In the first Port of Centralia Commission meeting under new President Peter Lahmann Wednesday, the commissioners revisited a previously tabled motion to terminate the port’s two appeals of State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) processes, as well as proposed ideas to adjust their meeting format.
Commissioner Ally Pickard made a motion during the commission’s Jan. 7 meeting to remove both SEPA appeals, one done by the City of Centralia for its development regulations and the other done by a housing developer for the proposed Norwegian Woods subdivision. The motion was tabled.
After an executive session Wednesday, Pickard once again moved to terminate the appeals, which failed due to a lack of a second. The subdivision would potentially be placed at 3215 and 3217 Harrison Avenue and bring 16 residential lots.
While the commissioners didn’t discuss the SEPA appeals during Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Kyle Markstrom said Jan. 7 that he didn’t view the appeals as “adversarial” and noted that the port is following the “standard process” to come to an agreement on the disputes. He indicated that the port’s concerns over the development, which he added have been given to the city, were related to traffic.
Additionally, the port commissioners unanimously approved Pickard’s motion to add a section to the agenda titled “Essential Updates,” which would include reports from the executive director and any other information that does not necessarily require a motion by the commission.
Previously, such updates were listed under the “New Business” section of the agenda, but Pickard noted that more conversational items should not be included.
Pickard also dove into what classifies as “port business” when it relates to the public comment period of the meeting. She proposed removing the phrase “on issues related to port business” in the guidelines for public comment and allowing for a more open policy.
“I bring this up because it’s been commented by constituents in the past, and it is very typical of government entities to allow any public comment,” Pickard said. “I would be interested in striking that and just allowing public comment because it has been an issue in the past of defining port business. What’s port business? What’s not? We already have a carve out for entities like the chamber to be able to present advertising for their events. But I think we keep landing in this grey area periodically of, is this port business or not?”
Lahmann stated that he thinks the current structure of the public comment guidelines is “just fine.” Pickard added that the guidelines have been “used against citizens to stop their public comment,” to which Markstrom replied, “When their public comment was not about port business.”
“We could take it out. At the next meeting, somebody might come and talk about fluoride in our water for three minutes, and I don’t know that that’s an efficient use of anybody’s time,” Markstrom added. “I would be in favor of leaving it the way it is.”
Port guidelines for public comment gives the president the authority to decide if a citizen’s public comment is unrelated to port business.
Commissioners opened the discussion up for citizens to give their input about the public comment format. Centralia citizens Brian Dow and Jan Banevich supported Pickard’s proposal, with Banevich saying public comment being related to port business should not be at the discretion of one person alone.
“The chamber reports on things that are not port business and it’s done during public comment, but when another constituent wants to make a comment that the president didn’t think was port business, they get denied,” Banevich said, referencing an Oct. 15 incident where then-President Markstrom cut off Banevich’s public comment for being unrelated to port business. “In order to make things fair, I think it should be either opened up for all business or make a separate heading or section for non-port business.”
Pickard’s motion to change the public comment policy failed 1-2.
