On July 29, the Port Angeles Port Commission unanimously
voted to hire O’Hollaren as the port’s interim executive director. He’s
expected to start the week of Aug. 5.
According to commission President Jim Hallett, O’Hollaren
will earn roughly $11,500 a month for about six to nine months while the port
seeks a permanent executive director.
O’Hollaren’s hiring is the latest twist in an odd, ongoing
saga surrounding the executive director job. Jeff Robb resigned from the
position June 24 citing health reasons, but was immediately rehired by the
three-member commission as director of environmental affairs, a newly created
position for which he’s scheduled to earn the same salary as when he held the
top executive job.
Port Commissioner John Calhoun later revealed that Robb was given
the job because the port feared the potential of a lawsuit over a dysfunctional
relationship between Robb and senior staff members.
The handling of Robb’s resignation and immediate rehiring
has drawn the ire of local, regional and state watchdog groups, including the Washington
Coalition for Open Government, which on July 22 sent the commission a letter
chastising it for its actions and petitioning for the removal of Robb from the
environmental affairs director post.
O’Hollaren, until his retirement, had been the
longest-tenured port director in Washington state, and one of the
longest-tenured maritime executives on the West Coast. He joined the Port of
Longview as assistant operations manager in 1980, and was its executive
director from January 1988 through December 2012.
At the Port of Port Angeles, he will technically be a
contractor during his several-month tenure, with the port obtaining his
services through Seattle-based executive search firm Waldron & Co.
