A vote by Port of Coupeville commissioners last week to terminate the executive director also resulted in the resignation of its board president.

Commissioners William Bell and John Mishasek surprised board President Mike Diamanti at the end of a four hour meeting last Thursday by raising a motion to terminate Executive Director Forrest Rambo less than a year into his employment.

The move, Rambo said, is retaliation by the two commissioners for him raising legal concerns about the wharf harbormaster also being a paying tenant. Longtime Harbormaster Long Bechard works part time, makes $40,000 a year and questioned whether her boss had the authority to ask her what days she works, according to documents obtained through a public records request.

Mishasek, however, said his decision came down to Rambo’s lack of organization and attention to detail. Bell said his decision was based strictly on financial concerns. Throughout the meeting, Bell raised issues of unauthorized revenue collection, workflow issues, harassment complaints and threats of potential litigation.

Just days after the vote, some within the port district are pleased with the turn of events while many within the community are shocked and outraged. Some tenants at the Greenbank Farm say the vote obliterated any trust they had developed for the port over the last year.

As a result of the vote, Diamanti resigned from the commission Monday, saying the board had become an “unworkable” situation.

Complaints about Rambo

The meeting last Thursday got particularly heated when Diamanti presented a draft of a commissioner code of conduct. He said he felt like it was a routine document that was a good idea for the commissioner to consider.

Bell took particular offense to the document and in a heated moment claimed the only one who needed a document pertaining to ethics was Rambo. He said an employee had leveled threats of lawsuits and harassment complaints against the director.

Bell was referring to Bechard, who has served as harbormaster at the Coupeville Wharf for 22 years.

Email records show that Bechard told Rambo, her boss, that he was harassing her by asking what days she was working. She didn’t answer the question, writing that she didn’t want to be treated like a child, and also refused to meet with him.

Bell said he understands both sides.

“My opinion is Long took care of business quite well, but there hasn’t been a history of an executive director successfully managing her,” Diamanti said.

Rambo said he started paying attention to operations at the wharf in July. He said a lot of the tension escalated because he had raised concern about the legalities of having Bechard as a port employee and a private business owner and tenant at the wharf.

“It doesn’t seem right we’re paying Long $40,000 a year,” he said. “We’re paying a full-time salary for a part-time position. When she’s working for us, she’s working for us and shouldn’t be in her store folding clothes.”

Rambo raised his concerns with the commissioners and said he would report it with the state if they weren’t willing to look into it.

“I am salaried. I work one hour or 100 hours, I get paid the same,” Bechard said. “It has never been an issue for the last 20 years. That’s very insulting to me.”

In a complaint to the commissioners, Bechard wrote that Rambo was harassing and discriminating against her. She claims he would tell her to do things that didn’t follow regulations and that he used foul language with her and customers.

Mishasek and Diamanti said they’d received no other similar complaints from others. Bell, however, said he’s received complaints from three other tenants that were similar in nature.

In regard to Rambo’s concern about Bechard’s arrangement being a legal conflict, both Mishasek and Bell said they will take the concerns seriously and the issue is being explored with the port attorney.

“I was puzzled about the arrangement from day one,” Mishasek said. “I think the arrangement needs to be different and I have a proposal in mind. It does look peculiar to have an employee as a tenant. I was waiting on written options for Long for months.”

Tension keeps building

Meetings have become longer and more frequent. Commissioners started holding two meetings a month, lasting an average of three hours or longer. The regular meeting held on Wednesday, Sept. 14 lasted nearly six hours.

Diamanti said the other two commissioners seemed to focus on less important tasks and often ignored important topics.

Mishasek said board members weren’t getting the information they needed in a timely manner prior to meetings; therefore, they had to spend more time in meetings reviewing materials.

“I was really relying on Mike and his experience but that never came,” Mishasek said.

And Rambo should have been more prepared, according to the new commissioner.

“A good executive director would have prepped the new board,” he said.

When Rambo interviewed publicly for the position, he touted his experience running private marinas and with city government. Public ports, he said at the time, would be a learning curve.

Since taking the job in December, Rambo has been tasked with transitioning the port into managing the farm, a task he said has more than doubled the administrative workload. This is something the other commissioners haven’t acknowledged, Diamanti said.

“Forrest and I were setting priorities from day one,” he said. “We spent the first couple of months putting out fires. As time went on that workload was too great and there was no recognition by the board.”

During the meeting, Bell said Rambo should have presented a formal staffing plan and request for the board if he needed more help. Mishasek echoed those sentiments Monday, saying he’d never seen a formal staffing proposal.

Diamanti disagreed.

“I think he effectively communicated to the board that he needed help,” he said.

Financial concerns

Bell said he discovered in June that billing to tenants wasn’t being done correctly. The port wasn’t documenting receipt of lease payments nor giving tenants receipts for their payments. Tenants at the wharf also haven’t received their portions of utilities bills since December 2015.

“My opinion is based strictly on the financial mismanagement I saw coming from this office,” Bell said.

Mishasek echoed similar concerns regarding financial proceedings. He said he was finding mistakes, and commissioners weren’t getting the information they needed regarding finances.

“Checks were going out and we didn’t know how much,” Mishasek said. “And being reminded by the public we shouldn’t be in the dark.”

Part of the problem, Rambo said, was that billing was not in the accountant’s contract with the port. This is something the commissioners should have been caught prior to signing, he said.

The port has had three accountants this year, with the third resigning effective the end of the month. Rambo said records were moved with each new accountant and it became a mess.

Board president resigns

Diamanti submitted his resignation Monday.

“The surprise motion to terminate our executive director at the Sept. 29, 2016 meeting is completely at odds with my goals and objectives for the Port of Coupeville,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “Coming on the heels of the resignation of our events coordinator, Kristi O’Donnell, and our financial services provider, Jones Accounting Associates, this motion stops the flow of port operations at a time when a steady hand was required.”

Diamanti said he feels he is no longer effective as a commissioner and that Bell and Mishasek have created an “unworkable” situation.

“The executive director is having his judgment questioned, is frequently under attack, and is expected to fix, resolve and promote all the port’s objectives, which are not, by definition, a moving target,” he wrote.

All three commissioners agreed there was a disconnect on each commissioner’s goals. Bell said there was a clear line in the sand with Diamanti and Rambo on one side and Bell and Mishasek on the other.

“I don’t know where Mike (Diamanti) was when all these financial mismanagement concerns were raised,” he said. “I don’t think he heard them.”

Diamanti said the issue was focus.

“I believe the other two commissioners spent a lot of time focusing on things they didn’t need to and ignored the important things,” he said.

Both Mishasek and Bell learned of Diamanti’s resignation from the newspaper.

Was the vote collusion?

After going into an unplanned executive session that went more than twice the reported length of time, Mishasek immediately made a motion to terminate Rambo’s employment last Thursday.

He read the motion from a typed piece of paper. Bell seconded the motion and both commissioners voted in favor while Diamanti voted against.

“This is my second surprise vote,” said Diamanti after the meeting.

“The first was on July 8,” he said, referring to the July 8, 2015 controversial vote by commissioners Marshal Bronson and John Carr to cease negotiations with the Greenbank Farm Management Group. The surprise vote prompted public outcry and speculation on whether the pair were in cohoots outside of public meetings.

Windwalker Taibi, a tenant at Greenbank Farm, said about a week before the meeting Mishasek had stopped by his shop.

“He told me he and William were working on taking control of the port,” Taibi said. “He said they thought Mike was ineffective as president and that Forrest and Kristi (O’Donnell) were doing a terrible job.”

This is something both Mishasek and Bell deny.

“I would never say that to a tenant,” Mishasek said. “I may have said I felt a major change was coming. I would never tell anyone I would violate the Open Public Meetings Act.”

Mishasek said he wrote the motion beforehand because he felt events were leading toward termination and he wanted to be prepared.

“I was surprise he brought it in writing,” Bell said. “I can’t say I wasn’t happy about it.”

Rambo is under the impression the vote was pre-planned. He said commissioners discussing business outside of meetings — prohitied by the public meetings laws — has been an ongoing problem during his time at the port.

Diamanti shared an email with the newspaper that Mishasek sent to the commission. In the email, Mishasek shared feedback on port issues and laid out a plan on management restructure to deal with the ongoing personnel conflicts between Rambo and Bechard.

Under public meetings law, public officials aren’t allowed to discuss plans or make decisions outside of public meeting.

The next steps

During a special meeting held Tuesday, Bell and Mishasek met with the port attorney in executive session to discuss the transition of executive director as well as what to do in the meantime.

Candidates for an interim director will be presented at the Oct. 12 meeting. In the interim, responsibilities are being shifted to other current employees. The port will be advertising for the opening of both executive director and the open commission seat. Bell said they’d wait to hire an events coordinator until the director position is filled.

Moving forward, Bell said the forcus is putting the port back together.

“Restructuring the port so it’s workable, daily functional is going to be our biggest priority,” he said. “I think John and I are committed to getting this resolved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to restore public confidence and we only do that through example.”