify systemic problems, Wilson noted that the office “will take [these concerns] into account when planning our next audits.” That audit is scheduled to begin in spring 2026.
On executive sessions, Wilson said the Open Public Meetings Act “does not limit the frequency of executive sessions so long as the proper procedures are followed.” Whether the Port should hold fewer closed meetings, he wrote, “is for its elected commissioners to determine.”
Voters approved expanding the commission from three to five members, but that election won’t occur until November 2026, with new commissioners seated in January 2027. Until then, the current commission – with Carly James replacing Ken Bell – will oversee these contractor relationships.
On December 8, Michael Shepard announced his intention to run for the District 42 state senate seat being vacated by Sharon Shewmake. A three-term officeholder, Shewmake recently announced her intention not to run again. Shepard ran unopposed in the November general election and was re-elected to a four-year term as port commissioner.
Anchor QEA, LLC, a Seattle-based environmental consulting firm with more than 500 employees and a Bellingham office, has nine Port contracts that grew by 50 percent or more.
The firm’s Whatcom Waterway Phase 2 Cleanup contract, awarded in 2019 at $577,338, has grown to $5.77 million – an 899 percent increase. The Port’s own contract database, which state law requires to be maintained and publicly available, confirms the current value at $5,766,480.79. An earlier contract for I&J Waterway investigation work started at $18,006 in 2009 and reached $615,987, growth of 3,321 percent.
Landau Associates, Inc., an employee-owned firm headquartered in Edmonds, also has nine contracts with 50 percent or greater growth.
Landau’s Sea K Fish Site Cleanup contract shows the highest growth rate of any recent Port contract: from $85,000 in 2019 to $1.72 million, an increase of 1,927 percent. The firm’s Westman Marine Cleanup contract grew from $124,000 to $1.26 million. Its Central Waterfront Cleanup contract went from $499,700 to $2.79 million.
Aspect Consulting, a hydrogeology and environmental firm with more than 130 employees, has nine contracts meeting the criteria.
Aspect’s Chlor-Alkali remediation contract at GP West grew from $68,779 in 2022 to $1.39 million – 1,924 percent. An earlier phase of the same project started at $42,263 in 2021 and reached $676,444.
PND Engineers received a single contract in 2022 for Squalicum Harbor Inner Harbor Renovation that grew from $305,327 to $3.67 million – an increase of 1,104 percent, adding $3.37 million through amendments.
CRETE Consulting’s I&J Waterway Cleanup contract started at $699,934 in 2019 and reached $3.65 million, adding $2.95 million to the total.
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