PORT ANGELES — Terry Weed will step down as general manager of Clallam Transit this summer.
“It’s just time to retire,” he said. “Nothing is forcing me out. I’m not looking to take other jobs per se or to relocate.”
Weed, who turns 65 in April, left open the exact date of his retirement to ensure a continuity of leadership for the public transportation agency.
He is tentatively scheduled to step down in July when the next general manager begins. The Clallam Transit board will discuss the replacement process today.
In retirement, Weed and his wife, Sheryl, plan to stay in the Port Angeles area — they own property in Clallam and Jefferson counties — and spend more time with their four adult children who have scattered across the country.
“It’s basically a change of pace,” he said.”
Weed graduated with a broadcast communications degree from the University of Washington. He worked as a KONP radio host in the 1970s before taking a job a Clallam Transit supervisor-dispatcher in 1980.
Weed was promoted to operations manager in 1984 and became general manager of Clallam Transit in January 2005.
“We’ve grown a lot in the 30 years that I’ve been here,” he said. “As an organization, in terms of stability and the level of the people, the quality of people, we’re at a really high level.
“I’m proud of the employees’ professionalism and courtesy as public servants.”
Since 2010, Weed has earned a $104,030 salary to oversee an agency that has an annual fixed-route ridership of 1 million passenger trips and 60,000 fixed-route hours.
Transit, which budgeted $13.4 million for operations and capital projects in 2013, has about 90 employees.
The posted salary range for Weed’s successor is $80,000-$104,000.
Clallam Transit is governed by a seven-member board comprised of Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks city council members and Clallam County commissioners.
Weed said decisions on transportation funding that will be made in Olympia and Washington, D.C., over the next few months will determine whether Clallam Transit can maintain its current level of service.
“From a financial point of view, we’re at a pretty critical state in terms of the future,” he said. “Since the mid-’80s, our service level has been pretty stable. We haven’t changed it radially or dramatically.
“Unfortunately, we live and die by the sales tax collected here, and the sales tax is not keeping up that model. We can’t sustain it too much longer unless we get alternative revenue from some other sources.”
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.
