SEQUIM — Gil Simon, leader of a coalition seeking to overhaul the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, had a visit from Walt Schubert, the chamber’s new president, Wednesday morning.
It was the morning after Schubert was appointed the chamber’s top officer.
The Sequim City Council member and former mayor was tapped by Hattie Dixon and Ron Gilles, the only chamber board members left after 11 others resigned Feb. 12 during a members’ forum at the Sequim Elks Lodge.
Those members stepped down after Simon and his group, the Concerned Chamber Committee, demanded specifics about the board’s Jan. 18 firing of chamber executive director Lee Lawrence.
Then-board president Joe Borden said Lawrence had behaved inappropriately in meetings with Port Angeles business people and with women — but that explanation wasn’t enough for Simon’s coalition.
Last week Simon urged all chamber members to nominate and vote for a new set of leaders.
But on Tuesday morning, Dixon and Gilles, acting according to chamber bylaws, chose their own board: Schubert, real estate broker Mike McAleer, Irrigation Festival marketing coordinator Jean Wyatt, Olympic Music School director Deborah Rambo Sinn and Sequim School District communications officer Annette Hanson.
Hanson was one of the chamber board members who’d resigned a week earlier.
Simon was shocked when he heard about the selections.
But by Wednesday morning, he was calm, and curious about Schubert’s motivation.
