Saturday evening, and it's time to slop the hogs! Translation: They've announced the seven applicants to fill Jim Hallett's big, hungry man sized shoes down at the Port...And there are some obvious bottom feeders coming up to try and dine.
First and foremost - swine before pearls - is the one and only Jim Haguewood, well-known publically-funded bloodsucker, and former "Executive Director" of the EDC. Jim's never met a public dollar he didn't like, and I'm willing to bet he's positively drooling at the thought of getting in at the Port - especially without the bother of an election. As you may recall, Jim is a close criminal cohort of Karen Rogers (no stranger to the trough herself), and, with her, he was the brains behind the totally bogus "CEO Group" that tried to hijack the whole lamebrained "PA Untied" thing a while back. Now Jim's back! Oink, oink, piggy!
I'd say good ol' boy Jim Haguewood is a 2-1 favorite to get the slot. (Feel free to place your bets below.)
Also on the list is Randy Johnson, the President of Green Crow. Yes, the President of Green Crow. (Have you fallen on hard times, Randy? Call me!) If you know anything about Green Crow, and their political activities, and/or Mr. Johnson and his political activities, you'll know that's he's also a member in good standing of the good ol' boys who are good at standing in the way of progress. He's also the current board chairman of the - wait for it - EDC. As a true believer in log it and hog it capitalism, Mr. Johnson is prime porcine competition for Jim Haguewood.
I'll say Randy's odds run about 3-1 for getting in. (Randy, call me!)
Next, we have Brent Berry, who, so far as I can tell, is in his 70s, really likes to play online poker, and, so far as I know, knows nothing about running a Port. (Needless to say, I could be wrong.) But, being a fool for a bet, just like Mr. Berry, I'm guessing his seeming lack of experience might be very, very attractive to the Twicked Twosome who are on the Port Commission. Patsy, ragdoll, sucker - whatever. They could just roll right over him and blame him if something goes wrong.
A longshot favorite, ol' B. Berry is running 5-1.
How about Mel Rudin, you ask? He's a pilot, and say, doesn't the Port have an airport or something? (Let me check into that...) On the plus side, Mel's a PABA member, which shows a good willingness to swallow massive doses of unadulterated BS. On the other hand, Mel and his wife Vicci have been very generous to the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, which might make him some sort of damned Commie or something.
Still...PABA! Pilot! Let's give Mel a 10-1 shot at making it.
Steve Burke...Steve Burke...The Executive Director of the William Shore Pool. Doesn't that count as already having a full-time job, Steve? I know that water flows downhill, but still, moving from the Pool to the Port seems a stretch, all things considered.
Steve Burke currently comes in at 12-1.
Then we come to David Sellars, the "On the Waterfront" columnist for the much-maligned and utterly contemptible Peninsula Daily News. So, sure, he knows the waterfront. No doubt about that. But the Port is, shall we say, generally hostile to transparency, openness and the, you know, free press. So it might just make them shudder to even consider putting Mr. Sellars on the inside.
So Sellars ends up a buyer's market at 20-1.
Finally, we come to Thomas Pope, who is an Accredited Marine Surveyor. That sounds like something that requires education, and possibly some sort of professional standards. Yikes! It also hints at someone who might have some sort of knowledge related to running a Port. Yikes again!
Thomas Pope is accredited at 25-1.
And ladies and gentlemen, the house is open for all bets, and the free - yes, FREE! - exchange of information.
How depressing. From one demonstrated loser to another, we have another list of the "Who's who" in Port Angeles.
ReplyDeleteLook around. Other than the tax payer funded projects around town, what do all these losers have to point to after the last 10 years, for all their meetings, groups and talk?
10 years ago, Port Angeles had air service in and out of town.
10 years ago there were 3 ferries taking tourists to Victoria and back. Two of them were "walk on only", which meant most of the tourists were day trippers. That brings in a lot more money to both sides than driving tourists who plan longer trips, further away from the immediate towns the ferry is based out of.
Now we have Former Council member Grant Munro using the Port lands to sell logs to China. The Port bought him a half million dollar log loader a while ago, if I remember correctly. I wonder if the rent he pays (I'm assuming he is eve paying rent) for the log storage Port properties pays for that half million dollar gift?
Every day, another spate of "news" showing us what a dive this place is. Except, most people don't know, because they think the poor excuse for a *NEWS* paper is telling them what is going on in town, and it isn't.
Even the PDN used to report what was going on, before this new person came along.
What happened? Does anybody know why the PDN went into "black out" mode?
Yikes! LOL
ReplyDeleteWho actually makes the hire?
Putting Jim Haguewood on the Port Commission would be a travesty. I gag even thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteRemember the HarborWorks fiasco and all of its backroom dealing skulduggery, and utter waste of public funds? JH was such an incompetent "interim director" at the inception of that organization that he failed for months to even establish a mailing address for it. Everyone knew he was just collecting his pay and keeping the CEO seat warm for his crony Mark Madsen, who planned to quickly take charge of HarborWorks after resigning as PA City Manager following a trumped up "hostile work environment" claim. (That plan backfired after savvy citizens got up in arms and raised a stink. Madsen ended up leaving town; but it didn't prevent JH from becoming business partners with him. What's the status of that "management consulting" partnership now, BTW?)
Perhaps JH is warming a seat for son-in-law Josh to fill after Country Aire goes down the drain?
DeleteWhat is the deal with Country Aire anyway? For sale?
DeleteYou mean the deal of their using fluoridated, lead and arsenic tainted water on their organic produce?
DeleteYou mean the deal of their "we don't want to get involved" attitude to this issue?
You mean the deal of "I can shop at Sunny Farms" that many, many people have adopted?
My hope is for the Pope and I'm not even Catholic.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Jim Haguewood would even put himself forward for consideration for this position shows that the man has no shame, and plenty of nerve. He's an out and out crook, and we'd be better off banishing him, rather than anointing him to any sort of prominent position.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the new, updated story about this at the PDN is that two of these guys didn't even bother to submit cover letters with their applications. Way to really work for it, fellas...
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Karen Rogers and Jim Haguewood blew through $8million on the "Business Incubator Project before foisting their debt of $750,000 onto the county taxpayers after shutting the doors. Having anyone from the EDC on the Port Commission is an obvious and outright conflict of interest. Don't you love the way these retreads keep popping up for gravy-train positions--especially when they can circumvent the voters and have their crony's put them into lucrative positions. Pray tell what have any of these well-known names done for the community besides pad their pockets at the public's expense. I say we need a do-over and get a group of community minded applicants who want to do some good instead of fix the game so that no good jobs ever locate here. If you like what the EDC has done for the past 35 years you'll love the Johnson-Green Crow connection. Of course Beauvais, after illegally receiving thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from none other than former timber executive,County Commissioner Bill Peach, will vote however the timber barons tell her to vote. I do hope Colleen will see this as an opportunity to break from the pack and promote a candidate that is open minded and not stuck in the timber mindset--clear cut our future and send it to China.
ReplyDelete"Don't you love the way these retreads keep popping up for gravy-train positions--especially when they can circumvent the voters and have their crony's put them into lucrative positions. Pray tell what have any of these well-known names done for the community besides pad their pockets at the public's expense."
DeleteThe problem in a nutshell, and the simple question that these creeps are unable to answer.
And the reality that neither of the sitting Port Commissioners will acknowledge.
DeleteSame old faces lining up to be the captains of industry and leaders of the moral order.
ReplyDeleteMakes me sick.
Can't these old white dudes start dropping dead faster? Please?
hear hear. good idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Now, what the hell is the good idea you're endorsing?
DeleteI think the good idea is natural selection, Darwin's Theory, and wishing the old men who think themselves king to take a shuffle off the mortal coil. Hurry hurry hurry, men. Your help is not helping.
DeleteGet someone who knows how to run a business, Westport, ACTI, Herman Brothers. Maybe their leaders have time to help the Port?
ReplyDeletePlease!!!
Umm, the port is all about helping them...
Deleteyou clearly don't have a clue, the helps no one but themselves
DeleteHappiness is seeing Port Angeles in your rearview mirror.
ReplyDeleteSorry to bring this topic back, but I think it is stunningly important. Let me say from the git-go, I'm not a anti/pro fluoride person. I realize it is an important issue to a lot of people, but it isn't for me. Or shall I say, wasn't, until this recent development was announced.
ReplyDeleteThe prestigious and very well respected British medical journal "Lancet" last year publish a meta study of 27 other research studies that concluded fluoride should be reclassified as a neurotoxin. Yikes!
As somebody said a while ago, it used to be accepted that asbestos was the best stuff since candy, and it was used in all kinds of products every day people were exposed to. Now, after medical studies were done, it is now considered a seriously hazardous material.
What we think is perfectly okay today, sometimes gets proven to be wrong, later.
Why are we taking some of the purest water on the planet, with no contamination sources upstream, and polluting it with neurotoxins?
Since when did doctors or the medical community become the authorities of safety, good practice on people, or purveyors of the truth?
ReplyDeleteMedical accidents are the 3 biggest killer in the US!
Who will you call when your appendix bursts?
DeleteEdna Petersen
DeleteI have just drafted my letter to the Commissioners on the direction they might take in appointing a new commissioner. It's important that everyone send their thoughts and input on how you want to see Port Angeles and the peninsula move forward. Yes, some will say why waste your breath but if you sit back and say nothing then you are accepting the way things are..always gotta try otherwise you are just part of the problem..Imagine what impact a few hundred letters could achieve.Don't let the "haves" get it over the "have nots". That's what they count on.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of comments on this topic I take to be a reflection of a lack of much interest in the business of the Port. But Port Commissioners are around and direct a lot of money.
DeleteThat lack of interest and public oversight is what enables the Port to be the scummiest, most corrupt governing body around here - and that's really saying something. That lack of oversight and interest is also the mindset that would enable them to simply slip a well known slimeball like Jim Haguewood into that spot. And Port Commissioners are around and direct a lot of money.
Everyone should care about this.
I think the reality is just as we see with the Board of Health resolution; how are people supposed to care, if they don't know what is going on?
DeleteHow are the people going to know what to be concerned about, when the PDN has been white-washing the few topics about the Port that they even bother to write/inform the public about? Composites, for example?
The articles that even mention Haugewood just laud all the great things he's done for the community. Never an objective, much less investigative article written, just "Happy Talk".
You know the kind. What we see everyday. That is why the town is in such great shape, right? Because everything is great?
It is just so ridiculous. Who do they think they are fooling?
Caring is not doing. What action, other than an indignant letter, would change the Port's way of doing business?
DeleteI care!! I just haven't had this on my radar.
ReplyDeleteOK, so what's the process for this Port vacancy appointment?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to letters, can a concerned citizen show up somewhere and offer up a better vision?