The crew of HMS Bounty couldn’t have been any angrier or more disgusted with their skipper than the members of the state House of Representatives in Olympia over the performance of their Speaker, Frank Chopp.

He didn’t have anybody lashed or keelhauled. He did worse. He gave them power and then he didn’t let them use it.

And that’s his own Democrats. As the majority, they chaired all the committees, where for the two previous sessions when the House was 49-49, they had shared that responsibility between the two parties.

Now, being a committee chair is supposed to be a big deal. You get the best offices, plenty of staff, and you are considered the last word on what comes up and what goes out of committee.

Not so with Frank Chopp as Speaker. Frank Chopp made all the decisions, despite the fact he had never served as a committee chair during his seven years in the Legislature, “I have great respect for the institution of the House,” said Rep. Ruth Fisher, a 20-year veteran and chair of both the House and Legislative Transportation Committees. “But with Frank as Speaker, it got all fouled up. He does not trust his chairs in any way, shape or form. I was undercut every step of the way.”

“He undercut me too,” said Senate Transportation Committee chair Mary Margaret Haugen. When Chopp negotiated the regional transportation bill, whereby King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties can finance their own transportation improvements, he didn’t do it with Rep. Fisher and he didn’t do it with Sen. Haugen. He did it with Republican Sen. Dan McDonald.

The bill they came up with was “the worst thing I have ever seen,” said Rep. Fisher. “It was terrible. It will never pass the voters.” Chopp ignored her bill, which would have extended the financial authority statewide and didn’t hinge on passage of the transportation revenue bill, she said. “I made the motion that we concur with the Senate (to pass the revenue bill) and not have a referendum on it. But Frank picked off 25 votes, one by one. There were so many deals made in the hallways by Frank.”

And it wasn’t only transportation, said Sen. Haugen. “It was every committee. No committee chair in the House made any decisions. Frank made them all. Usually when you go to negotiate, you negotiate with the chairs, but Frank had the final say on everything.”

Chopp infuriated Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks by killing the public-private partnership deal to build the parallel Tacoma Narrows bridge and insisting the state bond the project. He won that one and he won on his insistence that the transportation revenue bill go to the ballot. He may find that outsmarting a governor can be a Pyrrhic victory.

By delaying until November, they lose a whole construction season. “But I didn’t have $5 million for a special election in May or June,” said Sen. Haugen.”Not when we’re cutting human services. I had 35 votes in the Senate for a gas tax but they didn’t want to take the tough vote in the House.”

But people expect their legislators to take the tough votes, not hide under their desks and pass the buck to them. Right now, I’d say the bill won’t pass. Voters that leaped at the $30 car tab don’t seem likely to voluntarily agree to pay 9 cents a gallon more for their gasoline plus other tax increases. I haven’t heard many or any of them say they have since been convinced the problem they perceive of waste in transportation spending has been resolved.

There’s a time to hold ‘em and a time to fold ‘em, etc. The Legislature should have said, “Folks, we’re risking our political futures by doing what’s right but this is the right thing to do,” and passed the damn thing. The people would have bitched about it for a while, but by election time, a lot of people not working now would have jobs and a lot of bum roads would be under repair.

(Editor’s Note: Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA. 98340.).