Our Port Townsend Marine Trades will likely find the plight of the Port of Olympia unfortunately familiar, as well as grateful things have improved on many fronts in the last few years.
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article274188720.html
(The text of the article is saved below because of unsuccessful attempts to locate PT Leader and PDN articles about events that took place during this former administration at the Port of PT.)
Port of Olympia commissioner attempts to put director Gibboney on administrative leave By Rolf Boone Updated April 11, 2023 1:37 PM 00:16 01:16
Commissioner attempts to put director on leave, meeting adjourned early Port of Olympia Commissioner Amy Evans Harding attempted to put executive director on leave, fellow commissioners counter that move by ending meeting early.
BY PORT OF OLYMPIA Port of Olympia Commissioner Amy Evans Harding attempted to put Port Executive Director Sam Gibboney on administrative leave during Monday’s commission meeting, but her motion failed from lack of support from her fellow commissioners. Commissioners Joe Downing and Bob Iyall then adjourned the meeting about 20 minutes after it started. Evans Harding explained the situation after the meeting and released a statement to The Olympian. Evans Harding said she sought her motion — adding an action item to the agenda regarding the executive director — after Gibboney recommended changes to the commission’s performance review of her, a move that struck Evans Harding as a serious error in judgment. “To recommend changes to a truthful review is not demonstrating good professional conduct or judgment,” she said.
Evans Harding believes her fellow commissioners adjourned the meeting early to prevent her from reading her statement aloud during commissioner reports. “I have respect for my fellow commissioners but was surprised by that,” Evans Harding said about their sudden adjournment. She voted against it. Downing and Iyall declined to comment after the meeting. The Olympian reached out to Executive Director Gibboney through a spokeswoman, and she replied Tuesday morning. “I appreciate the commissioner’s feedback about the performance review process, and I look forward to completing the evaluation process with the commission as a whole at a future date,” Gibboney said. Port spokeswoman Joy Johnston said Tuesday that the performance evaluation of a port executive director is typically handled in executive session until it is finalized. At that point, the commission takes action on the executive director’s compensation in a public session.
The current performance evaluation is still in process, she said. In her statement, Evans Harding says she is allowed to release this information because she was absent from a recent executive session discussion, but was briefed on the details of it outside of the meeting. “After four months of commission work, the three commissioners finalized Executive Director Gibboney’s performance review,” Evans Harding’s statement reads. “This review represented hours of discussion and many compromises we made to ensure the review was honest, accurate, and reflected all three of our perspectives. Ms. Gibboney was given an opportunity to complete her own self-evaluation, as well as provide comments on the commission’s final review. “Despite the review being final, Ms. Gibboney arrived at the commission’s last meeting with a redlined document outlining changes she wanted to see in OUR (Evans Harding’s emphasis) final performance review of her,” she writes. “These changes included altering scores, removing honest, although not always easy-to-hear comments of substance, and adding positive accomplishments. She brought this materially altered document to an executive session where not all three commissioners were present.
“Because her review would be subject to public records requests, Ms. Gibboney opined that presenting a heavily modified and redacted version of her review would ‘better serve the organization.’ She materially altered the commission’s honest, thoughtful review, because she said it would ‘further a narrative.’ She did not want our comprehensive feedback appearing in the public record.” Evans Harding called her decision to alter the review “stunning” and an “overreach of her authority.” “Additionally, it appears to indicate an intent to deceive the public by modifying a document to a degree that it is no longer accurate nor representative of the honest assessment the commission arrived at of her performance,” she writes. Her statement ends with, “As an elected commissioner, serving at the pleasure of Thurston County constituents, I feel it is important to have this documented in the public record.” The Olympian intends to request Gibboney’s performance review.
Read more at: https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article274188720.html#storylink=cpy
