EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated:
UPDATED — Port of Port Angeles board boots Hallett as president; port issues put on the November ballot: https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20130826/NEWS/308279997
PORT ANGELES — Jim Hallett was deposed as president of the Port of Port Angeles Board of Commissioners this morning by fellow commissioners John Calhoun and Paul McHugh.
Calhoun was voted in as the new board president until the board votes again on board officers after the Nov. 5 general election, when McHugh will be replaced by either port staff Director of Business Development Colleen McAleer or event services company co-owner Del DelaBarre.
McHugh made the motion to remove Hallett as board president.
McHugh said given the “revelations” over past weeks concerning Hallett’s actions that centered on the resignation of former Executive Director Jeff Robb, that Hallett no longer speaks for the rest of the board.
[See earlier report and email texts here: https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20130825/NEWS/308259987 ]
“You are actually proceeding with your own agenda,” McHugh said.
Hallett immediately yielded the president’s gavel — and his seat in the middle of the three commissioners — to Calhoun, who chaired the commission before Hallett assumed the role in January.
“It’s real clear that anybody that speaks for the commissioners speaks at the pleasure of the commissioners,” Hallett said.
“If either or both of you wants to change who chairs the meetings, that’s within your power.”
Hallett, the 2010 and 2011 president of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, was on the Port Angeles City Council from 1986 through 1993 and served as mayor.
He was elected as a port commissioner in 2011.
McHugh also moved to expand the commissioners’ contract with Robb, currently the port’s director of environmental affairs, to include “executive officer responsibilities.”
McHugh’s motion died because it was not seconded by Calhoun or Hallett.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
