PORT TOWNSEND — Possible ways of retaining Kate Burke in a supervisory position at Fort Worden State Park were discussed in a meeting Wednesday morning.
Burke, who has served as manager of Fort Worden and Fort Townsend state parks and the small Rothschild House park in uptown Port Townsend since 2002 and oversaw 33 full-time-equivalent positions, will be displaced by a new director, Allison Alderman, whose current job was eliminated because of agency-wide budget cuts intended to shave expenditures by $11 million.
Burke is to leave by the end of the month, and Alderman is to take over Feb. 1.
“Kate has been a pillar of integrity. She has been honest and efficient, and it is hard to imagine that someone else could take her role,” said Erin Fristad, director of Goddard College’s Fort Worden branch, at a meeting of the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center Public Development Authority.
“I still haven’t surrendered the idea that she will be able to stay,” said Fristad, who was one of about a dozen Burke supporters who attended the meeting.
Alderman, who has been with State Parks for 21 years, displaced or “bumped” Burke, who has less seniority after her position as region operations manager in the State Parks Northwest Region Office was eliminated.
According to state personnel system rules, when a staff position is eliminated, the person in the position has tenure rights to certain other positions.
Ideas for retaining Burke included turning Fort Worden over to the city of Port Townsend or to the public development authority and naming Burke executive director.
The PDA is scheduled to continue the discussion about finding a way to possibly retain Burke at its next meeting, to be held at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 18 at a location yet to be determined.
Burke — who holds a degree in business administration and management — led a public process to create a Lifelong Learning Center plan for the park that includes partnerships with area colleges.
Burke’s supervisor, State Parks Assistant Director Larry Fairleigh, said at Wednesday’s meeting that the decision to remove Burke was an administrative one in keeping with state law.
“I feel bad about this. It is not what I wanted to happen,” Fairleigh said.
“But it is what it is, and I can’t change it.”
Fairleigh said he challenged the decision to replace Burke, asking if there were no other option, and was told there was not.
Burke’s hiring represented a departure from the usual employment of park directors, according to Tim Caldwell, a PDA member and former Chamber of Commerce director who was part of the advisory committee that helped select her.
Burke was unusual in that she did not have any park experience but was “a civilian who made the final cut,” Caldwell said.
“We realized that state parks were changing, so their management was changing, too,” he added.
“Fort Worden was not a normal state park, so we wanted someone who was outside of the norm.”
Port Townsend Marine Science Center Executive Director Ann Murphy, a PDA board member, said at Wednesday’s meeting that Burke was the first state park manager who was not a ranger.
That action “symbolized this movement that we had to run like businesses, and Kate brought a lot of business expertise,” Murphy said.
“So I think the thing that is really difficult right now is that lot of partners don’t want to go through this loss, as well as you not wanting to, the PDA not wanting to.”
“No one wants to,” Fairleigh said. “Allison doesn’t want it to happen.”
“So why is this happening?” Murphy said. “Is there some avenue?”
“No,” Fairleigh said.
“I asked this question three times, to the highest level of the agency: ‘Do we need to do this?’ And the answer was yes.”
Those in attendance as well as some members of the board were not willing to accept this directive.
Port Townsend Development Director Rick Sepler, a member of the PDA board, said it would be “short-sighted” to “just say ‘these are the rules’ and walk away from this and allow this to happen.
“There needs to be some avenue that we can explore, either with the Legislature or otherwise, that might allow us to get the dedicated resources we need to complete this project.”
“What is ‘this’?” Fairleigh asked in response to Sepler.
“Is ‘this’ retaining Kate here, or is it to provide the resources so that the parks and the PDA are successful in building the Lifelong Learning Center?” he asked.
“All of the above,” said one attendee.
“It’s connected,” said another.
Burke did not engage in the discussion about her future at Wednesday’s meeting.
She said later that she was “overwhelmed” by the show of support but that she would not become involved in these efforts, though her first choice would be to stay in her job.
During her tenure, Burke worked closely with the park’s advisory committee in creating ties with the local Chamber of Commerce, the city of Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
She served on the chamber board as well as the board of the Jefferson County Land Trust and participated as an ex-officio member of the Fort Worden Advisory Committee and the Puget Sound Coast Artillery Museum.
She also was an advisory member of the Centrum Foundation Board and the city of Port Townsend Shoreline Master Planning group.
Centrum Executive Director John MacElwee is meeting privately with several Fort Worden partners and Burke supporters to find a way to keep her on.
“When Kate was hired, the rules of seniority were ignored because there was a different vision,” he said.
“I don’t see why they can’t disregard the seniority rules now.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
