PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners hope to select a new top administrator at their regular June 27 meeting, they said after conducting interviews of four finalists.
Commissioners interviewed the applicants, including two from Clallam County, at a public meeting Thursday.
They are Karen Goschen of Sequim — who has served as interim executive director for half a year — David Walter of Port Angeles, James Kuntz of Walla Walla and Robert Uptagrafft of Everett.
Commissioners said in separate interviews after Thursday’s five-hour session that their next regular meeting is a target date for making the appointment.
The Thursday meeting was followed by a 90-minute reception at the Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles that was attended by about 50 people.
The port’s new head administrator would succeed Ken O’Hollaren, who resigned effective Dec. 31.
O’Hollaren succeeded Jeff Robb, who resigned in June 2013.
Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer said after Thursday’s interviews that the commissioners will interview the applicants again in executive session before the June 27 meeting.
She said they want to delve further into their backgrounds and obtain more of their views on the port “to try to flesh out some more controversial subjects that they may not have been willing to share publicly.”
Goschen, 59, was the port’s finance director and deputy director before she took over as interim director.
Walter, 56, is a partner in Kingsway Consulting Group of Port Angeles
Kuntz, 55, is the former executive director of the Port of Walla Walla.
Uptagrafft, 58, is CEO and executive director of the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA).
Compensation
The new director’s salary could be about $140,000, based on the average of executive director salaries for the ports of Anacortes, Olympia, Kalama, Pasco, Edmonds and Skagit, according to Jones Strategic, the executive search firm hired by port commissioners.
Yearly benefits for that salary would be an additional $28,500, for total compensation of $168,500.
O’Hollaren’s annual salary was $145,000.
The executive director will supervise 43 full-time-equivalent employees and administer budgets of $8.3 million for operations and $15.5 million for capital projects for 2016.
During their Thursday interviews of the candidates, commissioners asked questions from a list of 15 queries, about a quarter of which were submitted by the public.
McAleer said she wants an executive director who is “a business development dealmaker.”
Port Commissioner Connie Beauvais said the executive director and commissioners should have more interaction.
They should work more “as a partnership” with an executive director who unifies the port in a common mission with other public entities.
Port Commissioner Steve Burke said he wants an executive director who engages with the board in “an open and candid and honest” manner.
A “clarity of vision” is important, Burke added, noting that presently, “we are going from fire to fire.”
The complete interviews were recorded by Clallam Public Eye and are available on YouTube.
Interview highlights
Here are highlights from Thursday’s session:
■ Goschen: She said she played a key role in developing the nonprofit Composite Recycling Technology Center, which is housed in a port facility and is funded with port, city, county, state and federal funds.
“Without my involvement in that, we would not be where we are today,” Goschen said.
She said she would explore an expanded role for cross-laminated timber, which consists of layers of kiln-dried boards stacked in alternating directions and bonded with adhesives, and pressed to form a solid panel, according to the American Plywood Association.
“I need to be out more in the community and working with other leaders and talking about what the port is doing,” she said.
The marine trades industry would provide the most easily obtainable economic growth, she said.
■ Kuntz: He described himself as a risk-taker.
“I like to think out of the box,” he said.
Kuntz said he admired the port’s low debt but that the port’s small inventory of available property limits opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to come to Port Angeles.
He suggested the port buy property and wait for prospective tenants.
“You need to have a broader portfolio,” he said.
He said the executive director should be the “trusted adviser” of the commissioners, and he advocated meeting with large employers whether or not they are port tenants.
Kuntz also urged forming coalitions with lawmakers and other governments, saying the Port of Walla Walla preserved a consistent level of commercial air service at that city’s airport through those alliances.
■ Walter: The chairman of the board of the Composite Recycling Technology Center, Walter said in an interview that he hopes he can stay on the panel if he’s selected as port executive director.
Walter told the port commissioners that the port should diversify while continuing to support the timber industry.
He said Port Angeles’ remoteness is a strength when viewed, for example, by software developers stuck in the Interstate 5 corridor.
Walter said his strength is team-building and that he believes in “servant leadership,” or emphasizing the needs of the team before himself, he said.
Walter would ask port staff and stakeholders about what’s been tried and works and what has been tried and did not work.
Asked how he would successfully support the success of existing port-related marine, composite materials, timber and ship-maintenance operations, Walter said the answer is the same regardless of the sector.
“Understand the needs that are there” would be his plan, he said.
■ Uptagrafft: The port needs to guard against what some, such as billionaire investor Warren Buffet, warn is an impending recession by looking at a mix of opportunities to distribute economic risks, Uptagrafft said.
“I have a pretty direct communication style,” he said.
On his relationship with the commissioners, “I would hope we don’t have to dance much, that we can share ideas and concepts and discuss the specifics and downsides of those,” Uptagrafft said.
He said there should be more cooperation among economic development entities in the county.
Uptagrafft also said he would aggressively promote future use of the 100,000-square-foot port building occupied by Westport Shipyard’s cabinet manufacturing operation.
The company is planning to move the shop to the 130,000-square-foot former Walmart building the company purchased east of the Port Angeles city limit off U.S. Highway 101 near Morse Creek.
“Just hanging for-lease signs is not going to cut it,” Uptagrafft said.
Westport’s relocation makes the space “100,000 square feet of opportunity,” he added.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
