PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners expressed concerns about redistricting in a July 25 meeting — but their individual concerns were not reported correctly in a July 26 Peninsula Daily News report.
Comments were erroneously attributed in the report.
It was Port Commissioner George Schoenfeldt who said he wanted to see boundaries that considered other factors than population in redistricting.
The statement was erroneously attributed to Commissioner Jim McEntire, who is running in the Nov. 8 general election for a Clallam County commissioner seat.
Schoenfeldt also agreed with Commissioner John Calhoun that West End values could get lost if commissioners redistrict according to recently redrawn county commissioner districts.
The story erroneously said McEntire said that without a change, Port Angeles will dominate and a diversity of views on the port commission is less likely.
That was said by Calhoun.
McEntire’s stance
McEntire said Tuesday that he agreed with the impact of the redistricting but that, by state law, the port must adopt the redistricting committee’s plans.
The statements: “This turns on legal requirements for even population distribution,” and “If that’s true, I don’t see any other option than to follow county distribution” cited in the story were spoken by McEntire and erroneously attributed to Schoenfeldt.
“You can’t mess with the lines that define the districts,” McEntire said Tuesday, but the port commission can “customize for each district” in capital projects.
McEntire also did not say that among the many options the county redistricting committee developed during the eight to 10 meetings it took to come up with the current boundaries, there may have been some options more accommodating to West End needs.
That was said by Bill James, the director of finance, who was serving as acting executive director at the meeting because Executive Director Jeff Robb was on vacation.
