PORT ANGELES — After expressing initial reservations, Clallam County commissioners agreed this week to name a county representative to the Composite Recycling Technology Center board of directors.
The three commissioners by consensus also decided to seek candidate-screening assistance from the county Economic Development Corp., whose executive director, Bill Greenwood, told the commissioners in May that the recycling technology center effort was a risky endeavor.
Commissioner Jim McEntire said at a work session Monday that the EDC’s help in making a recommendation on filling the board position would address concerns about the county being involved so closely in a business venture.
McEntire, a former EDC board member, cited the state constitutional ban on cities and other municipalities from directly or indirectly owning stocks and bonds so county government can’t benefit from it.
He emphasized that it would not be an advisory board; it would be a supervisory and policy board.
“The underlying principle is an arm’s-length relationship between government and business, but the EDC has a conscious strategy to foster innovative manufacturing,” McEntire said.
Earlier this year, commissioners awarded a $1 million Opportunity Fund grant to the Port of Port Angeles to complete a port-owned, 25,000-square-foot building at 2220 W. 18th St. in west Port Angeles.
It will house the Composite Recycling Technology Center, known as the CRTC, which will include Peninsula College classrooms and have within its walls carbon fiber composite recycling machines.
“We are pretty well-invested in the success of this enterprise here,” McEntire said at the meeting.
“We want to make it work in a way that honors the fundamental concept behind the constitution.”
CRTC Board President and Treasurer Bob Larsen told commissioners that the board will file for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
Communication channel
Having a county representative on the board “is a way of opening up a communication channel,” Larsen said in a 25-minute presentation to commissioners.
“We are standing up this corporation basically from scratch, so we are looking for people who kind of have board-/high-level management experience.
“That’s going to be our bread and butter.
“It’s obviously going to be a very collaborative organization.”
Larsen said in a later interview that the EDC has experience in reviewing business qualifications.
“There have been a few people over there who have been less than enthusiastic” about the CRTC, Larsen added.
“With all due respect, they are not aware of what’s going on and what the opportunities are.
“They are coming from different backgrounds.
“This is a different approach and a different organization.”
In a later interview Monday, McEntire said he expected that the EDC board would make a recommendation to the commissioners on a candidate for the CRTC board.
In an email to county commissioners in May when the Opportunity Fund grant was still under consideration, Greenwood cited “a multitude of risks” associated with the project.
Greenwood did not return calls for comment Monday and Tuesday.
“For them to make a recommendation with the appropriate knowledge and background and all the appropriate things that we look at, that would be a good group to look at that,” EDC board President Randy Johnson, also Green Crow Corp. president, said Tuesday.
“Any startup is risky, and it has all the potential to create a lot of jobs.”
Larsen said in a later interview that he has approached Port Angeles city officials about naming a city representative to the board, which would increase its number to five people.
City Manager Dan McKeen said city officials will decide on the CRTC board membership request in the near future, especially with the county moving forward in naming a representative.
“I want to understand the situation a little further and why we would name a city representative on that,” McKeen said Monday.
Larsen said he expects the board to hire an executive director by June with help from a human resources company.
Position descriptions also are being prepared for chief technology, marketing and administrative jobs.
“We have every expectation that a year from now, we will be shipping products out the door,” Larsen said.
“We are going to rival Apple in creativity, and we are going to rock this place.
“Hold on to your hat.”
Create jobs
Port officials have said the CRTC will create about 340 direct and indirect jobs.
Larsen heads OboTech LLC of Port Angeles, a consulting firm in renewable fuels and transportation technology,.
Other current board members are Anson Fatland, associate vice president for economic development and external affairs at Washington State University, and Charles Brandt, who directs the Coastal Sciences Division of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Energy and Environmental Directorate, located in Sequim, Seattle and Portland, Ore.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
