The Port of Bellingham dropped $100,000 on a yearlong public relations campaign, but its response to a public records request raises questions about what the port gained from the expense and how the contract was managed.
The port’s commission unanimously approved a contract with Conflux Associates in August 2024. The vote passed without discussion, gaining ire from critics in a meeting that month who questioned the large expenditure.
The campaign intended to improve the port’s optics after criticism surrounding Irish developer Harcourt’s waterfront project, the partnership with metal operations ABC Recycling and a lack of transparency.
The contract ended last summer after the first year of what was to be a three-year project, but the paper trail for the work done is almost nonexistent. That’s according to the results of a public records request the Salish Current submitted to the port for any reports or summaries about the impact and results of the contract.
Port spokesperson Michael Hogan said that the decision to not extend the project past the first year was based on a desire to pause after Fix’s departure and wait for new leadership. The port approved a new executive director last month and posted an open position for a communication director soon after. The salary is between $150,000 and $214,285, and Hogan said the port is now reviewing candidates.
An initial search for records turned up only two email files. They included a set of notes for a presentation the contractor gave to port officials a month before the contract ended. The emails show the contractor sent the notes to port employees after the port received a request from another news outlet about the contract.
After the port conducted an additional search with an expanded timeline at the request of the Salish Current, it became clear that the contract had slipped through the cracks after the departure of former Executive Director Rob Fix in June 2025. Accountability for the contract has been placed with him.
“As it turns out, the staff member that managed the Conflux contract was Rob Fix. After his departure in June of this year, I am not sure how contract deliverables were handled,” the port’s public records officer wrote in an email to the Salish Current. “Mike Hogan worked closely with (the contractor) Peter Frazier and was only able to provide the summary emails I sent you previously. He has since confirmed that he received no other deliverables as outlined in the contract.”
Hogan said because the contract was managed by Fix, he was unable to comment on how it was managed. However, he said Fix was tasked with tracking and verifying project deliverables and archiving correspondence, reports and other written work in accordance with the Public Records Act.
Hogan declined to comment on whether contract oversight was lost in the shuffle between executive directors and how the port could demonstrate the money was well spent without much documentation.
“Since I’m not managing that contract and wasn’t in charge of the deliverables, and I didn’t know the full scope of what that contractor was working on, it’s really hard for me to say,” Hogan said. “Just from my limited experiences working with him (the contractor) on a few projects, I found his work good and valuable.”
Meeting documents from the Port Commission meeting where the contract was approved identify the consultant’s scope of work, specifically a proposal outlining deliverables. Those include quarterly reports on search engine optimization, monthly reports and suggestions on relationship building efforts, a collection of written stories and a summary and report of stakeholder interviews.
Greg LeRoy is the executive director of Good Jobs First, an economic watchdog nonprofit. He said typically there are written reports and project summaries at the end of governmental contracts. It’s unusual, he added, for other staff within an organization not to have worked on some parts of a contract and be able to ensure continuity even if a director leaves.
“There would still be program staff who were responsible for issuing the contract, monitoring the contract and getting the benefits of the contract … unless the whole place turned over and everybody forgot,” LeRoy said in an interview with the Salish Current. “That’s a substantial contract. You would normally expect somebody to be watching the store.”
Hogan said the insights from the contract centered on examining whether the public was getting the right message about the port’s operations and finding ways for the port’s work to be more visible in the community.
“Conflux had some great ideas about the visuals, messaging, language, some opportunities where we could use our public facilities to have some simple messaging information,” he said. “Just how we talk about our projects.”
Reviewing the records
The August 2025 email summary of Conflux Associates owner Peter Frazier’s presentation to directors appears to be the only written report port leadership has on the campaign.
In it, Frazier included bullet points broken into a handful of categories, including “foundation and research phase,” “solutions delivered” and plans for the second year of the campaign.
The bullet points are akin to a resumé. Some are more specific, like “stakeholder interviews created a foundation of insight from 26 internal and external interviews” or “SharePoint messaging hub internal home for staff-facing resources: approved language, slides, logos and images.” Others are more vague: “Monitoring port business kept close tabs on operational developments to align all communications.”
As part of the secondary records request, the port provided hundreds of emails; several invoices; and a number of documents Frazier had sent port employees, including an MP4 file and transcript from a panel on the Samish Press Greenway, outreach powerpoints for the cruise and shipping terminals and a powerpoint pitching a waterfront story series.
The emails offer some insight into Frazier’s work during the contract, including conducting interviews with internal staff, coordinating with a tech company for a website redesign and working with District 1 Commissioner Michael Shepherd on an op-ed about the airport that was published by Cascadia Daily News,
Contract management and deliverables
The Conflux contract is not the first time the port has faced public questions about its handling of contracts.
In fact, the port’s contract with Frazier appears to align with a pattern previously reported on by The Northern Light. The Blaine newspaper documented an extensive pattern of conducting public business in private and approving large contracts — without public input or formal bidding procedures — that eventually grew far beyond their original scope.
The investigation reviewed 40 professional services contracts and 19 public works contracts between 2020 and 2024 and found the port only provided evidence of competitive solicitation for just two. Likewise, The Northern Light found professional services contracts that began below $100,000 grew by an average of 139% compared to just 5.3% growth for public works contracts.
A 2025 state audit also found a material noncompliance against the port for failing to follow procurement requirements in a federal infrastructure project. The audit did not include other contracts.
Hogan said how contract deliverables are tracked and archived depends on the type of contract — the port’s contracts range from consulting to construction — and the scope of work.
“The Conflux contract was a personal services contract so there’s a scope of work and deliverables and then the person managing the contract manages that work product and that contract,” he said.
Frazier told Salish Current in an email that he “delivered work product throughout the engagement” that included multiple reports, papers, presentation, story maps, FAQ source material and video content.
“My primary executive relationship was with Executive Director Rob Fix. I worked closely with Mike Hogan and the communications team, and project-by-project with the relevant directors. We met regularly,” he wrote, adding that the day-to-day work continued after Fix’s departure.
Frazier said his top accomplishments during the contract included: over 26 interviews with internal and external stakeholders and a sustained presence and relationship building in the community; designing a website refresh; strategic communications planning; and developing a StorySign project that would allow the public to scan a QR code and learn more about a project.
Frazier said he didn’t have full insight into the port’s decision not to renew his contract and that new leadership had reasonably set its own priorities.
“I am glad to see they are hiring for a communications director who can oversee this level of work,” he said, adding, “strategic communications change in a public agency is at least a three-year arc, as I had proposed. The foundation was built and the campaign design was completed, and a lot of good work was done. As for barriers, I encountered none from inside the port — I found only enthusiasm and professionals doing solid work throughout. The only barrier was the conclusion of the contract.”
—By Sydnee Chapman