The trend now and ever since the Executive Director Jay Personius fell into the job is his determination to do it his way regardless of other oversight.

It goes back to his early days at the port when in 2018 the Department of Ecology found the port operating a boatyard and requested the port acquire a boatyard permit. Rather than acquire a simple permit, Jay made his determination that a permit was not necessary. We all know how that worked to the port’s disadvantage — port taxpayers were put at risk of a large fine. Finally in 2023, he made a simple application and received a boatyard permit.

Then we have the garbage can story. As with most locations having a garbage can out in the open, the can collected more household trash than boat trash. The solution was constructing an enclosure. To do it right meant a concrete slab, although a chain link fence enclosure would have worked out as well, as it does for the clinic at Klipsan. Jay’s design, or lack thereof, was a 6-inch-thick concrete slab with half-inch diameter rebar. I guess we needed a substantial floor to hold up the garbage can or maybe it could be used for an observation tower foundation in the future.

Nevertheless, a contractor was brought in that excavated the ground adjacent to shoreline edge, wood forms were installed, and steel was delivered along with wood for the siding. This is where it goes south, as they say, when according to Jay, someone complained that the work needed a permit. Rather than go through the process of a shorelines permit for the garbage can enclosure, all work was stopped and now two years later we have a hole next to the parking lot with blackberries growing in the excavation, wood forms laying on their side from people driving over them, and steel rusting away.

Now the port has no garbage can and you can see at times garbage bags tossed on the ground where the garbage can used to be. The port now pays an employee to haul the bags to Jack’s Country Store and pays the unit price for disposal. Again, it’s Jay not planning out even a minor project that eventually led to butting heads over a permit.

Now, we have the Berry Patch Restaurant building owned by the port. In the Jan. 23 meeting Jay made a presentation that the previous tenant was out of the building and a new tenant was signed up. The new tenant has operated Sierra’s Place in Seaview and would now have a brick-and-mortar site using the old Berry Patch facility. Jay said he would inspect the building for needed repairs before she moved in. At that point, Commissioner Bill Derion, who has building experience, volunteered to join Jay in the inspection and further went on to say the windows, which are fogged up, needed replacement. Sounded good to me, even though I have building inspector experience — having Bill join Jay made sense.

Having seen the port employees working at the building I stopped in to look around and saw part of a wall torn apart and plywood covering up a hole in the floor. Later in the week while I was out of state, I got an email with a photo of a stop-work order posted on the site. It seems Jay again was going to defy the requirement of having to acquire a building permit. It’s very simple — work on a commercial building requires a permit.

When I got back into town I went and talked with Sierra, who said Jay had told her the port’s attorney was taking care of resolving the permit issue. Then at our last Feb. 27 meeting I asked Jay what is going on with the Berry Patch? His answer was I don’t have an update as we have hired a contractor to resolve the issue. I then asked Bill Derion if he had done the inspection with Jay — he said no. He also said his experience was in residential construction but he knew commercial work needed a permit. Could it have been Jay didn’t want Bill to interfere with this issue? I don’t know. It does follow the pattern of defiance of permitting requirements or simply no experience. What we now have is a tenant delayed and the port paying for not only a permit but a violation fee and also an attorney fee. Again, a simple process that was complicated by not following procedure.

I have been vocal about getting public opinion into port meetings and discussion regarding expenditures before being adopted. It’s outlined in “Washington Public Ports Association Management Guide” and in “Robert’s Rules of Order,” the standard guide for conducting meetings. But the Port of Peninsula ignores good practice followed by every other public organization.

I feel those that take the time out of their day to attend a public meeting should be allowed to speak openly on port business. Please join us at the next port meeting on March 26 at the Willapa Bay Interpretive building, scheduled to start at 11 a.m.

CHUCK MIKKOLA

Ocean Park