PRESS RELEASE

February 24, 2004

Boeing releases “trade secrets” of state-funded training center

OLYMPIA -- At 5:29 p.m. this evening, two days before a public records court hearing and 15 hours before a legislative hearing to determine the supplemental Capital budget, the state released details of a multi-million-dollar, 40,000-square-foot, taxpayer-funded employee training center for Boeing. The state will be required to pay all fees and costs associated with building, operating, maintaining, repairing, replacing and equipping the facility.

These details have been withheld or redacted since the Evergreen Freedom Foundation first requested them (and other key documents related to the governor’s deal with Boeing) in mid-December.

“These documents do not reveal ‘trade secrets,’” said Bob Williams, EFF’s president. “But they do prove the governor has not been telling the truth. This is clearly a Boeing facility, not a public facility. And the $10 million cost to taxpayers for this training center is just a starting place.”

In a letter dated December 19, Boeing’s general counsel wrote that details of the training center were “strictly confidential” and “contain trade secrets and would be valuable to Boeing’s competitors.” Those claims were reiterated in subsequent letters and court documents from the state and Boeing dated January 14, February 6 and February 20.

In a letter dated today, Boeing’s general counsel wrote that the company would release the documents: “. . . consistent with our willingness to disclose appropriate, non-sensitive information to the public.”

“Boeing and the governor have been anything but willing to disclose information about this deal and that’s why we had to go to court,” said Williams. “We want Boeing to stay as much as anyone else, but not if taxpayers have to subsidize basic operations for the company. If we fund this private corporation, how can we refuse others and where will this stop?”

The contract stipulates that Boeing “will have exclusive use of the ERC for at least five years” and will have first rights to use the facility in the years following if the company chooses.

EFF still has not received all of the key documents related to the contract. A public records court hearing is scheduled for this Friday, February 27, in Thurston County Superior Court.

“We have no desire to force Boeing to disclose trade secrets, but if what we just received is their definition of a trade secret, we’re left wondering about the information they’re still withholding,” said Williams.

Copies of the documents received today will be available on EFF’s website by tomorrow evening, or the state Community Trade and Economic Development Department can be reached at (360) 725-4000.

Contact: Marsha Richards | Communications Director | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org