PORT ANGELES — Board President Jack Harmon of the Port Angeles Downtown Association ordered merchant Don Zeller out of a public board meeting this week after the two men argued over the ouster, then reinstatement, of board member Kevin Tracy in July.
About five minutes of back-and-forth comments had elapsed during the comment period at Monday night’s regular meeting of the organization before Harmon asked Zeller to leave because, he said, Zeller was interrupting him.
Zeller kept talking, and Harmon asked Port Angeles Police Officer Dallas Maynard, who attends the board meetings of the Port Angeles Downtown Association — or PADA — as part of his job as downtown resource officer, to “please ask him to leave.”
Maynard stood up and began talking with a supervisor on his shoulder microphone, and Zeller walked out.
“Obviously, I’m not happy about it,” Zeller, owner of Zeller’s Antiques, said Tuesday.
Zeller admitted that he interrupted Harmon.
“There is no venue to hash out issues or topics,” Zeller added.
Members can ask to be on the agenda “for any item,” Harmon responded Tuesday.
“They are not restricted to the comment period,” he said.
“I chose to answer at the comment period because this subject had been vetted.”
In the future, Harmon — who owns Expeditions Northwest, Arrow Launch, and Arrow Marine — said he will try to avoid responding to comments during the comment period.
The downtown association manages downtown parking and sponsors events, including the upcoming Heritage Days Sept. 14-16, and receives $20,000 in economic development funds for the Main Street program.
Each of the organization’s 190 members pay an annual assessment of $160 to $400, depending on square footage, for shared parking that is free to customers.
The City Council on July 17 directed City Manager Dan McKeen to collect information on the city’s contractual and historical relationship with the downtown association in the wake of the organization’s July 3 removal of Tracy and that action’s subsequent reversal, announced by Harmon July 10.
McKeen said Tuesday that the information was put in the mailboxes of City Council members Friday, adding he did not know if the topic will become an agenda item.
“There may be additional discussion. I’m not sure,” McKeen said.
According to the minutes of the downtown association’s special July 3 meeting, Tracy, who was not present, was removed by an 11-0 vote.
The membership was told in a July 5 email from the board that Tracy “has been removed from the PADA board.”
The board “felt that Tracy was not longer working cohesively with the board,” board Secretary Drew Schwab, owner of Anime Kat, said in an Aug. 6 interview.
Nothing in the bylaws allows the board to remove a board member for violating the code, Schwab said.
Tracy, owner of Tracy Wealth Management, said his reputation had been “damaged in the community” and that he had been “singled out” because he has consistently asked the board to be more transparent and effective.
In an interview, Harmon said the July 3 vote was “an advisory vote.”
Asked Tuesday why the word “advisory” was not in the original motion, Harmon said, “I can’t speak to that” and “I don’t remember how it went down.”
“That was the decision of the board,” he said.
“The board said, ‘Time out, we are not going to do this, we are going to let this be a membership issue.’”
According to minutes of the July 9 meeting that were approved Monday by the board, “Jack [Harmon] read a clarification regarding the July 3 executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel, property or litigation. Kevin is not removed from the board and [the] meeting is an advisory one.”
The board did not take a vote on reinstating Tracy, according to the minutes of the July 9 meeting, although it did hold another executive session during the meeting.
Harmon emailed the membership July 10.
“After reflecting on the July 3 board meeting and the action to remove Mr. Tracy from the board, the board has determined that it did not duly serve the memberships’s decision that elected him to the position,” Harmon said in the email.
“Mr. Tracy will continue as a board member unless he chooses to resign, or the membership acts to remove him.”
Zeller raised issues with the chain of events at Monday’s meeting.
He told Harmon, “If you just countermanded an official vote from the board by deciding the board vote was out because you sent an email, that is disturbing as far as procedure goes.”
Harmon responded that there should be no confusion about Tracy’s status and that the emails to members explained what the board had done.
During the exchange, Harmon warned Zeller at least twice not to interrupt him, asking at one point: “Can you not interrupt me with a question, sir?”
Seconds later, Harmon asked Zeller to leave.
“I firmly believe Kevin’s status is clear,” he told the board after Zeller left.
Tracy was not at the meeting Tuesday.
Said Tracy on Tuesday: “My position is, I am not a board member.
“The vote was taken to eliminate me, and there was no vote to reinstate me.”
In February 2011, Tracy resigned from the board over disagreements with the organization.
Later in 2011, he and Zeller organized a no-confidence petition requesting a city audit of the group that found the association in compliance with its contract with the city but that also recommended there be more contact with membership.
Tracy was later re-elected to the board as one of seven candidates who pledged to “restore accountability and transparency.”
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
