PORT ANGELES — In a surprise move, David Hagiwara, who was ousted in September as the Port of Port Angeles deputy executive director, has been named as the port’s trade and economic development director.

On a 2-1 vote, port commissioners eliminated the deputy director position Sept. 22 after a closed-door executive session.

To do so, the commissioners temporarily suspended port Executive Director Bob McChesney’s authority.

McChesney hired Hagiwara for the new position, created early this year, and his appointment and salary were ratified by the commissioners at their Monday meeting.

Hagiwara will be making $98,000 per year, about $10,000 less than he was making as deputy executive director.

Because Hagiwara was fired from his former position, he will get to keep all of his severance pay, McChesney said.

“This position has been budgeted for this year,” McChesney said during the Monday meeting.

Hagiwara could not be reached for comment. He will begin his position today.

Termination grievance

McChesney also announced that ongoing discussions on the termination grievance that Hagiwara had brought against the commission had been resolved with the $201,400 in severance.

“David had a very unusual contract, which very specifically went over how much severance he was going to have, so we had many discussions on how that would be paid out, and those discussions is where the $200,000 or so comes from,” McChesney said.

Although both the job and the resolution were announced at the meeting, Port Commission President John Calhoun insisted that the actions were separate — ¬­and that the hiring had nothing to do with resolution of the grievance.

“We thought it would be a lot smoother to announce them at the same time,” Calhoun said.

“But they are not connected actions.”

Calhoun said that while the hiring of Hagiwara for the position was up to McChesney, the commissioners did have to approve the salary.

“That is a lot of money for that position, and I’m not crazy about that,” commission vice president George Schoenfeldt said.

“But it has been advertised for quite some time, and we are not finding anyone who could fulfill that position.

“So there we are.”

McChesney said it became apparent that Hagiwara was out of work only because his position was eliminated and that he was “eminently qualified” for the economic development director position.

“Given David’s experience and availability and discussions we have had over the past several weeks and his desire to fill that position, I have taken the steps to do that,” he said.

“This wasn’t a matter of a lawsuit or anything like that. It just worked together.”

Financial condition

At the time, Hagiwara’s firing was blamed by commissioners Jim McEntire and Schoenfeldt on the port’s financial condition and a “fairly stringent budget year” for 2009.

The large severance package was developed for Hagiwara — and a similar one for the port’s finance director, Bill James — because he was not eligible to be a union employee, so his job was seen as more precarious.

Hagiwara was appointed deputy director in 1998 by Christine Anderson, then the port’s executive director.

Earlier, Hagiwara had served as the director of trade and development and director of finance and administration for the port.

The elimination of the deputy director position had long been under scrutiny.

During a Dec. 30, 2003, Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce luncheon, then-port commissioner Leonard Beil proposed appointing a three-person “volunteer committee” to look at whether the deputy director’s job was necessary.

Although the committee was never formed, Schoenfeldt and McEntire agreed it was not a necessary position at the meeting during which Hagiwara was terminated.

Beil at the time cited the $100,000 cost in salary when the port was facing tight budgets.

In a Dec. 30, 2007, letter to the Peninsula Daily News, Beil — who was defeated for re-election by Schoenfeldt in 2005 — said the port had a “wasteful, inefficient management flow chart.”

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.