An incumbent port commissioner was reelected in Pasco on
Election Day, but new commissioners were elected in Port Angeles and in Woodland, where
30-year incumbent Jerry Peterson lost his race for another stint on the Port
of Woodland commission.
J.J. Burke, a former Woodland City Councilman and current
executive director of the Woodland Chamber of Commerce, defeated Peterson by
capturing almost 52 percent of the vote. He campaigned on the platform of
bringing in new industries to further develop the port and improving the
traffic flow in the area around the port.
In Port Angeles, port commission candidate Colleen McAleer
was victorious over fellow candidate Del DelaBarre in a race to fill the seat
currently held by Paul McHugh. McHugh was appointed to the position in late
2011 to fill the unexpired term of Jim McEntire, who had won election to the
county board of commissioners. McHugh ran for election, but lost in the August
primaries.
McAleer, who won with better than 64 percent of the more
than 13,300 votes cast, already works for the Port of Port Angeles as its
director of business development, but says she plans to resign from the
position when she takes her seat on the board.
In July, she identified herself as the whistleblower who
filed the complaint that launched an investigation into the resignation of
then-Executive Director Jeff Robb, and subsequent rehiring for a lesser
position, albeit with the same annual pay.
Port of Pasco Commission President Jean Ryckman won
reelection Nov. 5 with about 67 percent of the vote, easily defeating
challenger Herb Brayton.
Ryckman, a retired Franklin PUD manager, is the first woman
to serve on the three-member port commission.
