PORT ANGELES — The Harbor-Works Public Development Authority intends to have a permanent executive director hired within the next three weeks.
Five new candidates will be interviewed by at least two members of the Harbor-Works Board of Directors, Port Angeles Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton, Port of Port Angeles Commissioner George Schoenfeldt and Port Angeles Human Resources Manager Bob Coons before the authority’s next board meeting on March 30, said Orville Campbell, board chairman, at a special meeting Monday.
If more than two members of the five-member Harbor-Works board participate in the interviews, a special meeting will have to be called.
The total number of applicants for the position, budgeted at $144,000 a year, is about 25, said Campbell, a former Port Angeles deputy mayor.
That includes the 18 candidates who initially applied for the job last fall.
The Harbor-Works board put off a final selection at its Dec. 3 meeting while the City Council reviewed the reasons for the city and the port creating Harbor-Works, which was quickly approved by the City Council and port commissioners last May.
Consultant contacts
Campbell said eight people have applied for the job since December, five of whom applied after being contacted by Jones Strategic Consulting of Seattle.
The Harbor-Works board hired the firm for an amount not to exceed $15,000 on March 2 to find additional candidates.
Campbell said the board wanted to find additional candidates “since there was a time gap . . . and there may be more people that are available.”
He said the board is still considering all candidates for the position.
Campbell said the new candidates come from “private industry, ports and, frankly, most of them have a fairly broad field of expertise.”
“Most of them have a lot of the qualifications,” he said.
“Everyone may not have all of them.”
Two from PA area
Campbell declined to say where the candidates live or what work they do with any more detail, but he said at a previous meeting that two of the candidates are from the Port Angeles area.
The executive director would head the public development authority, which was created to assist in the environmental cleanup of the Rayonier Inc. property on the east side of Port Angeles Harbor, direct its redevelopment and assist in shoreline planning.
The property once housed a large Rayonier pulp mill.
One of the executive director’s first tasks would be to negotiate a purchase and sale agreement with Rayonier for its 75-acre property.
That should be done by May, said board Treasurer Jerry Hendricks, who is a former port executive director.
The property is contaminated by PCBs, dioxins and other contaminates from the mill, which closed in 1997 after operating for 68 years.
It has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
Property purchase
Hendricks said purchase of the property wouldn’t be finalized for another year.
Signing the agreement would allow Harbor-Works to determine the cost of the property and environmental risks as part of the “due diligence process,” he said.
“All those questions we can’t know until we finish due diligence,” Hendricks said.
At Monday’s meeting, the board unanimously approved $12,448.73 in spending.
That brings the total amount spent by Harbor-Works to $50,590.96.
The expenses approved at the meeting include:
• $6,101.25 to attorney Rob Tulloch.
• $2,250 to Bill James, finance director.
• $1,164.37 for a Dell laptop computer.
• $952.62 to clerk Karen Kilgore.
• $325.02 for Web site bids.
• $900 for rent at 1115 E. Front St. from March 15 through April 14.
• $665.47 for a printer, fax, scanner and copy machine.
• $90 to Capacity Provisioning Inc. for e-mail services.
The board also voted unanimously to authorize its attorney, Rob Tulloch, to create a consulting agreement with Gordon and Thomas law firm of Tacoma.
If the contract is approved by the board, the law firm will consult the board on tribal and environmental law and assist the executive director in negotiations with Rayonier.
At its next meeting on March 30, which will be a special meeting, the board will consider several amendments to its bylaws.
They include:
• Allowing the executive director, board chairman or treasurer to sign purchase orders without a vote by the full board.
The board would still have to consider approval of any expenses that Harbor-Works is billed.
• Changing the regular meeting dates to the first Monday of each month.
• Adding 1115 E. Front St. as the public development authority’s office and mailing address.
Hendricks said Harbor-Works’ 2009 budget may be completed by the next meeting.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
