The Port of Longview commissioners Tuesday unanimously voted to fire Chief Executive Officer Geir-Eilif Kalhagen, who had held the port’s top management position since he was hired in July 2012.
The commission’s 3-0 vote came after a late morning closed executive session. Kalhagen was not fired for cause or for his performance, said Commissioner Bob Baagason. There were “differences in visions of growth” between Kalhagen and the commissioners, he said.
“Our job is to set policy, and that’s what we need to do as a commission, not have it done for us,” Bagaason said, declining to elaborate.
The two other port commissioners declined comment.
It was a sudden end for Kalhagen, considering that two of the commissioners are new: Longview businessman Jeff Wilson, elected in November, was attending his first public meeting as a commissioner; and Doug Averett, who was appointed in August just four months after he retired after a long career as the port’s director of terminal operations. He had worked under Kalhagen for three years.
Under his severance package, Kalhagen will be paid for four months’ worth of salary. Based on his annual salary of $187,000, that is about $60,000. He also will get 12 months of benefits, according to port staff.
Current Chief Operating Officer Norm Krehbiel will run the port in the interim as the organization searches for Kalhagen’s replacement.
Kalhagen said he was “a little bit shell-shocked … for this to happen right after the holidays … and when we’re starting to gain momentum” on a number of fronts.
The port, he said, had just hired two new senior positions and is in the middle of negotiating terms with Waterside Energy, a Houston firm that wants to bring an $800 million oil terminal and a $450 million propane dock to the port.
“If anything, I’m disappointed I was not able to continue that work,” he said. “At the end of the day, I work at the pleasure of the commission. This is what the commission decided would be best of the port, so I have to honor that decision.”
Kalhagen said his contract was slated to expire in September, and he had been awaiting an evaluation. He seemed at a loss in explaining his dismissal, saying he was never aware that his vision conflicted with the commissioners’.
“I aggressively pursued an agenda of tackling the issues that the port was struggling with,” such as streamlining internal processes and modernizing its finances, he said.
Kalhagen said he stood by his record at the port, pointing out that the agency saw the money it had in its bank account grow from $4 million four years ago to $16 million today. However, he also failed to land a major client at the port, and commissioners last spring rejected a $300 million propane export terminal.
Officials with Waterside Energy say the change in leadership won’t change their plans to build two major energy facilities in Longview.
