PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Economic Development Council directors openly clashed Friday over government funding and the support needed to help keep the job-creating agency afloat.
Trust issues simmering for two years since the last council administrator left under a cloud came bubbling to the surface again during the council’s quarterly membership luncheon meeting at Point Hudson’s Marina Room.
But arguments ultimately came down to creating unity in what Washington State University Jefferson County Extension Director Katherine Baril called “a fractured organization.”
Plea for unity
Despite political infighting, Economic Development Council Executive Director Tamer Kirac pleaded for unity in a county that has one of the state’s worst records for creating family-wage jobs.
“It is totally unacceptable for us to bicker here when we have these numbers,” Kirac, who has been with the council nine months, said to board members.
Kirac, a career economist and numbers-cruncher who for four years saw success as executive director of the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District in The Dalles, Ore., points to the county’s average annual wage of $23,278.
“There is no excuse for having a 12-percent poverty level. It’s unheard of,” he told the Peninsula Daily News before Friday’s meeting.
Kirac presented his proposed Strategic Plan last month to board members to serve as a blueprint “to enable the EDC and its partners to meet the challenges of the future.”
Council board members on Friday agreed to go over the plan and make written suggestions and comments to Kirac before the next board meeting.
The plan is intended to define the nonprofit organization’s visions, goals and objectives.