PORT ANGELES — Former Police Chief Terry Gallagher felt like a new employee Wednesday less than three months after he retired as Port Angeles’ top law enforcement officer.
Gallagher, 62, strode into his new temporary office as Oak Harbor’s interim police department administrator under a three-month contract. The Whidbey Island city is looking for a permanent replacement for Police Chief Ed Green, who resigned two weeks ago.
“I got a darn job,” Gallagher quipped Wednesday in characteristic fashion.
“It’s an accident, I think.”
Far from it, actually.
Gallagher followed his March 4 retirement with a 1½-month trip through South America with his wife, Tammy.
They were back in their Port Angeles home for a week when he got a call from Oak Harbor asking him to fill in as police administrator.
He said he still doesn’t know who told Oak Harbor city officials he was the person for the job.
Early Wednesday afternoon, he said he was preparing to sign a 90-day extendable employment contract for $9,900 a month without benefits. The agreement includes a kitchenette-equipped hotel room paid for by the city for weekday use.
Gallagher, who served 31 years on the Port Angeles Police Department — including eight years as chief — still had first-day jitters Wednesday.
Walking into the Oak Harbor police station “was like being a new employee anywhere you go,” Gallagher said.
“As a chief executive walking into an organization, there’s a certain amount of curiosity on the part of employees on what to think, what the new guy is going to do.”
Gallagher said his job is to ensure he leaves the department pointed in the right direction for the new police chief.
He will be supervising a police force of 26 officers in a city of 22,000 residents compared to the Port Angeles department’s 32 officers and the city’s 19,000 residents.
“The call load in this community is significantly lower than in Port Angeles,” Gallagher said.
Oak Harbor also has its own jail — unlike Port Angeles, which incarcerates inmates in the Clallam County jail — and its own free-standing police department.
Port Angeles’ department is part of City Hall.
Gallagher has long been a proponent of a separate police facility.
“The police facility here is superior to Port Angeles,” he said.
“I just had to go somewhere else to find one,” he added, noting he should call up Interim Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith to give him a hard time.
Smith, the city’s deputy police chief, is one of four applicants for the vacancy created by Gallagher’s departure, Human Resources Manager Abbi Fountain said Wednesday.
Smith is the only applicant from Clallam and Jefferson counties for the position, which pays $100,919 to $120,629 annually.
Fountain said City Manager Dan McKeen is expected to name a replacement for Gallagher in August.
Oak Harbor Mayor Bob Severns selected Gallagher after Green announced his resignation and retirement May 16, according to a May 16 news release from Severns’ office.
Severns did not return calls for comment Wednesday on Gallagher’s appointment.
The Whidbey News-Times reported Wednesday that Severns had asked Green to resign after an investigation was conducted into issues surrounding department morale and communication.
Severns concluded the trouble stemmed from the department’s management level, the newspaper reported.
“I have not seen their article,” Gallagher said of the News-Times report.
“My experience has almost always been that employees are interested in doing the right thing.
“If I can provide leadership that helps them be successful, I’ll be happy to do that.”
Gallagher said he won’t be applying for Green’s job.
He also is not likely to market his experience on a full-time basis to cities in need of interim law enforcement management skills.
“I wouldn’t necessarily be interested in this as a full-time gig,” he said.
“I would be willing to sit down and talk about it.
“ ‘It depends’ is my answer.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
