By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – A longtime member of the Port of Alsea intends to resign in October, just five months after being re-elected to a four-year term and being sworn in two months ago.
The port’s administrator is already seeking applicants for the seat held by Rob Bishop, setting a deadline for applications even before his resignation and asking potential candidates questions about their employment and whether they are a “team player.”
Bishop, a retired contractor, has been on the five-member Port commission since 2011 and has served as its chair since 2015.
Bishop was challenged for re-election in May by Waldport Moose Lodge manager Jim Sehl of Tidewater in a hotly contested race filled with personal attacks and allegations but easily won 1,376 to 870.
Bishop told YachatsNews in an email Monday he plans to resign after deciding “for personal reasons I can’t give the Port the energy it deserves …” He sent a letter to the Port this week saying he would resign effective Oct. 19, the date of the board’s October meeting.
Port manager Roxie Cuellar announced Bishop’s intended resignation on local Facebook posts last Thursday and set a 3 p.m. Tuesday deadline for applications. There was no other notice of the intended resignation, application procedure or deadline.
The application is posted on the district’s website.
When asked Monday by YachatsNews why there was just a five-day window for applications, Cuellar said that was a mistake and that she planned to change the deadline to Sept. 19 – two days before the board’s regular monthly meeting.
“I wanted to get it out there as soon as possible,” she said. “But Sept. 12 was a mistake. It was the 19th that I intended.”
Applicants were also asked to fill out a five-question form that asked about their employment to “determine possible conflicts of interest,” what – if any — policies they might like changed, and if applicants see themselves “as a team player who can work with other commissioners on the board, even if they may disagree with you on changes you would like to see at the Port?”
While it is unusual for a board or council to seek applicants for a position before the incumbent resigns, Oregon election law says it is fine to do so and a board may even select a successor before the other member resigns.
Also, there are procedures for board members to simply declare a conflict of interest when an issue is up for a vote, and then to either proceed to vote or recuse themselves from the decision.
The questions mirror issues contested in the May board election when Sehl and Shrimp Daddy owner Mike Gatens ran unsuccessfully as a two-man slate for the board after attacking Cuellar and disagreeing with many current operations and board policies. Bishop won handily and longtime commissioner Jan Power defeated Gatens 1,185 to 856.
Busy times at Port
It has a busy few years for the Port, starting with the replacement of its deteriorating marina in 2021, the purchase of the Dock of the Bay retail business after its owner died, canceling a shop lease for Gatens’ shrimp processing business, controversy over how crabbers use portions of the new marina, and water quality in Eckman Lake, much of which it owns. Cuellar, 75, is also trying to prepare the board for her planned retirement in late 2024.
The Port is a special service district with territory much beyond Waldport. Like many special districts it has no written policy on how to fill board vacancies other than to follow Oregon law – which simply says that the vacancy will be filled by remaining board members, or if they can’t agree, then county commissioners would fill the vacancy.
But, most local governments seeking to fill vacancies on boards or councils simply ask if the applicant is a resident of the district or city, for how long, whether they are registered to vote – and then conduct in-person interviews before making a decision.
Cuellar told YachatsNews that she put together the questions so that the remaining four board members could sift through applications in October and appoint Bishop’s replacement in November.
Although headquartered with an office and business at its new marina on Alsea Bay near downtown Waldport, the boundaries of the Port district stretch from near Seal Rock in the north, east to the Benton County line and south to the Lane County line to include communities like Bayshore, Waldport, Tidewater and Yachats. There are 7,115 registered voters in the district.
The board’s operating budget is $500,000 a year, raised by property taxes, launch fees, the manufacture and sale of crab measuring devices, and income from its retail operation Dock of the Bay, which the Port purchased in 2021 after its owner died. In 2018 voters approved a $2.5 million bond to rebuild the marina.