PORT ANGELES — The board president of the Clallam County Economic Development Council has resigned.
Brian Kuh resigned Jan. 31 effective Feb. 1, a few weeks before a new board is expected to be named as part of the EDC’s reorganization.
Ken Hays, first vice president of the board, has been named interim board president. Hays is an architect and a Sequim city councilman.
Kuh, who remains on the board, said in his resignation letter that serving as board president took too much time away from his day job.
Kuh is a business lender with Craft3, an Ilwaco-based nonprofit business-lending institution with offices in Oregon and Washington, including Port Angeles.
“My current workload as a business lender has exhausted the discretionary time needed for me to continue to serve as the president and effectively carry out the requisite duties therein,” he said in the letter.
Not giving the board more notice is “entirely on me,” Kuh said.
“The only thing that was going on in my mind was how quickly the new board could be transitioned to,” Kuh said.
“I was trying to avoid stepping down if the new board transitioned in February.
“There was not an ability for me to continue beyond what is the standard time required of the EDC.”
“I think he worked as hard as he could at it,” Hays said of Kuh’s tenure.
Kuh said Tuesday in an interview that the decision to resign was mutual between him and his supervisors at Craft3.
“To be candid, I just didn’t have the support of the day job to allot any more discretionary time beyond the end of January,” Kuh said.
According to existing bylaws, Kuh was scheduled to step down in mid-January as 2014 president, but his term was extended until new bylaws are passed and a board named, or no later than April 1.
Hays said Tuesday that EDC membership is expected to pass new bylaws within about two weeks, followed by selection of the new, smaller board by the EDC’s funding partners in March or April.
The new bylaws are being reviewed by a lawyer and should be ready for review by EDC board officers by Friday, Hays added.
The EDC has come under fire for requesting $500,000 through 2017 in sales-tax-related Opportunity Fund money for additional staffing, an effort spearheaded by Clallam County commissioner and EDC board member Jim McEntire.
Commissioners voted Tuesday, on the advice of Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols, to hold a March 17 hearing to rescind a county ordinance that would have allowed the funds to be granted for staffing.
Commissioners might consider another way to fund the EDC.
“Despite the timing of things, my transition is completely unrelated to the EDC funding discussion going on,” Kuh said.
Kuh also has curtailed his activities with the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Peninsula Young Professionals Network.
He said he spent about 10 hours a week fulfilling his board-president duties compared with the 10 hours a month it takes solely to be a board member.
Kuh said he has had ongoing discussion with board officers since mid-2014 about the need for him to step down as president.
“I’ve been in discussion with officers about the need to transition away from the presidential role,” he said.
But Hays said the first he heard Kuh might resign as board president was in late December.
Kuh said: “It certainly has been an open discussion topic since mid-2014, when I [temporarily] had to step down [as EDC president] to attend to personal matters.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
