PORT ANGELES — David Hagiwara has been fired from the Port of Port Angeles for the second time.
Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb eliminated Hagiwara’s position as trade and development director Dec. 2.
Robb said Tuesday that the move is a reorganization of top management.
That made Dec. 2 Hagiwara’s last day on the job after nearly 30 years in port management positions.
He had lost his deputy executive director job in September 2008 but was rehired as trade and development director 11 weeks later in return for dropping his legal challenge to the termination.
That challenge was based on provisions of his contract at the time.
When he was rehired as trade and development director, the contract did not have those provisions and defined him as an at-will employee.
Hagiwara refused to comment on the circumstances surrounding the dismissal or whether he will stay on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I have a few irons in the fire,” is all Hagiwara, 56, would say other than “no comment” Monday while he stood in the doorway of his east Port Angeles home.
Robb said no other reorganization moves are planned.
He described the hourlong conversation about the dismissal as amicable.
Robb said Hagiwara, whose annual salary was $103,922, has not decided whether to accept the port’s severance package, the details of which Robb would not disclose.
The duties of the now-defunct trade and development director position are being absorbed by other staff, Robb said.
The port was to begin advertising today for a director of engineering, planning and public works with a salary range between $65,000 and $85,000 that will replace the trade and development director position.
Robb informed commissioners of his action after he terminated Hagiwara.
Port Commissioner John Calhoun said Monday he agreed with eliminating Hagiwara’s position.
“We’ve got some real challenges with the PenPly [Peninsula Plywood] site [on Marine Drive] and getting that cleaned up and the harbor-wide cleanup and other land development issues that will take a different set of skills than what have on staff now,” he said.
“Part of the issue is a reordering of resources.”
Port Commissioner Jim McEntire would not comment, while George Schoenfeldt, commission president, did not return calls Monday and Tuesday for comment on the dismissal.
Hagiwara was one of three port directors with Robb and Finance Director Bill James.
The port hired Hagiwara as finance director in 1983 and Robb as public works director-project engineer in 1984.
Hagiwara was named trade and development director the first time in 1994 and deputy executive director in 1998.
In September 1998, port commissioners eliminated Hagiwara’s $108,000-a-year deputy executive director position.
Pleading tight finances, commissioners suspended the authority of then-Executive Director Bob McChesney so the board could cross out Hagiwara’s job on their own.
Calhoun voted against the termination, while McEntire and Schoenfeldt voted for it.
Hagiwara responded by invoking a clause in his contract under which the port was obligated to pay his legal expenses if he challenged a termination.
Hagiwara had already launched a termination grievance against the port, which also faced a potential budget-draining lawsuit from Hagiwara.
Just 11 weeks later, on Dec. 8, 2008, Hagiwara was hired to the now-defunct trade and development director position.
Hagiwara agreed to not sue the port in exchange for the port agreeing to pay him $201,400 to buy out his old contract — he had made about $108,000 a year — and $98,000 in salary for his new job.
The port also agreed to pay $10,000 in legal fees to Hagiwara’s lawyer and $16,385 in port legal fees.
The port ended up paying lawyers on both sides of the same dispute.
“I’m painfully aware of that history,” Calhoun said Monday.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
