PORT ANGELES — City Council member Max Mania on Tuesday night criticized a $15,000 annual raise given to the Harbor-Works Development Authority’s executive director, Jeff Lincoln, earlier this month.
The raise that the five-member Harbor-Works board unanimously approved June 7 brought Lincoln’s salary to $130,000 a year, a 13 percent increase.
Harbor-Works is funded by the city of Port Angeles and Port of Port Angeles, which created the public development authority in May 2008 to direct the environmental cleanup and redevelopment of the former Rayonier Inc. mill site, which has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup project since 2000.
Lincoln was hired in May 2009.
“I assume that you are not here under any duress, but because you wanted to come here,” Mania said to Lincoln.
Lincoln replied in the affirmative adding: “I thought this was a worthwhile community endeavor.”
Mania said that he felt that both Lincoln and himself, as a City Council member, were under-paid, “but we both entered these jobs knowing that,” he said.
The Harbor-Works board said they gave Lincoln the raise because they had promised in his contract to re-evaluate his pay — which at $115,000 was $29,000 less than the advertised salary of $144,000.
“I entered [this job] under a negotiation that was specific that it would be appraised at the end of November, which I did not do,” Lincoln said.
“But now, at this point an annual appraisal was done, which is what I negotiated.”
Mania also pointed out that on the agenda for the June 7 Harbor-Works agenda, the raise was classified as “performance appraisal.”
“It is one thing to tell my paper boy that he is doing a good job. It is another thing to give him 20 bucks,” Mania said.
He said he didn’t believe that item accurately reflected the board’s intention to grant a raise.
Said former Mayor Jim Hallett, a member of the Harbor-Works board: “Two meetings prior to this we had a discussion that we hadn’t reviewed the contract and formed a sub-committee tasked with doing a performance review and reporting back to the Harbor-Works board.
“All of that was disclosed at our meeting and in our minutes and those are the facts. We aren’t afraid of making decisions in the public eye instead of in executive session.”
Hallett acknowledged that $115,000 is more than the income of many in the community, and said that “we do care about public perception.”
“But,” he added, “we still have to do the right thing for our employee.”
Mania said that the raise was the right thing for only one person — Lincoln.
“So in my view, if two or three people in the community are unhappy, it would be the wrong thing,” Mania said.
Micro-managing
Council member Don Perry said that criticism of the raise was “micro-managing.”
“The original money and loan to Harbor-Works was so that the board of directors could handle those kind of specific things as a separate board so the council doesn’t have to get involved in trying to micro-manage . . .,” Perry said.
“They’ve done very well and Jeff Lincoln has gone well above and beyond.”
Mania replied that he wasn’t trying to micro-manage, but was trying to point out how the agenda item looked.
“Do you realize that there is a public relations aspect to being a board member?” Mania asked.
Hallett replied that it was “self-evident”
He went on to say: “If you’re — and I’m not speaking specifically you, but in general — are worried about the politics side of things rather than the right decision, maybe public service isn’t the right place to be.”
Replied Mania: “I’ll take that as a vague insult.”
Hallett said it hadn’t been an insult.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
