PORT ANGELES — A new director for Harbor-Works Public Development Authority might be chosen on Friday.
The authority’s board voted on Monday to hold a special meeting to select an executive director.
The meeting will begin Friday at 7:30 a.m. in the Port Angeles City Council chambers, 321 E. Fifth St.
A closed-door, executive session is planned to interview four candidates.
Between six and eight others who were previously interviewed are also under consideration.
Orville Campbell, board president, said the group expects to reconvene in public session at about 1 p.m.
Campbell said the group may or may not make the decision at that time.
“We’ll have a discussion, and I’m very hopeful that we will,” he said.
25 applicants
The total number of applicants for the position, budgeted at $144,000 a year, is about 25, said Campbell.
The Harbor-Works board put off a final selection at its Dec. 3 meeting while the City Council reviewed the reasons for the city and the port creating Harbor-Works, which was quickly approved by the City Council and port commissioners last May.
Eight people have applied for the job since December, five of whom were recruited by Jones Strategic Consulting of Seattle.
The Harbor-Works board hired the firm for up to $15,000 on March 2 to find additional candidates.
The executive director would head the public development authority, which was created to assist in the environmental cleanup of the Rayonier Inc. property on the east side of Port Angeles Harbor, direct its redevelopment and assist in shoreline planning.
The property is contaminated with PCBs, dioxins and other contaminates from the pulp mill, which closed in 1997 after operating for 68 years.
It has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
Public forum
The board also discussed holding a public forum in which the city, the port and other stakeholders in the Rayonier property could let the public know what was happening.
No action was taken.
“I think it would be good to hold off on that until we have an executive director,” boat member Jerry Hendricks said.
“It will go a long way to giving him information and letting him hear what the public has to say.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
