News and Insights
April 2023 Knowing the Waters – Elections
By Frank Chmelik Well, we are coming up on what one executive director described to me as “the silly season.” You are thinking spring and maybe some boating or barbeques – we lawyers are thinking election season. As the election season is upon us, local government officials and employees [...]
November 2022 Knowing the Waters – Incidents and Claims
By Frank Chmelik This month we will look at how a port should react to a reported personal injury or property damage claim on port property and how the port should expect to interface with the potentially injured party, the port’s insurance broker, the port’s insurance carrier and the [...]
Nondisclosure Agreements Update
Employers commonly require employees to sign agreements containing nondisclosure and/or non-disparagement provisions. These provisions are most often found in employment contracts or severance agreements. However, due to recent changes in the law, employers will want to immediately review their provisions to make sure they are compliant with the new [...]
September 2022 Knowing the Waters – Communicating Sensitive Information to Commissioners
By Frank Chmelik This month’s focus is on the “best practices” for communicating with commissioners between meetings. Port staff frequently have information about potential tenants or customers or other sensitive information that is not public information, but they need to communicate it to commissioners and seek timely individual commissioner [...]
August 2022 Knowing the Waters – Delegation of Powers
By Frank Chmelik This month’s column is about “Delegation of Powers Resolutions” which was a lively topic at the recent executive directors’ seminar. Everyone would agree that the commissioners acting together as the port commission in an open public meeting really do govern port districts. In a sense, the [...]
July 2022 Knowing the Waters – Controversial Meetings
By Frank Chmelik Here is a bit of a different topic. Last week at the Commissioner Conference in Walla Walla we discussed strategies for contentious commission meetings. It was an interesting discussion led by me and Commissioner Troy Stariha from the Port of Kalama. It turns out, from the [...]
April 2023 Knowing the Waters – Elections
By Frank Chmelik Well, we are coming up on what one executive director described to me as “the silly season.” You are thinking spring and maybe some boating or barbeques – we lawyers are thinking election season. As the election season is upon us, local government officials and employees [...]
November 2022 Knowing the Waters – Incidents and Claims
By Frank Chmelik This month we will look at how a port should react to a reported personal injury or property damage claim on port property and how the port should expect to interface with the potentially injured party, the port’s insurance broker, the port’s insurance carrier and the [...]
October 2022 Knowing the Waters – Annual Checklist
By Frank Chmelik I have recently received several requests to talk again about issues that a port commission or executive director may consider at year end or early next year. The idea here is to list items, which should be looked after at least annually – call it an [...]
September 2022 Knowing the Waters – Communicating Sensitive Information to Commissioners
By Frank Chmelik This month’s focus is on the “best practices” for communicating with commissioners between meetings. Port staff frequently have information about potential tenants or customers or other sensitive information that is not public information, but they need to communicate it to commissioners and seek timely individual commissioner [...]
August 2022 Knowing the Waters – Delegation of Powers
By Frank Chmelik This month’s column is about “Delegation of Powers Resolutions” which was a lively topic at the recent executive directors’ seminar. Everyone would agree that the commissioners acting together as the port commission in an open public meeting really do govern port districts. In a sense, the [...]
July 2022 Knowing the Waters – Controversial Meetings
By Frank Chmelik Here is a bit of a different topic. Last week at the Commissioner Conference in Walla Walla we discussed strategies for contentious commission meetings. It was an interesting discussion led by me and Commissioner Troy Stariha from the Port of Kalama. It turns out, from the [...]