PORT ANGELES — An unsuccessful applicant for the Port Angeles Visitor Center contract said he will withdraw his request for a temporary injunction if the City Council interviews the top three finalists.
Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio said the interviews would delay implementation of tourism marketing and visitor center contracts.
The City Council has said it will award both contracts to the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce. Action was delayed last week when the council received news of Dale Wilson’s injunction.
Threatened to sue
Wilson, who filed the request for an injunction Jan. 14, also has threatened to sue the city.
Di Guilio said he is leery of the proposal.
“I think we need to continue moving forward for the continuity of the marketing program,” he said. “We don’t want it to just stop.”
Wilson made his offer to the city Friday after Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood delayed a hearing on the injunction to Feb. 6 to give Wilson time to respond to the city’s answer to the injunction request.
“Now that we have some time, I tendered an offer to the city,” Wilson, publisher of the free monthly newspaper Port O Call, said in an email to Peninsula Daily News.
“If they will take the two weeks between now and the next [court] hearing to publicly interview the top three finishers, as determined by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, I will consider vacating the motion for injunction as well as the impending suit against the city.”
Wilson, who filed for an injunction on his own, had joined with his newspaper’s managing editor, Jessica Elliott, to apply for the $78,500 visitor center contract.
The committee picked the other two applicants, the chamber and Soroptimist International Port Angeles-Jet Set, as finalists for the City Council’s consideration.
Marketing bids
The chamber, Laurel Black Design of Port Angeles and Vertigo Marketing of Bend, Ore., were the finalists for the $175,000 marketing contract.
The council decided in split votes Dec. 16 to award the visitor center and tourism marketing contract to the chamber.
Di Guilio said the city did not interview finalists for the contracts so that the agreements could be implemented at the beginning of 2015.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
