PORT TOWNSEND — The Fort Worden Public Development Authority board voted to approve a timeline of tasks prior to a dissolution hearing set for Oct. 7.
Among the items were to fulfill data transfers with State Parks, and later with the City of Port Townsend, send final notifications to tenants and vendors this week, collect final tenant invoices, finalize PDA accounts payable and quickbooks, and hold a public open house sometime during the week of Sept. 23.
“Our primary goal is as smooth and clean of a transition as we can possibly make,” said Celeste Tell, the PDA’s interim executive director. “There will be balls that will drop, certainly, but we want to keep it minimal and do a proper handoff.
“All entities are continuing to collaborate closely,” she said. “Everything we’re doing is in the interest of keeping Fort Worden going as it is, and keeping the public experience at Fort Worden pretty much the way it’s been.”
The PDA’s public hearing for dissolution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 7 on the second floor of Port Townsend City Hall, 540 Water St., in council chambers.
City Council meetings also are broadcast via Zoom, or participants may listen by telephone. Information for accessing the meeting will be posted in the council meeting agenda several days before the meeting at https://cityofpt.us/citycouncil/page/agendasminutesvideos.
Both Zoom and phone participants are permitted to give public comments.
State Parks will conduct a tenant meeting next week.
The week of Sept. 9 will see most of the PDA staff out of the office traveling or otherwise taking leave. The following week, the PDA will start preparing its dissolution statement, as mandated by the charter.
Tell said the PDA will stop accepting payments and invoices on Sept. 27.
The PDA is looking at ways to pay its final paychecks to staff early so it can close bank accounts along with the rest of the timeline, Tell said.
“There is a lot baked into each one of these steps, and it develops every day,” she said.
The PDA’s final board meeting will be Sept. 24.
Board president David King said he plans to resign from the board on Oct. 7, preceding the hearing.
“I think it’s fair to say that none of us are doing, as a board members, what we signed up to do originally,” King said to the board on Tuesday. “For me, the critical date is the seventh of October. It’s my intention to stay on board until that time. It will support the staff in this transition.
“I think that’s important for an orderly transition that’s transparent and as constructive as possible,” he said. “I actually intend to resign from the board on the seventh just prior to the city council meeting.
“If the council decides to defer or delay the dissolution, then you’d still be on the board. What I’m saying is I want to be done on that date.”
King also said he was asking other board members to stay on until the hearing to support Tell in navigating the complex and shifting work ahead, with the full force of the board.
Board member and city council member Libby Urner-Wennstrom questioned whether it might be more prudent to stay on until after the hearing, in the case that the council doesn’t dissolve the board. King replied that he was hoping to signal that the board is ready to be dissolved, and if extenuating circumstances arise between now and then, he will reconsider his decision.
The board passed a motion to seek dissolution from the city of Port Townsend in early August, making a request at city council soon afterward. According to protocol, the city set a public hearing for 60 days following the initial request.
The request for dissolution came following years of financial struggles.
The PDA received a comprehensive strategic plan from PROS consulting earlier this year. In June, the PDA held a multi-day strategic workshop with stakeholders from Centrum, Fort Worden Hospitality, State Parks and the city of Port Townsend. The goal of the workshops was to strategize the short-term steps to get to the mid- and long-term plans outlined in the strategic plan.
Tell said it became more clear that the PDA was not the appropriate management body to carry the fort to success.
The PDA will provide more details about the public open house, possibly sometime next week, Tell said. Information will be posted on the PDA website in the “news flash” box on the organization’s website, https://fwpda.gov.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
