Port Townsend: Ex-mayor’s apology in role with Santa Maria Shipping expected tonight

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, January 20, 2004

PORT TOWNSEND — Former Mayor Kees Kolff plans to apologize tonight for his role in Santa Maria Shipping’s decision not to locate a shipyard in Port Townsend.

Kolff, whose term as mayor ended at the beginning of this month — he remains a member of the City Council — issued a statement at the council’s retreat on Saturday, saying he would apologize for any mistakes he might have made in a private meeting with Santa Maria officials.

Kolff said he will issue the apology at tonight’s council meeting.

The council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 540 Water St.

Kolff told the Peninsula Daily News on Monday that while he plans to apologize — “for meeting alone with them, which I shouldn’t have done especially in light of how they reacted to that meeting” — he also plans to issue a three-page explanation with a sequence of events.

Kolff said he wants to discuss “how Santa Maria is a company with a history of going city-to-city, trying to get what it wants.”

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This story — plus one detailing how Port of Willapa Harbor won the proposed shipyard — appear in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News.