The revelation that former North Whidbey Park and Recreation director Jim Shulock has been continuing to work for the district, at a higher hourly wage than he was making before, caused Brien Lillquist to quietly lose his cool Tuesday night.

The commissioner — normally known for being so soft spoken that audience members can’t hear him — swore at a fellow board member, told many people to “shut up,” and commanded those who disagreed with him to “blow it out” their rear ends. Yet the entire time he barely raised his voice.

Commissioner T.J. Harmon-Fisher, who was the target of much of Lillquist’s anger, made a motion to censure him, but it ultimately failed after some confusion over Robert’s Rules of Order.

It was yet another saga in the controversy that’s embroiled the district for the last several months. Meanwhile, there’s an effort underway to recall a couple of the commissioners. One vocal pool supporter has already announced his intentions to run in the November election.

Somewhere underneath all the nasty words and hurt feelings is a basic disagreement over the future of the district.

Some folks, including both Lillquist and Harmon-Fisher, have argued that the district should expand beyond running the swimming pool and offer more activities for the youth of North Whidbey. Others say the pool should come first. They say voters passed the levy with the intention that the money go to support the pool and that there’s a lot of work that should be done to improve the facility.

Fired director

still being paid

At the meeting Tuesday night, former district director Jim Shulock continued to be a lightning rod for controversy, even though he wasn’t there. Several commissioners were unhappy to learn that Sally MacLaren-Meuer, the head swim coach and interim director, had hired Shulock to work at the pool for $25 an hour. He worked 75 hours last month and about 20 hours so far this month.

Even Commissioner Harvey Prosser, who had supported Shulock in the past, said it wasn’t a good idea to have Shulock continuing to work at the pool. “Jim has displayed a very bad attitude about the whole thing,” he said, “and the sooner he’s not around, the better off we’ll all be.”

Commissioners Fred Smyth questioned why Shulock was being paid $25 an hour, which he pointed out was a much higher hourly wage than he received as director. His contract was not renewed in another controversial board move earlier this year.

The commissioners hired MacLaren-Meuer, who was openly reluctant to take on the two jobs for $5,000 a month, which is about the two salaries put together. The commissioners gave her permission to work with Shulock so that he could teach her how to fill his shoes.

Janet Sabalausky, the chairperson, pointed out that some of the hours Shulock worked did not correspond with times that MacLaren-Meuer was there. Also, Shulock was allegedly seen several times leaning back in his chair at the front desk of the pool lobby. But she was careful to be diplomatic and not directly criticize MacLaren-Meuer.

Lillquist, however, was much more upset about Shulock’s continued employment. He said the district was paying MacLaren-Meuer to do both jobs and she shouldn’t have needed so much help from Shulock. He said the commissioners “hired the wrong person.”

Director issue sparks outburst

When Harmon-Fisher disagreed with him, Lillquist lost his composure. He started insulting fellow board members and told audience members who tried to jump in to “shut up.” He stuck his tongue out at the audience at one point.

Sabalausky intervened and called a 10-minute recess. Afterward, she asked the commissioners to act with more “maturity and tolerance.” She tried to continue with the agenda, but Harmon-Fisher made a motion to censure Lillquist for “inappropriate conduct in a public forum.” The consequence of being censured could range from a disciplinary discussion with the chairperson to removal from the board.

Lillquist objected to the motion, but was over-ruled. After a discussion about what a censure means and what the process is, the commissioners voted on the motion.

Censure motion fails in 2-2 vote

The motion failed with Lillquist and Smyth voting against the censure; Prosser and Harmon-Fisher voted in favor; Sabalausky abstained.

In the end, the commissioners didn’t directly bar MacLaren-Meuer from continuing to hire Shulock. But Sabalausky pointed out that the commissioners had voiced their concerns to her and she added that she hopes MacLaren-Meuer “takes that under advisement.”

After the meeting, MacLaren-Meuer strongly defended her decision to hire Shulock. She said the commissioners put her in the position of needing his help by firing him without planning ahead. She said she simply couldn’t have done both job while continuing the business of the district without his help.

Non-pool contract started dispute

The complicated foofaraw at the district started several months ago when the commissioners, with the exception of Prosser, voted to start a $20,000 contract with the Oak Harbor Boys and Girls Club to provide youth programs. Prosser threatened to resign from the board in protest, but ended up simply resigning as chairman.

After pool supporters criticized the move and questioned its legality, the Boys and Girls Club eventually settled the issue by declining the money.

But the controversy intensified when three of the commissioners — Lillquist, Sabalausky and Smyth — voted against renewing Shulock’s contract, which effectively fired him. The move probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone familiar with the on-going tension between Shulock and board members. Hostility was common in public meetings between Shulock, who unapologetically took the side of pool supporters, and the three commissioners. At one point, the board ordered him to seek anger management counseling.

Yet many people, including Commissioners Harmon-Fisher and Harvey Prosser, were very critical of the decision to let Shulock go. They claimed that the board gave Shulock a positive evaluation just moments before firing him.

For now, the future of the district seems somewhat unsure. MacLaren-Meuer recently handed in her letter of resignation. She’s taking a job near her hometown in Wisconsin in about two months. Two committees have started the process of finding a new director and a new swim coach, but it’s not going completely smoothly.

New director search continues

Members of the committee charged with finding a swim coach had many questions for the board about what the job entails and what the contract will look like. The commissioners argued about whether or not they needed the district’s lawyer to look at proposed contracts, but didn’t end up making any concrete decisions on the point.

They did decide, however, to increase the salary ranges for the director and head coach positions in order to make the job more attractive to candidates. Harmon-Fisher was the only one to vote against raising the director’s salary range from $28,000 to $50,000 a year.

“The staff salary should be distributed in a more equitable fashion,” she said, citing earlier concerns about the law wages for many staff members.

“There are too many other priorities,” she added.

The commissioners plan to have a special meeting later this month, or early next month, to pick a new director.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.