Concerns raised about port director hiring process

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 20, 2026

Some Greenbank Farm tenants expressed concern that the Port of Coupeville’s search for its new executive director had become less than transparent.

Before retiring this spring, Chris Michalopoulos, the port’s executive director of more than eight years, is orchestrating his replacement’s recruitment. Originally, his plan to narrow the candidate pool down from over 50 applicants to several finalists included private interviews conducted without quorums.

During a March 10 port board of commissioners meeting, Michalopoulos acknowledged the necessity of the commissioners’ “vision” to the hiring process but said his experience qualifies him to direct the search.

“As commissioners, you see the port from 30,000 feet,” Michalopoulos said. “I’m with my team on the ground executing. I can write questions, do the screening and conduct the interviews and ask the questions on the resumes.”

At the meeting, Commissioner John Mishasek voiced his concerns about how cheating could be prevented if interviews are conducted publicly. Michalopoulos called interviewing publicly a “challenge.”

Under the Open Public Meetings Act, a board cannot go into executive session to interview candidates. The law demands a public meeting be held when a governing body “elects to take final action hiring,” while executive sessions can be used to “evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment.”

As the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington explains, the act defines a meeting as occurring when a quorum, or the majority of a board, is gathered. Other jurisdictions on the island — from the county to cities to school districts to police departments and more — commonly through a public process in interviewing candidates for executive positions.

Earlier this month, the South Whidbey School District held a public forum in which three individuals made their cases to become principal at South Whidbey Elementary. Two finalists held leadership positions at schools on the mainland, and one already worked for the elementary school.

Michalopoulos, however, suggested a process that would skirt the state open government law by avoiding a quorum. He proposed a round of interviews in which each commissioner would privately interview a third of the candidates. Commissioners would rely on notes from each other’s interviews to evaluate the candidates they did not personally interview, he said.

Hollie Swanson, an owner of the Greenbank Farm Wine Shop, found this perplexing.

“Each of you is not going to see the person’s body language. You’re not going to get to be able to ask follow-up questions, you’re not going to be there,” she said. “You’re giving up your rights to two-thirds of that list. I understand you guys are the bosses, you’re hiring your new employee. So I don’t understand why you would agree to that.”

Michalopoulos initially planned for only the final three interviews to be conducted in a public meeting. That meeting would also include an executive session for discussion about candidates’ qualifications as well as a motion to authorize a hire once the commissioners returned.

Kristin Benson, an owner of clothing store Arline and Stella’s Vintage Emporium at the Greenbank Farm, told the News-Times she felt “surprised” learning Michalopoulos would be recruiting and hiring his own replacement, rather than designating those responsibilities to a search committee. Her experience working as a university administrator in Oregon informs her perspective.

“Perhaps things are just done differently in Washington than they are done down here in Oregon, but I haven’t experienced a hiring process like the one we’re seeing right now,” Benson said. “I’m used to a lot of stakeholder collaboration and transparency when it comes to the hiring of government employees.”

Swanson shared this sentiment. She told the News-Times she would have preferred the port commissioners enlist a “headhunter,” somebody to spearhead the hiring process who could ensure “impartiality” throughout.

“I guess it’s just more trying to keep it to where (the port commissioners are) not just getting another Chris. They could even get Chris ‘plus,’” Swanson said. “They could get more information if they knew what they were looking for without being told what they’re looking for.”

Cathy Kind, another owner of the Greenbank Farm Wine Shop, shared an idea at the meeting for how the port could better involve stakeholders in the hiring process.

Kind said she worked with Community Transit in Snohomish County for a decade. A board of directors manages that group like the board of commissioners manages the farm and the port, she explained; Community Transit receives public funding, too. As such, she suggested the port hold a meet-and-greet between the executive director finalists and stakeholders, community members and port commissioners, something she remembered Community Transit doing.

“It was very clear from the way these three candidates interacted with everyone in the room who the right choice was,” she recalled.

Benson and other tenants approached the board about this idea prior to the meeting and did not receive a clear answer.

Commissioner Marianne Burr, the only commissioner to respond to the News-Times’ requests for comment, asserted that she and her fellow commissioners are full participants in a law-abiding hiring process.

“The review and selection is being done according to established legal standards which include doing initial interviews in private to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the applicants,” she said.

When efforts to narrow the candidate pool actually began earlier this week, the process different slightly from what was originally outlined.

Beginning Monday, Michalopoulos conducted one-on-one phone interviews with 14 candidates he and the board deemed deserving. Thursday, the board decided the top five candidates would move on to the first round of interviews — conducted during an executive session — beginning either March 31 or April 1.

Michalopoulos told the News-Times it is “highly likely” those interviews would be conducted with a quorum.

A second round of interviews may be conducted afterwards, but Michalopoulos could not confirm whether they would be held in an open public meeting or in executive sessions, as it depends on “who the final candidates are and whether or not they are wanting to have their candidacy remain private.”