Concerns voiced by Port of South Whidbey employees and other members of the public may have waylaid plans to hire a candidate for the port’s executive director position.

A special meeting to discuss the hiring of an executive director was scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, June 13 after the South Whidbey Record went to press.

During the port’s regular meeting on Tuesday, three people spoke in opposition of Blaine Oborn, Oak Harbor’s former city administrator who interviewed for the top position. Port commissioners voted last week to extend the job offer to Oborn after negotiations reportedly broke down with their first choice, Randy Mueller.

Oborn served as Oak Harbor’s city administrator from 2018 to 2024, when he was terminated by Mayor Ronnie Wright.

Irene Vernon of Langley said there were “tons of red flags” when it came to Oborn and asked the commissioners to consider rescinding their job offer. While she acknowledged Oborn does have a wealth of experience, she worried about him respecting others within the office.

Ed Vernon, a part-time employee of the port, echoed this sentiment.

“A guy like that that has the history of record that he has of his on-the-job treatment of women, I feel that he’s not the guy for the job,” he said.

Bryan Smith, another employee of the port, expressed concern for the same reason and agreed that behavior has no place here.

“The majority of my coworkers are women, and the treatment of them is something that’s important to me,” the assistant harbormaster said.

Patricia Rose, Oborn’s attorney, said he has been made aware that several members of the public have now repeated general concerns about his character based on “wholly unsubstantiated allegations stemming from many years ago” that were “unfortunately” republished by the “local media.”

“He has never had a history of mistreatment of women or other disparaging behavior towards employees in his career as a public employee or in his career specifically with the City of Oak Harbor as its City Administrator,” she said.

In a statement to the South Whidbey Record, Oborn said he is proud of his record of public service to a variety of cities throughout the U.S. and has never been found to have engaged in any inappropriate behavior or demeaning conduct towards his employees and/or women particularly.

“Unfortunately, I have learned that a necessary part of management is taking corrective action against employees at times,” he said. “That often leads to pushback if not outright untruths coming from the disciplined employee.”

He added that he would like “the Oak Harbor media” to issue a formal correction indicating that “the allegations … published in the past have not been substantiated in any forum.”

As previously reported by the Whidbey News-Times, two former employees for the city of Oak Harbor filed a hostile work environment lawsuit against the city that accused Oborn and others of unethical or unprofessional behavior. The lawsuit, which was settled in 2023, claimed that Oborn treated the former public works director, Cathy Rosen, in an unfair and sexist manner.

Oborn and the former mayor strongly denied the accusations. Rosen demanded $1.25 million in the lawsuit but settled for $200,000.

Port Commissioners Curt Gordon and Greg Easton agreed to continue pursuing negotiations with Oborn and another candidate, Jan-Marc Jouas, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who did not originally apply for the role but previously served as the interim executive director for both the Port of South Whidbey and the Port of Coupeville.

The commissioners also voted to nominate Easton as the auditing officer and Gordon as the alternate auditing officer effective July 1, which is the day after the current executive director, Angi Mozer, will depart from the job. The executive director normally serves as the auditing officer, who reviews the vouchers and signs them. But Mozer acknowledged it’s also possible the commissioners could choose a new executive director before July 1.

Stan Reeves, the port’s previous executive director, also applied for the role but has not factored in among the commissioners’ considerations.