The Port of South Whidbey has decided to suspend its current search for its next executive director.

During a meeting Friday afternoon, the board of commissioners recommended going in a different direction — searching for an interim executive director instead.

The port’s mission to hire a new executive director to replace Angi Mozer, whose last day is June 30, has been a difficult one. Negotiations broke down with Randy Mueller, the top choice, and the second choice, Blaine Oborn, was marked by controversy.

Last week, a member of the public and employees of the port spoke out against the hiring of Oborn, the former Oak Harbor city administrator, saying they worried about his treatment of other coworkers, particularly women.

Both Oborn and his attorney, Patricia Rose, vehemently denied these claims, which were supposedly linked to a hostile work environment lawsuit filed against the city of Oak Harbor that was settled in 2023.

“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,” Rose said in a statement to the South Whidbey Record Friday morning.

During the meeting that afternoon, Commissioner Curt Gordon reported having had a discussion with Oborn and a lot of tough questions.

“He’s definitely got some issues that he’s got to deal with, and we both agreed it probably wasn’t in our best interest for him to have to defend himself here, so we just agreed to move on,” Gordon said.

Jan-Marc Jouas, who previously stepped up to be interim executive director for the port, will serve as the district’s leader for two weeks beginning July 1. He will then have to leave because of pre-arranged vacations this summer.

Gordon said he had been trying to contact past and present executive directors of the Washington Public Ports Association to see if they might have any ideas about who could help out the Port of South Whidbey in the meantime.

“I’d like to find an interim director so that we can buy some time and not feel like we’re pressed to make a decision that we don’t want to live with long-term,” Gordon said.

Jouas is prepared to fill that role temporarily for the fair rate of pay Mozer was getting, he added, referring to Jouas as a “known quantity” and a great, laidback guy.

The other commissioners, Greg Easton and Jack Ng, agreed this was a sensible course of action. Easton wondered if a retired port director might be interested in the interim position.

“We need to give some hard thought to how we can structure our solicitation for a permanent executive director,” Easton said.

The commissioners voted to authorize Gordon to continue making contacts with potential interim directors.

“I wanted everybody to be clear that we’re not talking to anybody that we had on our previous list, not that those candidates couldn’t reapply when and if we get to a place where we’re applying for executive director, requesting applications for executive directors,” Gordon said.