[EXTERNAL] Written Public Comments for 3/14/23 Commission Meeting
James Jennings <JJ@2Jconsulting.net>
Tue 3/14/2023 1:04 PM
To: Commission-Public-Records <commission-public-records@portseattle.org>
WARNING: External email. Links or aachments may be unsafe.
Since I was unable to complete my comments, please include the below as part of the wrien record.
Good aernoon Execuve Director Metruck, President Cho and Commissioners
My name is James Jennings (JJ) and I am here to speak in regard to the Port’s HR-34 and EX-29 policies.
For the benefit of Commissioners Hasegawa and Mohamed, who I have not yet had the pleasure to
meet, I will provide a bit of my background.
I was a Port employee for more than 26 years, having a bit of a Cinderella story career, starng as a
college intern and finishing as the Director of Aviaon Business and Properes.
As a sample of my work, I stood before many Commissioners here today, laying the groundwork for
many SEA major capital projects, most notably the Concourse C Expansion Project, SEA Gateway Project
and Concourse A Expansion for Airport Lounges. I am not sure if it is commonly known, but I am one of
the employees that was quietly terminated when the Port instuted it’s HR-34 policy requiring
vaccinaon, having received no accommodaon for my sincerely held religious beliefs.
But I am not here today to tread out sour grapes or ask for my job back, in fact I have worked very hard
to move on from my Port employment, currently working with my wife in a small airport consulng
business called 2J Consulng. But one challenge we have had is that we are not currently allowed to
work on-site at Port facilies, due to our vaccinaon status, which limits our potenal work
opportunies to work that can only be completed virtually.
But probably more important, is the fact that not everyone who was terminated has fared as well as I,
and you may hear from some of them today during public tesmony. Many are bier and some connue
to struggle to find work, so not allowing them this opportunity to return to the Port feels discriminatory
in light of the current COVID-19 climate and evidence.
So I am here today to ask the Port why it has not retracted or significantly modified their vaccinaon
requirement policies for both employees (HR-34) and contractors (EX-29)?
Clearly the body of evidence and the praccal, polical and scienfic jusficaons that underpinned the
development of those policies has dissolved?
Praccally, we all know unvaccinated employees or contractors create no greater risk to the employee
populaon than a vaccinated employee in the workplace (in fact there are hundreds of unvaccinated
tenants and visitors spending significant me in Port facilies every month).
Polically, President Biden has long given up on vaccinaon requirements for Federal Contractors (which
was the impetus for the Port’s policy) and both King County and the City of Seale have both retracted
their employee vaccinaon requirements.
Scienfically, even the CDC now recognizes natural immunity as “at least as beneficial” as a vaccine.
Personally, I have had COVID-19 previously, and took a standard anbody test that showed robust
anbodies.
So, what ground then does the Port stand on in keeping these outdated policies?