PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles Commissioner Colleen McAleer of Sequim is working as a full-time program manager for Airborne Environmental Control Systems, one of the port’s biggest tenants, she said this week.
Former port CFO John Nutter was hired by the company in December.
McAleer resigned her job as president of the Washington Business Alliance at the end of February after it evolved into an organization “that didn’t have the broader business focus, and that’s what interested me,” McAleer said.
She has worked for Airborne for about five weeks, she added.
Because the company had earlier expressed an interest in hiring her, McAleer said she had long been recusing herself from any port matters related to the company to avoid any conflicts or appearance of conflicts of interest — although she said according to state law, even as a company employee, recusal was not required.
The legal counsel for the Municipal Research and Services Center, a statewide local-government nonprofit research organization, said McAleer is correct.
Lawyer Jim Doherty said under state law, a conflict of interest arises if elected officials own or are major shareholders in companies that are the focus of their decisions, not if they are employees.
Under state law, that limited interest allows them to vote if they choose to do so.
Still, if commissioners’ decisions on the port’s lease with Airborne, for example, has a critical impact on the company, “maybe it’s wise for her not to be involved,” Doherty said.
In recusing herself from all Airborne-related issues, “it sounds like she’s trying to be careful on this, and that’s wise,” Doherty added.
Doherty said elected officials commonly recuse themselves on issues related to their employers.
That’s the case with Port Angeles Mayor Sissi Bruch, a planner with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, and City Council member Michael Merideth, a driver for Bruch & Bruch construction.
Both leave the council chambers during discussions on contracts and other issues related to those responsible for their paychecks.
“I cannot foresee any decision that would have to come up involving [Airborne],” McAleer added.
McAleer said Airborne is leasing 15,000 square feet of a port building in the Airport Industrial Park.
John Nutter, the port’s former CFO and Airborne’s current CFO, told the Port Angeles Business Association in March that the company will soon be able to use the entire 25,000-square-foot facility.
Nutter joined the company in December.
City Light will move out by May 31 so Airborne can move in by June 1, when the base rent will be $17,200 a month, port Executive Director Karen Goschen said Thursday.
McAleer said she has never been involved with any lease negotiations with Airborne because she knew since 2013 that she might eventually work for the company, she said Thursday.
“I really tried to ensure that I handled this well,” McAleer said.
Airborne has a 20-year lease with the port, company CEO Bill Lee said Thursday.
“I think the world of Colleen,” he said.
“We’ve never talked about any of the things we have at the airport, where I’m sitting now.
“She was really not instrumental in helping us to get this.
“She said, ‘Basically, I can’t be part of this because of a potential conflict of interest.’ ”
McAleer said she first met Lee, a Joyce native, when Lee was general manager of General Electric in Yakima and she was the port’s director of business development at an aerospace conference in 2012 or 2013.
“They were considering expanding their division, and I met him while they were looking at the process,” she recalled.
“I was trying to pursue them to locate their expansion in Port Angeles.”
He said around 2013, while he was considering moving to Port Angeles, that “with your skill set, would you want to handle any program management,” McAleer said.
“It turned out GE sold that division rather than expanding it.”
She kept in touch with Lee, who sent her an email in April 2017 — after she became a port commissioner, which was 2014 — saying that he was a business owner who was interested in locating his business at the Port of Port Angeles, which she forwarded to Goschen.
“He came into town, and I made the introduction [to Goschen], and after the introduction was no longer involved,” McAleer said.
Airborne and its aerospace and defense industry engineers had focused on creating cooling systems for aircraft, military sensors and lasers but is expanding to markets in the civilian sector, Nutter said.
McAleer said her employment at Airborne should not be a factor in her decision as a port commissioner if a business similar to Airborne wants to locate on port property.
“I would support any business that comes in that creates jobs,” she said.
“If there is some kind of conflict, I would absolutely recuse myself.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
