This Weeks Port of Hupp Meeting

Submitted by Tom Davis

Yesterday’s Port of Shelton meeting held some surprises

Hupp grinning and plotting

First, Commissioner Jay Hupp made a formal request to be reimbursed for legal fees incurred while defending him against the recent, failed, recall attempt brought by a group of Concerned Citizens.  

According to the Port’s attorney, Skip Houser, there is a statue under which Mr. Hupp is entitled to be reimbursed, using Port (public) funds.

I'll leave the legal details to those who care; I am more interested in the level of hubris it takes for a local official to relieve himself of financial responsibility resulting from a situation of his own making.

Clearly, Mr. Hupp doesn’t ft get it. And probably never will.

In any case Commissioner Jack Miles strongly objected to both the manner and the timing of the request, and of the subsequent motion (brought by Commissioner Tom Wallitner), to facilitate Mr. Hupp being reimbursed.

Additionally, Mr. Miles correctly stated that Mr. Hupp had not specified the amount of money he is requesting be reimbursed.

Skip Houser

Enter, the ever-oily Port attorney, Mr. Houser, who stated that the motion on the table was merely to authorize the unspecified amount to be reimbursed, not to actually reimburse the unspecified amount. (Hence the ever-oily characterization.)

The rhetoric at the Commissioner’s table went back and forth until Mr. Hupp decided it was time to second his own motion (Mr. Oily said it was legal for him to do so) and the gavel came down, once again, in a two to one decision favoring Mr. Hupp.

But there was a point I found interesting. It was when Commissioner Wallitner stated that he made the motion to reimburse my friend, Jay because he (Jay) had been attacked.  And by attacked h he (Tom) was referring to the recall action brought by citizens exercising their civil rights.

Tom Wallitner

Let me stop here for a minute because I want to say that I like Tom Wallitner. I try not to, but I just can ft help it. To me, Tom is like a bunny with a machine gun. He didn't go out and buy it, and he sure doesn’t  know how to use it, but, damn, he's just so much fun to watch-firing away into the air.

The meeting continued along, peacefully, for about, oh, I'd say thirty seconds, until it came time for the public comment portion, and Matt Matayashi, the Port 's rising star and current Executive Director of Mason County Economic Development Council (EDC), got up to speak.



Now Matt is a kid I don't really care for. He’s young, bright and well spoken, but he gives you no reason to believe there's a heart hidden under his ambitions. Matt is a wannabe political heavy hitter, with every right to think he'll get his chance at bat. But he's lacking the one thing he'll need to have a successful life. So let's all watch as Matt grows up and discovers what that one thing is. 

 

Anyway, right away, Matt runs into a barrage of objections from Commissioner Miles. Now here’s the part where it gets a little dicey.



Matt grins after Steve threatens Jack



Apparently, the Port of Shelton pays Matt's salary (that's a little over simplified, but close enough for government work). And Commissioner Miles is of the mind that, that makes Matt an employee of the Port, and thereby he should reserve his comments for the Staff Comments portion of the meeting, and not use up the small amount of time allotted for the Public to comment.

Commissioner Miles then launched into a tale of concentric narrative that nearly put old Tom Wallitner back into the hospital (Tom recently underwent quadruple bypass surgery). In fact, I started looking around for a defibrillator, just in case.

And Mr. Hupp was fairing little better. I was beginning to think we might have to call in eLife Flight for an emergency evac.

But suddenly- and prematurely- Commissioner Hupp brought down his gavel and announced that we were adjourned.

But both Commissioners Hupp and Wallitner remained in their seats for a full ten minutes after we were adjourned, apparently engaged in some sort of deep breathing exercises.

And that is why I think Mr. Hupp doesn’t ft have a clue as to what is going on.

If you find this little narrative somewhat amusing, good. But keep in mind what we are up against is a high stakes game of health versus money. And nothing could be more serious than that.

Tom Davis