PORT ANGELES — The William Shore Memorial Pool District’s commissioners last week chose pool advocate Steve Burke as the likely successor for outgoing director Jayna Lafferty.
But this week, they plan on doing it all over again.
Mike Chapman, president of the five-member commission, said Friday that he will schedule a special meeting in the next few days to ratify in open session the decision, which was made Tuesday in a closed-door meeting.
The move comes after the Peninsula Daily News 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 came to a consensus in a closed meeting to choose Burke as its “candidate of interest” for the executive director position.
The Open Meetings Act requires all decisions, whether reached by consensus or a formal vote, to be made during an open session.
That remains true even though the commissioners announced their decision immediately after ending the closed-door meeting, known as an executive session, said Tim Ford, the open government ombudsman for the state Attorney General’s Office.
“Any type of consensus or vote should be taken in public,” he said.
Chapman, a county commissioner, said that he didn’t think the pool commissioners violated the act at the time.
Burke, a member of the district’s advisory committee, was one of three finalists the district’s commission had interviewed for the job at the public pool, located at 225 E. Fifth St. in Port Angeles.
The decision to choose him as the top finalist, intended to prompt a background check and the start of contract negotiations, does not mean that Burke has the job yet, Chapman said.
“We’re not hiding anything,” he said.
“If we violated the law, we will fix it to comply with the law,” he added.
Craig Miller, the district’s attorney, was not present when the decision was made.
Chapman said he didn’t think Miller needed to be there, and he concluded that paying the attorney to attend the meeting would have been an unnecessary expense.
Miller said he would have recommended that the commissioners make the decision in open session if he had attended the meeting.
“The [state] Supreme Court has very clearly said that coming to a consensus is also a decision,” he said.
Miller said he will not start contract negotiations with Burke until after the special meeting.
Ford said a do-over in open session is a “step in the right direction,” but added that it would merely act as a “rubber stamp.”
Any decisions made in executive session are considered void under the act, he said.
But in past lawsuits, judges have ruled on the side of public boards if the decision was made again in an open session, Ford said.
He said actions made in executive session can be challenged only through lawsuits filed by citizens.
The Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have the authority to enforce to act, Ford said.
In addition to Chapman, the commission is also made up of City Council members Pat Downie and Cherie Kidd, county Commissioner Mike Doherty — who was absent from the meeting — and Port Angeles resident Gary Holmquist.
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, focused more on marketing and developing programs than day-to-day management of the facility.
The director’s pay may be about half of the $60,000 its former interim director, Lafferty, was paid.
Lafferty, a full-time employee, resigned effective Oct. 21 after a dispute over work hours with Chapman.
The commissioners were already planning to hire a permanent director in November before they became at odds with Lafferty.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
