Port Townsend port continues to examine impact of EDC Team Jefferson

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 15, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend commissioners declined to move ahead with ending its relationship with EDC Team Jefferson, opting instead to continue discussions about the organization’s role, structure and approach to economic development in Jefferson County.

Commissioners revisited commissioner Pete Hanke’s motion, tabled at their April 8 meeting, to leave the EDC Team Jefferson multi-party agreement among the port, Jefferson County, the city of Port Townsend and Jefferson County PUD.

Hanke said he had serious reservations about the port continuing its annual $46,000 contribution to the organization for what he described as a lack of visible results.

After more than an hour of discussion, Hanke withdrew his motion Wednesday, saying he wanted more time for broader conversations about the EDC’s future and economic development efforts in the county rather than forcing discussions around the agreement’s required 180-day withdrawal notice period.

“I don’t want to be frivolous with taxpayer dollars,” Hanke said. “But it’s much more important to get this right than it is to worry about a deadline.”

Board president Pam Petranek, the port’s representative on EDC Team Jefferson, said giving formal notice to leave was not intended as a threat but rather to create urgency around discussions about the council’s future.

“Our goal is, in six months, we come up with a better model,” Petranek said. “This isn’t, ‘We quit.’ This is, ‘Come on, let’s figure this out.’”

Petranek said she believes the current EDC structure lacks sufficient public participation, accountability and communication among partner agencies. She pointed to other economic development organizations around the state that hold open meetings and regularly bring in presentations on infrastructure, business recruitment and workforce development issues.

Port Executive Director Eron Berg said he does not believe the current EDC model is supporting the outcomes local governments want to see.

“I think we’re two generations behind in job creation in Jefferson County,” Berg said. “It’s not getting better yet.”

Berg pointed to declining labor force trends presented during public comment by EDC Team Jefferson Executive Director David Ballif, who said the county’s labor force trajectory had fallen from one of the strongest in the state about 20 years ago to one of the weakest.

Ballif said the county needs to move more aggressively to address workforce and economic issues.

“It does put a point on we need to be open to thinking bigger,” Ballif said. “There’s a whole host of things that we need to be moving forward faster than we are right now.”

Jefferson County PUD Commissioner Jeff Randall also spoke during public comment, urging continued collaboration among the agencies.

“We’re all actors in this play,” Randall said. “If we don’t work together, we lose even more.”

Port commissioners did not set a timeline for action but said discussions about the EDC’s future role and structure would continue through the Intergovernmental Collaborative Group — a coalition of local government agencies that meets to coordinate on regional issues, including economic development, infrastructure and housing.

Parking rules

Individuals who leave their vehicles at Boat Haven for extended periods of time — sometimes for as long as a year — soon will need to find someplace else to park.

Commissioners directed Berg to update parking rules to limit parking in the same spot to five or seven consecutive days while continuing separate rules for boatyard users after complaints from moorage tenants that some vehicles were effectively being stored there.

Industrial park

At the port’s Wednesday morning workshop, Capital Projects Engineer Dave Nakagawara updated commissioners on development of the industrial park south of Jefferson County International Airport, though the project faces funding, infrastructure and permitting challenges.

Nakagawara said Phase 1 would develop 11 one-acre light lots on 24 acres with roads, underground utilities and a large on-site septic system designed to support future expansion. Design work on Phase 1 is about 90 percent complete, while Phase 2 — which would add about 18 more lots — is about 10 percent designed.

The port sought about $2 million for infrastructure assistance and has received provisional approval for about $803,000 through the office of U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, D-Port Orchard, though the funding remains uncertain.

Nakagawara said water pressure and fire-flow limitations south of the runway remain obstacles and may require additional redesign work.

Social media

Berg said the public response to the port’s decision on April 30 to stop using Facebook and Instagram has been mixed.

“Many of the comments (on social media) were pretty negative,” Berg said. “But in person, emails and on the phone, 100 percent were positive.”

Berg said other public agencies responded positively to the decision but were reluctant to leave social media platforms because of the role they now play in how agencies connect with the public.

“I think that is the challenge,” Berg said. “We’ve allowed these platforms to be so central to our communication that we don’t think it’s possible to step away.”

He added, “Social media precludes healthy person-to-person debate and discussion that earlier methods of communicating and connecting did.”

The Port of Port Angeles has no plans to end its use of social media, Executive Director Paul Jarkiewicz said.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.