Turmoil continues at Port of Peninsula

Published 2:38 pm Thursday, June 1, 2023

NAHCOTTA, Wash. — The state lowered the hammer on the Port of Peninsula and put pressure on the Pacific County Treasurer’s Office to force the port to pay delinquent leasehold excise taxes. The tax is required when public entities rent property to private entities.

The leasehold excise tax is one of many issues plaguing the port. Bills have piled up for the past two years. Detailed financial accounting of how much is coming in and going out has been elusive.

Pacific County Commissioner Lisa Olsen has heard from constituents and concerned businesses working through or purchasing from the port. She has been tracking port problems along with her colleagues and other county offices.

As of Monday, fuel payments for the 2022 fiscal year have not been collected, nor have moorage fees. Statements have yet to be sent out, and most businesses and buyers have no clue what they owe, she explained.

“I had been getting calls from constituents over the last several months telling me they had not gotten any fuel or moorage bills from the port for all of 2022,” Olsen said. “One business in particular that I know said that they (were) trying to figure out what they owed, (and) sent in checks just trying to get their bill paid.”

Olsen added, per her conversation with the business, that these checks had yet to be deposited. An individual with fiscal responsibility for the business later clarified that the voluntary payments could not be repeated because they need bill statements to account for the money.

Delinquent payments

Stories from frustrated businesses have become common during talks about the port’s dysfunction, and fingers are being pointed at Jay Personius, the port manager, who took on fiscal responsibilities for the port in late 2021.

It wasn’t until the port hired a financial officer in November that the scope of how severe the port’s financial issues had become was discovered.

According to multiple sources who confirmed the information, the port owed tens of thousands of dollars to the employee health care insurer and six-figure payments to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and Washington State Department of Revenue.

The health insurance situation was so dire that the insurer chose to continue coverage for current port employees but refused to add any new employees until payments were caught up.

The newest port commissioner, Bonnie Cozby, who is not seeking election this year, found out about the seriousness of the port’s delinquencies during a commission meeting on Feb. 13.

“Pacific County Treasurer (Renee Goodin) and Commissioner Olsen attended that meeting,” Cozby said. “The treasurer brought printouts of port financials from 2019 to 2022, pointing out concerning differences.”

“At that meeting, I learned for the first time, and assumed the other commissioners learned then, too, that leases were not current or even sent out, W-2s were not completed, retirement and health agencies were not updated and not paid, payroll taxes were not paid properly, accounting entries for 2022 were not complete, bills were unpaid, and invoices for services, ice and fuel (which had been included with monthly statements until January 2022) were no longer sent to customers,” she added.

Cozby also learned during the meeting that tenants and customers had not been issued invoices or leases for around 14 months.

Personius has yet to respond to inquiries from the Chinook Observer seeking to clarify the exact dollar amounts owed to each agency, delinquency notices issued, what is still owed and how these situations developed.

During a commission meeting on April 24, Pacific County Sheriff Daniel Garica, Commander Michael Parker and Chief Civil Deputy Hollie Billeci attended to understand what was happening at the port. Tensions reportedly arose so severely between Cozby and Personius that Garcia and Parker had to intervene.

Parker downplayed the extent of the incident in an email exchange with the Observer but confirmed that an incident occurred. Others in attendance stated they were concerned for Cozby’s safety.

“There was a point in the meeting where voices were elevating,” Parker said. “The sheriff did ask for the volume to decrease because individuals in the back were no longer able to hear the conversation in the front of the room.

“I had a question for a commissioner during one point of the meeting and didn’t want to interrupt the larger conversation, so I walked up to where she was seated and asked my question,” he added. “I will offer that I left that meeting thinking that a lot more communication can help in situations where emotions are elevated and that it could possibly be of benefit there.”

Parker also stated that he knows some following meetings were canceled and is curious why.

Phil Martin, the chairman of the Port Commission, has taken an unorthodox approach to handling potentially controversial and heated meetings. Businesses, a commission member and the public have voiced frustration with meetings being canceled at the last minute with no transparency.

“Canceled meetings do nothing to address and correct the port’s serious problems,” Cozby said. “Lack of proper permits, lack of payment to the Washington Department of Revenue, and incomplete and misleading information regarding the proposed sale of port-held property, the lack of all but a few minutes from 2022 meetings and most of 2023 top the list of concerns, issues and noncompliance.”

Another issue with the commission’s handling of public meetings is the lack of published meeting agendas and meeting minutes.

No transparency

According to Cozby, Personius has told the public numerous times that he would post meeting minutes to the port’s website and hasn’t done so.

“I do not have confidence in the current executive director and believe he should be replaced,” Cozby stated. “I do not have confidence in the current board chair. I am not alone in these convictions. Public money is not being respected; state laws are not being followed.”

“Too often ambiguous answers are given when the simple truth would serve best. You cannot build a lasting enterprise on a house of cards compiled of misdirection. The public deserves better,” she added.

The Chinook Observer has submitted public records requests for several port records, including meeting minutes, for the past two years. The documents have not yet been provided.