Port of Centralia Commisioner Peter Lahmann speaks to county commissioners at an Oct. 2 meeting.
The sixth special Port of Centralia meeting to nominate a third commissioner ended, unsurprisingly, in another stalemate. Commissioners Julie Shaffley and Peter Lahmann now lob the decision to Lewis County commissioners.
The Sept. 30 meeting, like the five special meetings before, played out like a futile ping-pong match, with Shaffley and Lahmann going back and forth nominating a candidate, only to be met by silence. “Motion fails for lack of a second” rang out four times, and the match ended after only 17 minutes.
The months-long standstill over who will fill ex-commissioner Dan Keahey’s seat stems from a disagreement over some of the five candidates’ potential conflicts of interests. Although Shaffley said all the candidates are “really well qualified,” Lahmann has pushed for two candidates with potential conflicts — Michael Mahoney, whose family receives monthly checks from the Port, and William Luond, who works for RailWorks, a company the Port contracts with. Lahmann appeared willing to accept the conflicts on Tuesday.
The Port’s legal counsel, Heather Burgess, said the criteria for candidates’ eligibility is “a fairly low threshold,” and that potential conflicts could be managed after the fact. Lahmann agreed.
“You excuse yourself from the discussion, and you excuse yourself from the vote,” Lahmann said. “Most of the time that takes care of it.”
But Shaffley didn’t budge.
“The best, ethical decision that I can do is to appoint one of the two candidates that have no conflict of interest at all — not a question of it, not a shadow of it, but no conflicts at all. That’s what we are elected to do,” Shaffley said. “That, I feel, is a much better, common sense way of dealing with this rather than looking for remedies in the event that (conflicts of interest) would cause problems.”
Shaffley has repeatedly moved to nominate business owner Richard Schnatterly or Lindy Waring, who serves on the executive committee of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce.
Burgess also pointed out that if a commissioner were to excuse themself from a vote, a two-person board may get stuck in a deadlock — “case in point,” Burgess said, referencing the commissioner’s current dilemma.
Although Shaffley said all the candidates would do well in the position, Lahmann argued that Mahoney, who served on the Lewis County Planning Commission for a decade, has the best resume.
“At this point, I can’t say that any of these people have direct conflicts, and I have to vote for my constituents, for who I think the best candidate is,” Lahmann said.
After a brief discussion on the candidates, the commissioners accepted that they were at an impasse.
“I’m very disappointed,” Shaffley said.
