Tim Hockett, executive director and 22-year employee of Olympic Community Action Programs, has been cutting, slashing and laying off employees all year. Now, he’s out of a job as well.

Hockett and OlyCAP board chair George Randels, departing deputy mayor of Port Townsend, issued a statement Dec. 9 on the decision. Hockett’s last day in the office is Dec. 16.

“This is something the board and I decided together,” Hockett said. Asked only weeks ago by a reporter whether he planned to retire, Hockett said he did not intend to leave OlyCAP. On Dec. 9, he said that the decision was in the works then, but he had not been ready to comment on it.

“It’s been a very hard year and stressful, and I’m looking forward to catching my breath,” Hockett said. He said he hasn’t been thinking about what he will do, “but I will now.” He said he plans to take a vacation first. He loves to write and he’s considering a book, and consulting work.

“OlyCAP has been my world for a good, long time,” Hockett said last week. “It’s been fantastic, but it’s also frustrating and disappointing to be in this larger economic environment. I predicted it would be a perfect storm with higher demand and less resources.”

In the last year, more than 50 employees have left OlyCAP, some on their own, some because of cuts. OlyCAP had 275 employees two years ago.

Randels said Dec. 12 that while it was a mutual decision, there is a negotiated separation agreement that lays out benefits such as health insurance coverage.

“OlyCAP has been going through a lot of trouble and has had to let a lot of people go, and this agreement is comparable to what other people who have left have negotiated,” Randels said. He also did not want to go into details, leaving that to Hockett if he desired, which Hockett didn’t.

Hockett said last week he expects OlyCAP to find someone to fill the position. Randels said that could take time and would be up to others on the board since he, too, is leaving OlyCAP. Randels was only on the board because he was elected to the Port Townsend City Council. He lost his seat in last month's election.

Hockett, 61, lives in Port Angeles but has been coming to Port Townsend to work twice a week for the last 20 years. He said he loves OlyCAP and is proud of what he has accomplished.

After closing a senior meals program in Port Townsend earlier this year and being criticized for maintaining a high salary while cutting programs, Hockett pegged his salary at the private nonprofit agency at about $80,000 a year.

Several months ago Hockett had said he was the lowest-paid executive in about 10 action agencies, and that he had been the lowest-paid executive for many years.

Accomplishments

Hockett, who has worked for OlyCAP since 1989, the last six as executive director, has been credited with many accomplishments during his career.

“I could list any number of Tim’s achievements during his long tenure at OlyCAP,” Randels was quoted in a press release. “His involvement as a writer for the Peninsula Home Fund has resulted in raising an aggregate of nearly $2,000,000 to assist low-income families in emergencies. Tim is an engaging speaker and has carried OlyCAP’s message to service clubs, volunteer organizations, churches and local chambers of commerce.”

OlyCAP operates a number of human service programs in both Clallam and Jefferson Counties designed to help people in need, among them: Head Start, Meals on Wheels, food bank distribution, home weatherization, energy assistance, community centers, senior nutrition, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), re-employment support, emergency shelter and supported housing. The agency also developed and opened the OlyCAP Oral Health Center, which was open from 2006 through February of this year.

“Tim leaves a wonderful legacy of pulling the community together to meet critical needs; he will really be missed,” said OlyCAP board member Robert Spinks of Sequim.

Caring hearts

OlyCAP manages grants for various organizations and governments. Its board is made of elected officials and others from Clallam and Jefferson counties.

“I have had the privilege of leading a group of incredibly dedicated people,” said Hockett in a press release. “Any good that I have accomplished has been a team effort. In our OlyCAP world, if you don’t have a caring heart, you just don’t fit. The staff, volunteers and board at OlyCAP are among the best people I’ve ever known; not being around them every day will be the hardest transition.”

Hockett was hired in August 1989 to run OlyCAP’s senior nutrition program. He was later promoted to division director, overseeing a cluster of programs, and then to deputy director in 2001. He served in that capacity for five years under the previous executive director, Dan Wollam. In late 2005, upon Wollam’s departure, Hockett was named executive director.

OlyCAP’s day-to-day leadership team will continue in place, Randels said, while the board of directors addresses how best to move forward.