PORT ANGELES — The William Shore Memorial Pool District’s commissioners will meet today to ratify their choice of the likely successor to outgoing director Jayna Lafferty.
The meeting will be at 4 p.m. in Room 160 at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The commissioners last week arrived at a consensus that pool advocate Steve Burke is their “candidate of interest” for the executive director position at the public pool located at 225 E. Fifth St. in Port Angeles.
The decision was made in an executive, or closed, session a week ago.
The state Attorney General’s Office said that the Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act requires that all decisions, whether reached by consensus or a formal vote, be made during an open session.
That is true even though the commissioners announced their decision immediately after ending the closed-door meeting, said Tim Ford, the open government ombudsman for the state Attorney General’s Office.
The Peninsula Daily News had questioned whether the commission — made up of two Port Angeles City Council members, two Clallam County commissioners and a representative of the general public — complied with the state Open Public Meetings Act when it reached a decision behind closed doors.
Mike Chapman, president of the five-member commission, said Friday that he would schedule a special meeting to ratify the decision in open session.
“We’re not hiding anything,” he said then.
“If we violated the law, we will fix it to comply with the law,” he added.
The decision to choose Burke as the top finalist was intended to prompt a background check and the start of contract negotiations, Chapman said, adding it does not mean he has the job.
Craig Miller, the district’s attorney, said he would not start contract negotiations with Burke until after the special meeting.
The other two finalists for the director’s position are Anna Manildi, former executive director of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, and Wendy Burwell, a swim instructor.
Unlike past managers of the pool, the new director will work a part-time schedule, with pay that is about half of the $60,000 its former interim director, Lafferty, was paid.
Lafferty, a full-time employee, resigned in October after a dispute over work hours with Chapman.
The commissioners were already planning to hire a permanent director in November before the dispute with Lafferty.
