PORT ANGELES — The struggling Clallam Business Incubator, which aims is to nurture new entrepreneurs, has lost its last business-owner board member, lacks a board president and is being run solely by representatives from public entities.
Craig Johnson, managing partner of Capacity Provisioning Inc. — a fiber-optic company of Port Angeles — resigned from the board last Friday after three months as board president, he said Wednesday.
Johnson said he lacked the time to both run his business and dedicate himself to the program, which provides common facilities and advice for startup businesses at its remodeled complex at Lincoln Center, 905 W. Ninth St. in Port Angeles.
Similar reasons
Johnson had taken over for Mike Rauch of ACTI aircraft composites manufacturing in Port Angeles, who resigned as president and from the board in August for reasons similar to Johnson’s.
None of the remaining four people on the board stepped forward to take over the role of board president at a 40-minute meeting Wednesday, said board member Jim Jones, who is also Clallam County administrator.
He said Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers, Port Angeles Schools Superintendent Jane Pryne, Peninsula College President Tom Keegan and Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb are the remaining board members.
‘Limping along’
“We are just basically limping along,” Jones said.
Jones said he spoke solely as a single board member because the incubator’s bylaws authorize only the chairman to speak for the board.
He said a future incubator board meeting has not been set, but that board members individually will continue exploring options for the nonprofit, publicly funded corporation — including the possibility of dissolution.
“You can’t just dust your hands off and walk away from a lawful corporation that has been authorized by the secretary of state,” Jones said.
“You have to go through procedures to shut down. As a nonprofit, it takes time.”
In addition, the possibility remains that the incubator will survive, Jones said.
“We are exploring all possibilities,” he said.
“The public members of the board are staying on to protect the public trust.”
The incubator owes Clallam County $709,306 out of an original $750,000 state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development loan.
The loan is being secured by Clallam County through the county’s sales-tax-fueled Opportunity Fund, which receives about $900,000 a year in sales tax revenues generated countywide and pays out about $48,000 annually on the state loan.
The county will have to pay that loan back even if the Incubator dissolves, Jones has said.
Rent collected
Jones said Linda Rotmark, as executive director of the Clallam Economic Development Council, a private, nonprofit organization that is an incubator tenant, is collecting rent from five incubator tenants and is paying the light bills.
Other tenants are Peninsula Pretzels, A to Z Gifts, Homeward Bound affordable housing and ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific, a community development bank.
Since November 2009, the incubator has offered its tenants little in services such as business training and technical advice in order to save money and decide the next step, Jones said.
“We are running in a very economical mode,” Jones said.
Rent being paid by incubator tenants is “not quite” covering the expense of keeping the place open.
“We’re operating on a small bit of reserves we have left, and we are using the time as best we can to explore all options available to us,” Jones said.
“That is my opinion as one board member.”
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Senior Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
