Richland City Council will vote Tuesday to extend the American Cruise Lines (ACL) contract for priority use of the Lee Street Dock until 2045 by adding two additional five-year optional extensions. American Queen Steamboat Company complained in 2021 that ACL could squeeze out other cruise companies.
According to the staff report for the Tuesday meeting, the cruise line has made improvements “at ACL’s own expense, including removal and replacement of failing mooring piles at the dock.” In light of this investment, the staff feels it is mutually beneficial to extend the lease.
The move comes just over two months after the Tri-City Herald reported that the ACL was working with the Port of Walla Walla to upgrade the Burbank dock to accommodate cruise ships. According to the Herald, the dock’s neighbors are a grain terminal and a metal recycling facility, and the nearest road is unpaved.
“’Our passengers appreciate a working waterfront,”’ Kristin Meira, spokeswoman for ACL, told the Herald.
While extolling the virtues of Burbank’s working dock, Meira also reiterated the company’s commitment to Richland.
Contract began with controversy.
After Richland councilmembers approved the contract with ACL on the consent calendar without any discussion at their December 15, 2020 meeting, Eric Denley, a representative of American Queen Steamboat Company called the city councilmember during the public comment period at the January 19, 2021, meeting to express his company’s concerns.
Richland councilmembers admitted that they didn’t fully understand what was in the contract with the American Cruise Lines’ 5-year contract that had two 5-year extension options. No councilmember asked to remove the contract from the consent calendar for a discussion when the matter was on the December agenda.
“It’s clear there was a policy decision made here and we didn’t have enough information,” Mayor Ryan Lukson told City Parks and Facilities Director Joe Schiessl.
Other cruise lines have second choice.
The contract gave ACL “unlimited priority right” to use the dock. The city required them to schedule third-party vessels docking requests if it was “not in conflict with User’s established priority schedule.” ACL was required to provide a schedule no later than January 15 each year.
Denley told the council that cruise ships plan their schedules several years in advance, not one year out.
American Queen Steamboat Company closed in 2024.
Promises, Promises
Schiessl told the city council at a workshop January 28, 2021, that ACL wanted to build a dock at Columbia Point but admitted that there was nothing in the contract regarding another dock.
He showed the council slides of the different ways that cruise lines could unload passengers in Richland without a dock by using gangplanks and small boats.
By the March 23, 2021, council workshop, Schiessl told the council that either the city or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would build the dock and lease it to ACL.
Two more five year options will be added.
The $45,000 a year contract, which is on the council consent calendar which means no discussion and one vote for all the items, will have two more five-year options added to it which takes it to 2045.
The original contract provides for increases in the yearly rent based on the Consumer Price Index when the options are exercised. Today that would mean that the rent would increase to $55,015,08, but the first five years of the contract don’t end until December 2025.
Why does the council not get public input?
Hi Jan, That’s a very good question. The Richland City Council seems to believe that every issue is non-controversial, and they put almost everything on a consent calendar for no discussion and one vote. This particular vote took place during the COVID shut down in 2020/2021 and the meetings were totally remote. I called other dock owners where ACL stops and they thought the deal with Richland was a very good one for the cruise line. At last night’s meeting, the Parks Director said that there might be another dock built at Columbia Point where the city is currently planning one 10-story building and a sea of parking for it. Thank you for reading the Observer, Randy