The cost for workers at the Port of Port Townsend was one issue brought up at a recent meeting between port staff and members of the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association Oct. 11.

Chris Sanok of the Shipwrights Co-op questioned why the port was focusing attention on reducing its utility costs when those costs, he said, are flat. Personnel costs are the problem, he said.

“Personnel costs go from $2.3 million [in 2017] to a projected $3.3 million for 2018 … why focus on utilities?” Sanok asked.

Port Commissioner Stephen Tucker said port employees are being paid “considerably less” than is typical for ports to pay for the work they do.

“We went ahead and decided we needed to catch the employees back up to what the normal salary range for their job description was,” Tucker said. “We couldn’t do it all at once, so we decided to do it a third and a third and a third,” he said of increases over time.

Fellow Port Commissioner Peter Hanke said he doesn’t like the rising personnel costs, either.

“We’re working on it. The personnel issue is a problem in terms of the expense. Part of it is our benefits, part of it is the pension, part of it is the union. It’s an issue, it’s a huge issue,” Hanke said.

One person asked how many employees the port has.

“Thirty,” replied Hanke. The audience gasped.

“Whoa!” someone said.

“Do you have any open positions?” another person in the audience asked.