Port of Centralia Seat Still Vacant After Five Meetings

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The third seat on the Port of Centralia board of commissioners remained vacant after Commissioners Julie Shaffley and Peter Lahmann met during another special meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22 — the fifth meeting to end without agreement between the board members on a replacement for Dan Keahey. 

There has been a vacancy on the board since July 3, when former Commissioner Keahey resigned. After a resignation, the remaining port commissioners are tasked with interviewing candidates and appointing someone to fill the seat.

However, Shaffley and Lahmann have been unable to reach an agreement over the course of the past five port meetings, multiple executive sessions and receiving opinions from an attorney on the candidates. The 90-day deadline for the commissioners to decide expires on Oct. 2 and then the responsibility of appointing the third board member falls to the county commissioners. 

The five candidates who were interviewed for the position are William Luond, Michael Mahoney, Kyle Markstrom, Richard Schnatterly and Lindy Waring. The interviews took place on Aug. 19. 

The commissioner’s disagreement comes down to Shaffley not wanting to appoint someone with a “gray area of conflict of interest.” She said that all of the candidates are qualified and appointing someone that has any conflicts could cause the port problems.

Lahmann has expressed that the possible conflicts can be avoided and wants to pick the “best candidates for the job” despite possible conflicts of interest.



Tuesday’s special meeting was essentially a repeat of past meetings with each commissioner moving to appoint the same two candidates and each motion failing for lack of a second.

The two candidates that Shaffley said do not have any conflicts of interest are Rich Schnatterly and Lindy Waring. She made a motion to appoint each candidate but the motion failed for lack of a second. 

Lahmann moved to appoint Michael Mahoney and then William Luond. Each motion failed for lack of a second.

The Port of Centralia has one more regularly scheduled meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30 to come to an agreement before the decision is turned over to the Lewis County Board of Commissioners.