PORT ANGELES — Officials of the city, Port of Port Angeles and Clallam County were guardedly optimistic Thursday about their inclusion in formal negotiations regarding Tse-whit-zen and the former Hood Canal Bridge graving yard.
Port Angeles Mayor Karen Rogers and City Manager Mark Madsen were in Olympia and unavailable for comment, but City Attorney Bill Bloor said, “If the city’s invited to participate in the process, we look forward to that opportunity.
“We will certainly participate in good faith.”
Port Commission President Bill Hannan said commissioners had sought a role in negotiations after they were agreed upon by Gov. Chris Gregoire and Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, in December.
“In the negotiations up to this time, we haven’t had a part,” Hannan said.
“Anything that happens on the waterfront affects us. We certainly want to be a part of that picture.”
Port Executive Director Robert McChesney said, “We are happy to be part of a well-defined mediation process that will benefit the whole community in the spirit of cooperation and compromise.”
Mike Doherty, chairman of the Clallam County board of commissioners, credited Gregoire and Charles with reaching the agreement and downplayed any role the county might play.
“The two women really are the two parties that had to get together — and did,” said Doherty, D-Port Angeles.
“I think we’re just grateful that the two leaders are moving ahead on this.”
Including local governments in the formal talks was a major change from earlier informal negotiations, from which the city and Port felt they had been excluded.
Charles signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday. Gregoire signed it Thursday along with Tom Fitzsimmons, her chief of staff, whom she has designated to bring the parties together
Fitzsimmons is expected to meet with representatives of the city, Port and county this afternoon.
On Monday, independent negotiator John Bickerman will visit Port Angeles to meet local representatives and to tour the 22.5-acre Tse-whit-zen site, where archaeologists uncovered 337 intact human remains before graving yard construction halted in December 2004.
Bickerman, founder of Bickerman Dispute Resolution Inc. in Washington, D.C., is a 1988 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.
